Fray (Friar) Bartolomé de Las Casas was born into a merchant family in Seville in 1484. Las Casas immigrated to the newly colonized island of Hispaniola with his father in 1502. Las Casas became a hacendado (owner of an estate on the colony) and a slave owner as part of the encomienda system established by the Spanish government. In 1510 Las Casas was ordained as a priest, though he still owned slaves at this time.

In 1511 Las Casas witnessed another Dominican Friar, Antonio de Montesinos, vehemently preaching against the colonists’ genocide of the native peoples. This was the first of three events that set Las Casas on his path of social reform. The second was his participation in the conquest of Cuba in 1513, where he witnessed such atrocities firsthand. Finally, while studying Ecclesiasticus in 1514, he read Ecclesiasticus 34: 18-22, a passage that objects to the abuse of any human against another.

These three events inspired Las Casas to give up his slaves and preach that his fellow colonists do the same. Meeting little success, he returned to Spain in 1515. There, on Christmas Eve in 1515, Las Casas gained an audience with the dying King Ferdinand, who referred him to the Bishop of Burgos, Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca.