The Indians did not have freedom. They were held in captivity like animals. The Indians were not viewed as people; they were viewed as beasts tied to a rope. They were the Spaniards slaves. The Spanish decided how the Indians would live and controlled their every move. The Indians are not use to working as hard as they were. They often got very ill because they were not accustomed. This was not enough for the Spaniards to give the Indians rest. The Spaniards did not believe they were sick and continued to beat the helpless Indians. On the odd chance that the Spaniards saw that the Indians were ill, they would send them home viewing them as useless. At this point the beaten, starved, and sick Indians had no chance of surviving. Along with how the Spanish treated the Indians, disease affected them as well. If they were not sick from all of the hard labor they had to do then they were more in likely affected by the many diseases. Most Indians would fall dead in their first few steps of trying to walk home. The others who held on longer died in the search for food. It was very rare for an Indian to survive the hard labor, cruel treatment, and starvation from the Spanish. Ninety percent of the Indians …show more content…
The only good treatment or Christianity the Indians got was if they did not die from illness or being beaten by the Spaniards, they got to lie on the ground and moan. Religion did not affect how the Spanish treated the Indians. However in 1681 religion played a major role in the Pueblo Revolt. The Indians rose up and renounced the law of God. They decided that the Spaniards God should be done away with and only their God lived now. The Indians burned Churches, pictures of Jesus and Mary, and abolished anything related to worship. The Indians even killed Priests. Once the Indians got rid of anything related to Christianity they started their own type of worship. They did superstitious rituals and dances. Las Casas’ clearly explains that the Indians had no freedom prior to the Pueblo Revolt. The Indians were nothing to the Spaniards. They were deprived and stripped of everything including freedom. Freedom was the only small motivation to keep the very few Indians that survived alive. However, during the Pueblo Revolt, Josephe describes freedom in a different way. At this point the Indians have overcome the Spanish and became more of rebels. They are free and assume everyone must know. They are so free that they believe they can do anything they want, which includes them doing away with the Spaniards