Sir John Hawkins

Sir John Hawkins is known as one of the first English slave traders whose activities contributed to the emergence of the pattern of triangular trade between England, Africa, and the Americas.

John was born in Plymouth, England, into a family of prominent ship owners and seafarers who participated in trading expeditions between the east coast of Africa and Brazil. In 1562 he embarked on his first journey. He sailed to Sierra Leone where he purchased a cargo of slaves from Portuguese traders, and then to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (present day Haiti and the Dominican Republic) where the slaves were sold to Spanish colonists in exchange for a cargo of West Indies goods, including hides and sugar. The financial success of this expedition prompted the Queen Elisabeth I and officials of the Royal Navy, among others, to sponsor his future expeditions in 1564 and 1567.

Back in England, Hawkins became a Member of Parliament in 1572 and was appointed as a treasurer and comptroller of the Royal Navy. For his efforts during the confrontation with the Spanish Armada in 1588 John gained a knighthood. He died in 1595 during the naval expedition against the Spanish in the Caribbean.

The accounts of his voyages to the Caribbean, South America, and Florida were published in Richard Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations (1589).