Bartolomé de las Casas O.P.

(November 1484 – 18 July 1566) is a 16th-century Spanish Dominican priest, writer and the first resident Bishop of Chiapas.

As a settler in the New World he witnessei, and is driven to oppose, the poor treatment of the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists and advocated before King Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, on behalf of rights for the natives.

Originally having proposed to replace the slave labor of the natives with the importation of slaves from Africa, he eventually recants this stance as well, and becomes an advocate for the Africans in the colonies.