New Laws of the Indies Nominally Protect Indigenous People, Entrench African Slavery

Emperor Charles V issued the New Laws of the Indies in 1542, responding to Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas's advocacy on behalf of indigenous peoples. While the laws nominally prohibited indigenous enslavement and the encomienda system, they explicitly excluded Africans from protection and thus accelerated the substitution of African enslaved labor for indigenous labor throughout Spanish America. Las Casas himself had earlier suggested importing Africans as a solution to indigenous suffering — a position he later deeply regretted. The New Laws represent a pivotal moment when European law racially differentiated human enslavement.