John Hawkins' Second Voyage

In the last blog post we left off with the introduction of John Hawkins. Upon further research into the voyages of John Hawkins, I discovered Hawkins was actually the captain of all of the ships that sailed in 1563, along with his friend and fellow captain, Hampton. Hawkins was indeed involved with Sir Lionel Duckett and Thomas Lodge, two of the owners of the three ships. Markham states in the book The Hawkins’ Voyages, “his worshipful friends of London: namely, with sir Lionel Duckett, sir Thomas Lodge, and M. Gonson (his father-in-law)… All which persons liked so well of his ' intention, that they became liberal contributors and adventurers in the action” (Markham 5). Having such friends will probably be a factor in the Queen’s decision to promote John’s second voyage.

John Hawkins was from a family of navigators and traders. He made voyages to the Canary Islands as a young boy. Early on, John saw a demand for slaves in St. Domingo and among other places; this sparked his interest in the slave trade and eventually gained support from influential friends. One of those friends would be his soon to be father-in-law, Benjamin Gonson, the Treasurer of the Royal Navy.

John Hawkins

Hawkins second journey was in 1565. Queen Elizabeth owned and leased the ship, Jesus of Lubeck, to Hawkins. There were three other ships that also made the journey: Salomon, Tiger, and Swallow. Out of about a total of 300 slaves, some were disembarked in the port of Isabella, and the rest were sold in the port of Monte Cristo. One of the ships, according to Markham, trying to sell merchandise [slaves] in Spanish territory, was not successful because Hawkins refused to pay the taxes imposed on him by the Spanish. This interaction resulted in a decree banning English ships from trading in the Indies.

Jesus of Lubeck

On their way back, Hawkins ship stopped at a colony in Florida. One of the men traveling with Hawkins was John Sparke. He recounts the experience they had in Florida by describing the environment, “it flourisheth with meadow, pasture ground with woods of cedar and cypres, and other sorts, as better cannot be in the world…”(Sparke 58). He also observed the use of Tobacco, “The Floridians when they travel have a kind of herbe dryed, which with a cane, and an earthen cup in the end, with fire, and the dried herbs put together do suck through the cane the smoke thereof, which smoke satisfieth their hunger”(Sparke 57).  This was the first experience the English had with Tobacco. In an article titled, Tobacco in Colonial Virginia, it states, “The plant had first been brought to England in 1565, perhaps from Florida by Sir John Hawkins, and by the 1610s there was a ready market in Britain for tobacco” (Salmon 2013). The article later goes on to describe the process of Tobacco growing,

 “No matter the variety or where it was planted, tobacco was a notoriously labor-intensive crop…To avoid the time-consuming process of cutting trees and clearing land, planters used the Indian method of cultivation: they girded trees to kill them, burned the underbrush, and then planted tobacco and other crops among the stumps and under dead trees”(Salmon 2013).  

Not only did Tobacco plantations lead to the destruction of the land, it also led to the need for more laborers. Going back to Sparke’s recount of his time in Florida, he already saw the need for more laborers, “And this mayis was the greatest lack they had, because they had no laborers to sowe the same, and therefore to them that should inhabit the land it were requisit to have laborers to till and sowe” (Sparke 57).

Fort Carolina, Florida 

Indians sowing seeds, Florida

SLO 4 & 5

Markham, Clements R., and John Sparke. The Hawkins' Voyages during the Reigns of Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, and James I. Surrey England: London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1878. Print.

Salmon, E. J., & Salmon, J. Tobacco in Colonial Virginia. (2013, January 29). In Encyclopedia Virginia.