All Mankind is One: A Study of the Disputation Between Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda in 1550 on the Intellectual and Religious Capacity of the American Indian

Table of Contents

I. The Nature of the American Indians According to the Spaniards

The Controversy up to 1550

The Bull Sublimis Deus

Should Indians Be Educated?

The Retraction of Domingo de Betanzos

“A Deadly Enemy of the Indians”: The Royal Historian Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdes

Oviedo’s Basic Views on Indians

II. Prelude to the Battle At Valladolid Between Las Casas and Sepúleda

Preliminary Skirmishings, 1547-1550

The Sessions at Valladolid

Sepúlveda’s Position

III. Analysis of Las Casas’s Treatise

The Two Treatises Prepared by Las Casas to Combat Sepúlveda

An Overview of the Argument

The First Section: Las Casas’s Response to Sepúlveda’s Four Reasons for Justifying War Against the Indians in Order to Convert Them

The Second Section: Las Casas’s Comments on the Authorities Cited by Sepúlveda to Support His Argument

IV. The Aftermath of the Conflict
Echoes of the Controversy to 1573
Continued Conflict on the Capacity of the Indians

Peanuts, Polarization, Polemics, and Paranoia

A Summation

Appendices

Bibliogrpahy and References

Index