At the same time that Las Casas was demanding a gentle hand for the Taino, he was also championing the importation of African slaves, arguing that they were more constitutionally fit for tropical labor, in part due to their “thick skin” and “offensive odors from their persons.” He boasted that in the Spanish colonies checkering the Caribbean, “the only way a black would die would be if they hanged him.” The fate of Spanish fortune in the Americas, he surmised, hinged on the importation of African slave labor.
