Enslaving the Indigenous peoples of the Americas was largely unsuccessful in meeting labor demands for plantations due to the brutal and lethal practices employed by the Spaniards, which led to significant population decline. Qualitatively, Las Casas describes horrific acts of violence, such as "ripping up their Bellies," indicating the extreme brutality that contributed to the decimation of Indigenous populations. Quantitatively, he notes that an "infinite number of Inhabitants" were exterminated, highlighting the drastic reduction in the workforce necessary for plantation labor as countless individuals perished from exploitation, starvation, and violence. This combination of factors rendered the enslavement of Indigenous peoples unsustainable for fulfilling labor demands.
In 3–5 sentences, explain why enslaving the Indigenous peoples of the Americas was largely unsuccessful in filling the need of the plantations. Support your answer by using one piece of qualitative and one piece of quantitative information from the sample excerpts below, or elsewhere in Las Casas’s writing.
“Which the Spaniards no sooner perceived, but they, mounted on generous Steeds, well weapon'd with Lances and Swords, begin to exercise their bloody Butcheries and Strategems, and overrunning their Cities and Towns, spar'd no Age, or Sex, nay not so much as Women with Child, but ripping up their Bellies, tore them alive in pieces."
“The Men died in Mines, hunger starved and oppressed with labor, and the Women perished in the Fields, harrassed and broken with the like Evils and Calamities: Thus an infinite number of Inhabitants that formerly peopled this Island were exterminated and dwindled away to nothing by such Consumptions.”
"But many other bloody Tyrants succeeded him,
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