About This Lesson
This is a 1.5 page excerpt from de Las Casas' A Short Account of the Devastation of the Indies where he described the brutality of the conquistadors and the harshness of the encomienda labor system. I have included numerous footnotes to help students with difficult vocabulary. The directions ask students to code and annotate for his perspective, motive, and biases. It also includes two questions at the end about de las Casas' motive and whether or not Charles V should continue or end the encomienda system of labor.
Note: Bartolome de las Casas was a Spanish historian and Dominican missionary who was the first to write about the oppression of indigenous peoples by Europeans in the Americas and to call for an end to their enslavement.
Thank you for providing me with an annotative sample of the writing of Las Casas. Saved me a lot of trouble creating such an except myself.