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The First European To Speak Up About The Mistreatment of Natives in the New World
They knew it was wrong then
Modern audiences like to believe that attention to human rights is a new phenomenon. Many people believe that peoples from the past were brutes who disregarded human life on a regular basis. While that is true of some people then, certainly, that is also true of some people today. But that was not the norm. People can always recognize injustice when they see it. That has always been true and will always continue to be true.
When Christopher Columbus landed in the New World for the first time, he kicked off a series of events that led to the exploitation and eradication of large numbers of Caribbean natives. It is a sad tale and one that is well-trodden. At the time, Columbus knew that the widespread death of the people in the Caribbean would be frowned upon, so he did his best to hide and spin the aftermath of his activities in Hispaniola. But it didn’t take long for people to start noticing the heinous treatment of the local population.
However, then as now, speaking out against power is difficult. The colonies in the New World were wholly under Spanish control, and speaking out against them would be akin to speaking out against the crown — a potential political or literal death sentence. No one could have…
