Bartlome de las Casas is the cheif source of information about what happened on the islands after Columbus arrived. As a young priest, Las Casas participated in the conquest of Cuba. He owned a plantation on which Indian slaves worked but gave it up, freed his "Indians" and became a critic of Spanish cruelty. Las Casas transcribed Columbus' journal and wrote a multivolume History of the Indies. In the second volume. Las Casas told about the treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards. While Columbus and other Europeans argued that Indians were inferior, Las Casas pointed out that they were sentient human beings, just like anyone else. While other historians tried to overlook or defend the Indian slave trade, begun by Columbus, Las Casas denounced it as "among the most unpardonable offenses ever committed against God and mankind."

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