Introduction
The 15th to 19th century is best known for having a lot to do with slave trade: the enslaving of African men, women and children transported to the Americas to be sold primarily for labor purposes and other skills or duties per whoever became their slaveholders; mostly European and Euro-American. This long-distance movement of the regions West and Central Africa, Western Europe and the Americas (North and South) is what started and was acknowledged as the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The goods offered by these slaveholders were guns, ammunition, cloth and metal, and in exchange got for themselves the people they wanted – slaves, and did this either by subterfuge or by force.
Origins of Slavery
Why did this begin in the 15th century? Because Europeans before that time during the 9th century all the way into the 15th century were going on a back and forth with territorial and cultural dominance, most of which were religiously fueled; Eastern and Western Christiandom in conflict with each other as well as Islam for dominance – religious and cultural. Muslims prevailed and occupied peninsulas (the Iberian Peninsula 700 A.D – 1492 A.D), and while that was ongoing England and France began with expeditions which they named “Crusades” to retake these captured lands from the “infidels” (the name they called the Muslims) and also infiltrate cultures with their ways and faith systems. The latter part of the 15th century was where they began their exploration into new lands for an expansion in territory, to which they found Africa and North America and then devised a way to get systems established on these lands through the manpower they needed to extract and put to use available resources from these new lands.
The Portuguese are recognized the first Europeans to have participated in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and their primary goal was to acquire slaves for labor on the Atlantic African island plantations with this goal revised and later on for labor on the Brazilian and Caribbean plantations. Their method of acquisition in the beginning was through direct raids, but they found out for themselves that the lands they intended infiltrating with this format had quite the set of skilled military and strategies, costing them a lot in the end hence having to strategize on ways to acquire slaves. Through slave partnerships with some of the African leaders they were able to acquire and claim a monopoly of these relationships, thereby limiting access to trade for Western Europe competitors.
Jesus of Lubeck: First Slave Ship
The carrack Jesus of Lubeck then made its way to African shores in the year 1562, making it the first British slave ship. This carrack was built in the city of Lubeck (Germany) and then bought by King Henry VIII in the year 1540 with the purpose of expanding his fleet as it was used earlier for ceremonial purposes. In the year 1545, the French invasion of the Isle of Wight occurred, to which she failed in raising the flagship of King Henry VIII. The carrack was later chartered to a group of merchants by Queen Elizabeth I in the year 1563, and became involved in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade under mariner, naval administrator and merchant John Hawkins (1532-1595) during the periods of 1562 to 1568.
The Jesus, which was captained by John Hawkins, a “religious” man, required his crew to “serve God daily”; he held service twice on board but barred slaves from disembarking as they were threatened with death among other gruesome punishments. He went on voyages with the carrack accompanied by his cousin, Sir Francis Drake, also devoutly religious. They managed to capture 300-500 slaves from the coasts of Sierra Leone through violence and subterfuge, promising them riches in the new lands they intended sending them to, to which they won them over and received ivory, hides and sugar in return. Most of these slaves were sent to the lands now known as the Dominican Republic.
John Hawkins
John Hawkins (1532- 1595) was a naval administrator and merchant who is infamously known and holds the record as England’s first slave trader. He was known for his trafficking of slaves and his most recognized feat was during the battle of San Juan de Ulua (modern day Vera Cruz, Mexico) in the year 1568 as it sparked an unhealthy relationship between the Spanish and the English.
John Hawkins was born in Plymouth, England in the year 1532 to William Hawkins, a mariner who had also traded in Brazil in the 1530s, therefore having the mariner blood in his veins. He got married to Katherine Gonson in 1551, who was the daughter to the Treasurer of the Royal Navy, leading up to the commencement of his career in the naval forces.
The year 1562 had the man John Hawkins begin his expeditions in Guinea, West Africa with three ships namely Saloman, Jonas and Swallow. This first expedition had him acquire about 500 slaves, who would then be transported to the Americas. Some of the slaves acquired at the time happened to belong to the African rulers before they got purchased by Hawkins. He exchanged them for cheap cloth and trinkets. He also acquired some of the slaves from Portuguese that already had them and were avoiding their government’s policy on trade protection, selling them on the spot. Other slaves were captured by Hawkins’ men in their villages, brought into the carracks and transported to the Americas.
Now John Hawkins may have not been the first to start the Trans-Atlantic slave trade (started by John Lok and Thomas Wyndham, 1550s), but the reason he is highlighted often and mentioned a lot is because of how popular he made it and was also the most successful with it. He showed that you could make huge amounts of money from selling slaves and established direct relationships between chiefs and buyers.
His voyage with the Jesus that had him lose the ship was during the battle between a Spanish fleet from San Juan de Ulua, where the ship was badly damaged and captured by the Spanish. It was sold for 601 ducats (which would be around $300 – check conversion rates here) to a local merchant.
