Bartolomé de las Casas had it all. A conquistador at the height of Spain's power, he had earned an encomendia for helping take over the island of Cuba. This gave him rights to land... and the enslaved indigenous people on the land. Bartolomé thought nothing of it. Even when he became the first Catholic priest ordained in the Americas, he continued to turn a blind eye to the suffering of conquered peoples. But in 1514, a particular scripture passage would flip his world view upside down and turn Bartolomé de las Casas into one of the first human rights activists.
