Question

How did bartolome de las casas characterize the natives? how do you think they would have responded to this description?

Answer 1

Bartolome de Las Casas characterized the natives in a positive light. Even though he did consider them savages, he believed that the Spanish treated these natives brutally and did not give them enough respect/fair treatment. He wrote about this several times, including his most famous work The Destruction of the Indies.

In this types of writings, he talked about how the natives have already set up a system of government and were very capable people. Just because they did not structure their society like the Spanish, it did not mean they were unfit. Due to this reputation, Casas became known as the "Indian protector."

The natives would have responded pretty favorably to his description, besides the part where he calls them savages. They would probably appreciate his insight on the social structures they established and the system of government they had in place before Spanish colonization.