"One hundred years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, the Spanish government issued a decree authorizing the enslavement of the American Indian as in accord with the law of God and man"
About this Quote
A century before the Pilgrims can even enter the national scrapbook, Miles points a finger at an older, less convenient origin story: conquest wrapped in paperwork. The line is built to puncture Anglo-American innocence. By dating the policy to “one hundred years before” Plymouth, he’s not doing trivia; he’s reframing chronology as moral evidence. The United States loves to begin its narrative at the moment it can imagine itself as refugees and founders. Miles insists the continent’s modern history begins, instead, with a European state calmly declaring human bondage “authorized.”
The cold power of the quote is in its bureaucratic theology. “Issued a decree” sounds administrative, almost bland, until it collides with “enslavement.” Then comes the clincher: “in accord with the law of God and man.” That phrase exposes how empire doesn’t just take land; it manufactures legitimacy. God and “man” are invoked as a double seal, a way of turning violence into order, sin into civic policy. It’s propaganda rendered as legalism: if it’s written down and blessed, it must be right.
Miles, a career U.S. Army officer deeply enmeshed in the Indian Wars era, is not an outside moralist. That matters. The subtext carries a soldier’s recognition that domination is rarely improvised; it’s institutional, inherited, and justified in advance. By spotlighting Spain, he also creates a safe oblique critique of a broader Western pattern - one Americans can condemn abroad while quietly recognizing its echoes at home.
The cold power of the quote is in its bureaucratic theology. “Issued a decree” sounds administrative, almost bland, until it collides with “enslavement.” Then comes the clincher: “in accord with the law of God and man.” That phrase exposes how empire doesn’t just take land; it manufactures legitimacy. God and “man” are invoked as a double seal, a way of turning violence into order, sin into civic policy. It’s propaganda rendered as legalism: if it’s written down and blessed, it must be right.
Miles, a career U.S. Army officer deeply enmeshed in the Indian Wars era, is not an outside moralist. That matters. The subtext carries a soldier’s recognition that domination is rarely improvised; it’s institutional, inherited, and justified in advance. By spotlighting Spain, he also creates a safe oblique critique of a broader Western pattern - one Americans can condemn abroad while quietly recognizing its echoes at home.
Quote Details
| Topic | Human Rights |
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