John Hawkins and the Slave Trade Flashcards

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Who was John Hawkins?

He was an English sailor and merchant in the 1500s who became the first major English trader in enslaved Africans.

What did John Hawkins do on his first slave-trading voyage in 1562–63?

He sailed from Plymouth to West Africa. There he captured or bought about 300 African people. He then took them across the Atlantic and sold them as slaves on Spanish islands in the Caribbean.

Why did John Hawkins want to trade enslaved Africans?

He wanted to make large profits from selling people as slaves and to challenge Spain’s control of trade with its American colonies.

How did John Hawkins get enslaved Africans for his ships?

He attacked African villages to kidnap people. He also bought people who had already been enslaved by African rulers and traders on the coast of West Africa.

What were conditions like for enslaved Africans on Hawkins’s ships?

They were chained in very crowded holds with almost no space. They had little food and dirty water. Disease spread quickly and many people died during the voyage.

Where did Hawkins sell the enslaved Africans, and why was this against Spanish law?

He sold them in Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. This broke Spanish law, which said only Spanish traders were allowed to sell goods or slaves there.

How did Queen Elizabeth I support John Hawkins’s slave-trading voyages?

She helped fund his voyages and lent him a large royal ship called the Jesus of Lübeck. In return she took a share of the profits from selling enslaved Africans.

What happened at San Juan de Ulúa on Hawkins’s last slave voyage in 1568?

Spanish forces attacked Hawkins’s fleet in the harbour at San Juan de Ulúa in Mexico. Most English ships were sunk or captured and many men were killed, but Hawkins and Francis Drake managed to escape in separate ships.

How did Hawkins’s voyages help start the English role in the Atlantic slave trade?

They proved that selling enslaved Africans in the Americas could make huge profits. Later English traders copied his routes and methods, which helped expand the English slave trade.

What did John Hawkins’s coat of arms show, and why is this important?

After his voyages he was given a coat of arms that showed an African man in chains. This is important because it shows that powerful people in England saw slave trading as a source of pride and wealth, not as something wrong.

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