Hawkins' First Slavery Voyage

Members of a London syndicate, including Benjamin Gonson (Hawkins’ father-in-law and Treasurer of the Admiralty), merchants and civic leaders Sir Thomas Lodge, Sir Lionel Ducket and Sir William Winter, backed Hawkins’ first Slavery voyage. In October 1562, Hawkins, with about 100 men, left Plymouth on board three ships: the Solomon (120 tons), the Swallow (100 tons) and the Jonas (40 tons). Thomas Hampton of Plymouth was second in command.

After stopping off at Tenerife in the Canaries, they sailed to Sierra Leone on the Guinea Coast where they took on board a cargo that included about 300 slaves “besides other merchandises which that countrey yeeldeth”, some traded, some purchased and some captured. In Hispaniola, despite the Asiento (a contract between the Spanish Crown and another sovereign power), by which the Spanish had granted slave-trading agreements solely to the Portuguese, the Africans were traded for hides, ginger, sugar and pearls. Hawkins returned to Plymouth in September 1563.

Learn more about slavery and abolition and the Plymouth connection:

John Hawkins

Slave Trade Triangle

Abolition

Conclusion

Glossary

Suggested reading

Slavery and abolition web links