Bartolomé de las Casas is known for being one of the first people to speak out in defense of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. In his work "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies," de las Casas writes of the native reactions to the Spanish settlers and of the atrocities those natives suffered at the hands of the Spanish.

In one description of the interaction between the indigenous people and the Spanish, de las Casas reflects that the natives "are without malice or guile, and are utterly faithful and obedient both to their own native lords and to the Spaniards in whose service they now find themselves." Later on, he praises their interest in the Christian faith of the Spanish:

They are innocent and pure in mind and have a lively intelligence, all of which makes them particularly receptive to learning and understanding the truths of our Catholic faith and to being instructed in virtue; indeed, God has invested them with fewer impediments in this regard than any other people on earth.

Both of these observations support de las Casas' "thesis" that the natives did nothing to warrant attack from the Spanish. Instead, according to de las Casas, they welcomed the settlers and allowed themselves to serve them and learn under them.

This sentiment is summed up well at the end of de las Casas' preface. He writes:

One fact in all this is widely known and beyond dispute: the indigenous peoples never did the Europeans any harm whatever; on the contrary, they believed them to have descended from the heavens, at least until they or their fellow-citizens had tasted, at the hands of these oppressors, a diet of robbery, murder, violence, and all other manner of trials and tribulations.

The unnecessary violence inflicted upon the indigenous people is what infuriates de las Casas, and this account stands as a testimony to that righteous fury.

Las Casas, a Dominican friar, chronicled the devastation of the indigenous people in the New World. In his Brief History of the Devastation of the Indies (1542), he writes that the native people were completely without guile or wickedness. As a result, they were "weak and complaisant," and "they are less able to endure heavy labor and so die of no matter what malady." The native people were subjected to labor and diseases that caused them to die in great numbers.

The Spaniards, whom Las Casas describes as "ravening beasts," treated the native people with extreme brutality. Las Casas describes the Spaniards killing, terrorizing, and torturing the native people in a manner that he feels does not befit Christians. He estimates in his writing that the population of Hispaniola declined from 3 million people to less than 200 as a result of the Spaniards' brutality.

The native people responded by taking up arms, but, according to Las Casas, "their weapons were very weak and of little service in offense and still less in defense." Though the native people tried to resist the Spanish, the Spaniards responded with brutality and attacked them with swords and pikes, overpowering them with superior weapons and the use of horses. In the end, only children and women remained, and they were sold off into slavery. Because of the Spaniards' brutality, the native resistance to their oppressors crumbled.