Bartolome de Las Casa, the first priest ordained in the Western hemisphere & chief architect of the now-defunct "New Laws" against Indian enslavement, wrote in 1542 & published in 1552 Brief Relations of the Destruction of the Indies, which provided many gruesome examples of the Spanish colonists' treatment of Indians.
The New Laws (Leyes Nuevas), also known as the New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment & Preservation of the Native Americans were issued on November 20, 1542, by King Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (Charles I of Spain) about Spanish colonization of the Americas. The New Laws were the results of the failure of the less effective, Laws of Burgos issued by King Ferdinand II of Aragon on December 27, 1512. These new laws were the first set of rules created to regulate relations between the Spaniards & the recently conquered indigenous people. While some encomenderos opposed the restrictions imposed by the new laws as against their interests, others were opposed because they regarded the laws as legalizing the system of forced Indian labor. During the reign of King Charles I, the reformers gained strength, with a number of Spanish missionaries making the case for stricter rules, including Bartolomé de las Casas & Francisco de Vitoria. The goal was to protect the Native Americans against forced labor & expropriation & to preserve their lifestyle.
The new laws included the prohibition of the enslavement of the Native Americans & provisions for the gradual abolition of the encomienda system in America. The New Laws stated that the Native Americans would be considered free persons, & the encomenderos could no longer demand their labor. Actually, the enslavement of Native Americans had been illegal in Castile since 1501, when Isabella I declared native Americans subjects of the Castilian crown.
The encomienda system, however, was abused in America to create conditions akin slavery assigning to Native Americans the most unpleasant or dangerous jobs. As a result, the New Laws required the Native Americans to pay the encomenderos tribute; and, if they worked, they would be paid wages in exchange for their labor. The laws also prohibited the sending of indigenous people to work in the mines unless it was absolutely necessary & under the same conditions than Spanish mine workers, & required that they be taxed fairly & treated well. It ordered public officials or clergy with encomienda grants to return them immediately to the Crown, & stated that encomienda grants would not passed on via inheritance, but would be cancelled at the death of the individual encomenderos.
Blasco Núñez Vela, the first Viceroy of Peru, enforced the New Laws, resulting in a revolt of some encomenderos in which he was killed in 1546 by the landowning faction wishing to maintain a political structure. Although in New Spain (Mexico), the initial reaction of encomenderos was noncompliance, there was no outright rebellion as in Peru. New Spain's first viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza prudently refrained from enforcing the parts of the New Laws most objectionable to the encomenderos & avoided rebellion. Over time, there was compliance with most aspects of them. With the Native population loss due to epidemic disease, encomenderos' incomes dropped. Finally, in 1545, the rule stating that the encomienda system would no longer be hereditary was revoked, & the place of the encomienda system was again secure. Although the New Laws were only partly successful, they did result in the liberation of thousands of indigenous workers. A weaker issue of the New Laws was issued in 1552. The Spanish began importing salves from Africa.
