After 1575

England slowly drifts into civil unrest during the next few years, which also slows down the English Slave Trade, until about the 17th century.

• · In December 1577, Sir Francis Drake sets out to circumnavigate the globe with the financial help from the Queen. He returns September 1580.

• · In July 1585, the first English colony in the New World is attempted. Settlers landed in Roanoke Island, but were unsuccessful.

• · In November of 1585, Sir Francis Drake and Hawkins attack Spanish colony and sacks their slave-trading settlement.

• · In January of 1586, Francis Drake and Hawkins take over Santo Domingo and Cartagena, which leads to the English Spanish War.

• · The second English colony on Roanoke Island is in July of 1587. Some say they were unsuccessful because the settlers seemed to have disappeared when revisited by English ships in 1590. It is also believed the settlers may have been adopted into the Native tribes or split up into smaller groups.  

• · In 1597, Francis Bacon writes Of Plantations, which becomes an important text for British colonial discourse.

Francis Bacon

• · In March of 1603, King James I succeeds the crown.

James I

• · On May 1607, Jamestown becomes the first permanent British colony in North America.

• · 1612, the first permanent British colony in Bermuda. The colony was technically unofficial until about 1614, and in 1617 the fist slaves arrived.

• · In 1627, England established a colony on Barbados, bringing 80 settlers and 10 slaves.

• · In 1625, James I dies and Charles succeeds.

Charles I

During James I reign, he imposed added taxes on the people without the approval from Parliament. He also was not very frugal with money, increasing his financial problems. He was also anti-Catholic like Elizabeth and hostile towards the Puritans as well.

Charles was not any better than James, if not worse. During Charles reign, England was under great civil unrest. Charles pursued unpopular religious policies that were Catholic-like, imposed heavy taxes, and refused to work with Parliament. His time of reign was known as the Eleven Years Tyranny. There were many rebellions during this time and slowly lead to the Civil War.

 Sommerville, J. (n.d.). England 1603-1642. Retrieved December 9, 2015. 

 Carey, B. (2013, July 1). Slavery Timeline 1601-1700. Retrieved December 9, 2015. 

Gasper's taking the win

I found two slave voyages very interesting when I started to look at them. Both the first & second vessels began its voyage in Seville and ended's its voyage in the Americas. Their vessel owner for the first one was Rebolo, Francisco, the second one consisted him and Jorge, Gaspar. There wasn't much information on Francisco Rebolo, but I found interesting facts about Jorge Gaspar and his family. Jorge's were mercantile family in Seville. They have 5 ships which they used to make the voyages from Seville to the Americas. The Jorges were the leading family in Spanish-American commerce at the time being. Gasper Jorge supplied hundreds of slaves for the building of the fortress at Havana in the 1570s.

Gasper's ship was registered in year 1567. During the voyage some of the slaves were removed by pirates/privateers, they disembarked in the Americas. Now I don’t know if that means they were dropped in the Americas for the building of the fortress or if they just being shipped since the vessel owners were an human agency. There were some during this vessel voyage who went missing. There weren’t many slaves that survived at the end 22 passed away and only 18 came off the boat. This was an interesting voyage because as I wrote earlier Gasper’s family was well off and in the way of helping build a fortress. 

Slo:1,2,3,5,10

The Slave Trade: The story of the Atlantic Slave Trade:1440-1870.

Hugh Thoman(Simon and Schuster), 1970 pg118

http://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/29571/variables

http://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/29646/variables

Third Voyage (con.) & Unstable Relations

“If all the miseries and troublesome affaires of this sorrowful voyage should be perfectly and thoroughly written, there should need a painful man with his pen, and as great a time as he had that wrote the Hues and deaths of the martyrs. “

~ John Hawkins.

On March 27, 1568 Hawkins and his men reached the Spanish territory of Dominica. They had a very hard time trading slaves, since the King banned any trade with the English. This of course did not stop Hawkins and Francis Drake. In Rio de la Hache, they entered a town by force and “by friendship of the treasurer, [they] obtained a secret trade; where upon the Spaniards resorted us by nigh, and bought of us to the number of 200 Negros” (Hawkins 73). Hawkins was believed to have had a secret Asiento, which literally means “Negros contract” and is an agreement between the Spanish crown and an individual to deliver slaves to Spanish colonies.

In August of the same year, Hawkins and his men were caught up in a huge storm off the coast of Florida. The six ships were severely damaged, so Hawkins took shelter in Port St. John de Ullua. They stayed there for a month with permission from the Viceroy, Don Martin Enriquez. During a dinner, the Viceroy and his Spanish fleet ambushed Hawkins. In Hawkins own account, he writes, “Now when the Jesus and the Minion were gotten aboard two ships, length from the Spanish fleet, the fight began hot of all sides” (Hawkins 78). Most of his ships were destroyed, and his men barely escaped on the Minion.  Hawkins and his men were almost out of food and supplies. When they landed on an Island in hope of finding food and water, half of his men stayed on the Island out of desperation, while Hawkins and the rest sailed home. It is said that many of the men suffered greatly from the Inquisition of Mexico, or were even sold as slaves.

 

Hawkins Coat of Arms

After this third and unfortunate journey, England and Spain had unstable relations. In 1588, Hawkins fought the Spanish again, and was knighted for his leadership. During the 1560’s Queen Elizabeth and the Spanish King’s relations were beginning to deteriorate due to religious differences. King Philip II’s act to suppress the Protestant movement ended up starting a rebellion in the Netherlands. Queen Elizabeth meanwhile, reinstated the Act of Royal Supremacy, which took out any papal authority. Hawkins and Drake were also a leading cause of War. They, with the support of the Queen, wanted to break the Spanish monopoly on the Atlantic Slave Trade. The English do eventually break the Spanish monopoly, but not until the late 17^th century. In 1585, Elizabeth I signed a treaty with the Dutch, to help them rebel against the Spanish rule, thus beginning the Anglo-Spanish War.

Morgan, H. (2006, September 1). Teaching the Armada: An introduction to the Anglo-Spanish War, 1585-1604. History Ireland.

HAWKINS' THIRD SLAVERY VOYAGE. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2015

C N Trueman "Sir John Hawkins"

historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 17 Mar 2015. 19 Nov 2015.

Markham, C., & Hawkins, J. (1878). The Hawkins' voyages during the reigns of Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, and James I. England: Hakluyt Society.

http://www.slavevoyages.org

SLO # 8,9,&10 

Slave Trade Developments & Hawkins Third Voyage

By the sixteenth century capitalism was growing in Europe. Over sea markets and colonies were becoming popular and more competitive. This time was particularly beneficial for the merchants and pirates. The merchants became a new class and had a strong influence in public affairs. After Hawkins’ first voyage, the government became interested in the Slave Trade. Agricultural developments were also a part of the slave trade. New products being grown and produced over seas also meant more customers. Sugar became one of the main products that came out of English Slave Trade. According to The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A History, “Sugar, almost unknown to medieval Europe, began to be grown on plantations in the Mediterranean during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, moved in the fifteenth century to the Spanish and Portuguese islands in the Atlantic off the African coast, and migrated to America in the sixteenth” (Rawley 9). 

New ship technology started developing in the sixteenth century as well. They needed to be equipped to sail the vast Atlantic Ocean. Ships developed rigging and hull construction, which enabled the ships to cope with Atlantic winds and currents. A quadrant was also developed to make it possible to determine latitudes (Rawley 9).

Hawkins pretty much enterprises slave trading in England. After having a successful voyage, Queen Elizabeth is fascinated by the profits.  Hawkins becomes the “head of a syndicate, and unofficial agent of the crown”(Rawley 131). In 1567, Hawkins set out on another voyage, but this time as an owner of one of the six vessels; the Queen owned two others. His second cousin, Sir Francis Drake was also with Hawkins on this journey. During this voyage, Hawkins became involved in a local African war. John Hawkins himself in, The Hawkins’ voyages during the reigns of Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, and James I, writes an account of this experience,

        

        There came to us a Negros, sent from a King, oppressed by other Kings his neighbors, desiring our aide, with promise, that as many Negroes as by these wares might be obtained, as well of his part, as of ours, should be at our pleasure: whereupon we concluded to give aide, and sent 120 of our men, which the fifteenth of January, assaulted a town of the Negroes of our Allies adversaries, which had in it 8000 Inhabitants (Hawkins 70).

Thomas Cavendish (1560-92), Sir Francis Drake (1540?-96) and Sir John Hawkins (1532-95)

After this brutal encounter, Hawkins looses six men and forty more were injured, but gains about 500 slaves and other merchandise (Hawkins 72). Hawkins and his fleet of six ships, carrying hundreds of slaves, embark on the journey to the Spanish Americas. Here, he will have a very close encounter with a strong Spanish fleet…

Markham, Clements R., and John Hawkins. "The 3rd Unfortunate Voyage." In The Hawkins' Voyages during the Reigns of Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, and James I, 70-80. Surrey [England: London : Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1878.

Rawley, James A., and Stephen D. Behrendt. 2005. The Transatlantic Slave Trade : A History. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed November 12, 2015).

http://www.slavevoyages.org

SLO #5,6,7