Antonio de Montesinos (Dominican friar)

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This article is about the Dominican friar. For the Portuguese traveler, see Antonio de Montezinos.

Antonio de Montesinos was a Dominican friar on the island of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti) who was the first member of the clergy to publicly denounce all forms of enslavement and oppression of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.[1]

In 1511 de Montesinos preached an impassioned sermon criticizing the practices of the Spanish colonial encomienda system, and decrying the abuse of the Taíno people on Hispaniola. Listing the injustices that the indigenous people, de Montesinos proclaimed that the Spanish on the island "are all in mortal sin and live and die in it, because of the cruelty and tyranny they practice among these innocent peoples"[2] The sermon outraged the conquistadors, including Admiral Diego Columbus (son of Christopher Columbus) and other representatives of the king. Their protests resulted in an order from King Ferdinand the Catholic that Montesino and other Dominicans who supported him should be shipped back to Spain. Initially Ferdinand referred to the preaching of Montesino as "a novel and groundless attitude" and a "dangerous opinion [that] will do much harm to all the affairs of that land".[3] While in Spain, however, Montesinos and his companions were able to persuade the king of the correctness of their position. As a result, the king convened a commission which promulgated the Laws of Burgos, the first code of ordinances attempting to protect the indigenous people, regulate their treatment and conversion, and limit the demands of the Spanish colonizers upon them.[4][5][6] Montesinos' sermon also had a formative impact upon Bartolomé de las Casas, who heard it firsthand.[7] Las Casas became well-known for his advocacy of the rights of indigenous peoples of the Americas.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Hanke 1946, p. 142.
  2. ^ Warner 1987,p. 295
  3. ^ Hanke 1946, p. 142-3.
  4. ^ Hanke 1946, p. 143
  5. ^ Seed 1992, p. 202
  6. ^ Warner 1987, p. 296
  7. ^ Warner 1987, p. 299.

[edit] References

  • Hanke, Lewis. (1946) Free Speech in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America. The Hispanic American Historical Review, 26,2:135-149.
  • Seed, Patricia. (1992). Taking Possession and Reading Texts: Establishing the Authority of Overseas Empires. The William and Mary Quarterly, 3,49,2:183-209.
  • Warner, Carl. (1987). "All Mankind Is One": The Libertarian Tradition In Sixteenth Century Spain. The Journal of Libertarian Studies, 8,2:293–309.