SOURCE: Traboulay, David M. “Bartolome de las Casas and the Issues of the Great Debate of 1550-1551.” In Columbus and Las Casas: The Conquest and Christianization of America, 1492-1566, pp. 167-90. Lanham, Md: University Press of America, 1994.
In the following essay, Traboulay analyzes the famous 1550-51 debate between Bartolomé de las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda over the nature and rights of Native Americans; unfortunately, Traboulay concludes, subsequent laws to protect Indians did little to slow Spanish greed and cruelty or the near extinction of aboriginal Americans.
