New Laws to Protect Indians

Exploring the Early Americas The Jay I. Kislak Collection

Pre-Contact America | Explorations and Encounters | Aftermath of the Encounter

The New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of the Indians Promulgated by the Emperor Charles the Fifth, 1542–1543.
London: Chiswick Press, 1893.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (82)

When Emperor Charles V (1500-1556) proclaimed important new laws for the Indies in 1542 and 1543, he was addressing Bartolomé de las Casas’s charges of brutality towards indigenous peoples and trying to regain power for the crown. The New Laws were intended to ensure better treatment of the Indians, limit Spanish takeover of their lands, and above all, protect them against enslavement by the Spaniards. The Spanish crown was later forced to rescind the New Laws because colonists resisted them violently. This book is a rare facsimile reprint of the original Spanish edition with an English translation.