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The Reformation · 1550–1551
In Defence of the Indians
Bartolomé de las Casas · 1484–1566
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What it is
The argument delivered at Valladolid against Sepúlveda: the peoples of the Americas are rational, their societies ordered, and no one may be made Christian by force.
Why it lasted
The first formal debate in European history on the rights of colonised peoples, argued before the crown by a man who had once held slaves himself.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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