In 1543, Spain's Consejo de Indias (Council of the Indies) and Casa de la Contratación (House of Trade) led an inspection of the enslaved indigenous laborers still held in Seville after passing the 1542 New Laws of the Indies. King Charles V, with the influence of advisors like the friar Bartolomé de Las Casas, selected Gregorio López Tovar (1496-1560), a visiting jurist at the House from Guadalupe, to lead the inspection. In one of these cases, Juan, an enslaved indigenous laborer from Peru, sued his master, the capitán Martín de Prado, for his own freedom. Juan's lawsuit demonstrates how inconsistent and malleable the indio identity was in both social and legal contexts during the early- to mid-16th century. Arguments and representations surrounding the identity from historical works played a significant role in defining the role of indios in Spanish social structure, and they were frequently cited in court to reinforce a party's specific representation of an indio for their overall argument. Bartolomé de Las Casas' \"Apologética historia sumaria\" sought to prove that the diversity of the indigenous people of the Americas (in social structure, culture, religion, moral character, etc.) was nearly immeasurable, but that all were considered rational human beings within the framework of Aristotelian theory that he and the majority of his intellectual peers followed. However, in the 1542 New Laws of the Indies and their first major application the following year in Gregorio López's investigation of illegal indio slavery within Seville, this diversity was almost entirely disregarded. The legal status of indios quickly became synonymous with the paternalistic idea of the pobre, arguing that indios were essentially legal minors who could not live without the guidance of a Spanish master.
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Author-supplied Keywords","value":["New Laws","Colonial","Spain","Enslavement","Indio"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"Drupal Node ID: 33841