John Hawkins, Slave Trader

 

To harpe no longer upon this string and to speake the word ofthat iust commendation which our nation doe indeed deserue: It can not bedenied, but as in all former ages, they have bene men full of actiuity,stirrers abroad, and searchers of the remote parts of the world, so in thismost famous and peerlesse gouenrment of her most excellent maiesty, hersubjects through the speciall assistance, and  blessing of God, in searching the most opposite corners andquarters of the world, and to speake plainly, in compassing the vaste globe ofthe earth more than once, haue excelled all the nations and peoples of theearth.

Richard Hakluyt

John Hawkins was a British privateer, amerchant, a mayor, a knight, and a slave trader of Queen Elizabeth I. He tookslaves by violence and also through cunning, and traded them for luxuries thatwerenÕt exactly necessary. He traded humans like one would trade objects orgoods. However, one must take into account what other things he has done. Washe a Ōbad guyĶ, or a Ōgood guyĶ?       

Plymouth, England is a city on the coastof England. In Plymouth, like most places in England, there was a lot of rain.Plymouth was also full of some people who were pirates, some who weremerchants, and some who were both, being honest and at the same time robbingand conquering for goods. However, simply being a merchant was good business,as Plymouth lay on one of the major trade routes of the world, and there werelots of imports such as almonds, raisins, wine, fine cloth, timber, iron,cordage, spices, silk, damask, porcelain, and precious metals. However, ourinterest in the city is not in its exports. Our interest is in its peopleÉ

Among the people of Plymouth there liveda man named William Hawkins, who was married to Joan Towne Trelawny. WilliamHawkins was a rich merchant and was the mayor of Plymouth. He was also a seacaptain, a member of Parliament, and had control of a number of privateers. Hemade many voyages all to Africa, Europe, and the Americas for goods such assalt, wines, sugar and pepper, olive oil, ivory, pepper, tin and wood. He wasinfamous for being a rather violent privateer. Much of his later life was spentunder command of the King: ŌAnnoy the kingÕs enemiesĶ, he had said. William wasdetermined to do just that. In fact, he was annoying the enemies so much thathe got jailed, but afterward resumed his duty as royal annoyer. William Hawkinswas a very rich man indeed.

In 1532, William and his wife namedtheir baby John Hawkins. John grew up pampered and rich with his brother,William. When William I died, William II took care of things at home and Johnwas the merchant/pirate. He formed a syndicate with other rich merchants, andan alliance with a well-known merchant family called the Pontes. He traded withthe Spanish colonies, as well as others. He soon had a wife, Margaret Vaughan,who was the daughter of the Treasury of the Navy, but later he remarried. Healso had a son, who he named Richard.

At first, John mostly did trading andselling, as a normal merchant would. He did pretty well, and he had part of hisfatherÕs fortune to live on too. As I said, he formed a syndicate and made analliance with the Pontes. But then, John heard about slave tradingÉ

John planned to go to Guinea and roundup some Africans to trade to the Spanish for goods. He told other merchantsabout his plans, and some supplied him with goods. The Pontes equipped JohnÕsships, provided him with an experienced pilot who spoke English, and gave him alarge supply of beans to feed the slaves on the journey. John had good friendsin high places, and they helped him prepare for the long journey ahead.

John Hawkins set sail in 1562 for the first time to Guinea. Hisfleet consisted of 3 ships: The Jonas, the Swallow, and the Salomon. One of themembers of his crew was Sir Francis Drake on his first expedition. Sir FrancisDrake was the cousin or possible uncle (no one knows) of John Hawkins.

On the way to Guinea, JohnÕs fleet metanother fleet, their nation being Portugal. He Ōblew them out of the waterĶ.The Portuguese ships turned out to be wonderful, so he did his first work ofpiracy; he killed everyone, took their ships, and found them to be filled withprecious goods and metals. What a stroke of luck!

When Hawkins reached Guinea, he foundthat it would be easy to get slaves. Some he got by cunning and trading, butmost Africans he put into slavery using force. He succeeded in putting 400Africans into slavery. John Hawkins had become the first slave trader ofEngland.

One must think: did doing this terribledeed make John feel good? Did he feel guilty? Did the money and goods he couldlook forward to overrule his remorse? Did he even FEEL any remorse? It does notseem that he did, because he made trips similar to this one a total of 2 times.He managed to capture and sell a grand total of 1200 Africans into slavery, hemade himself a fortune which he didnÕt need, and at the same time, he managedto have 1500 of the Africans that he did capture die on boats to the SpanishColonies. We are dealing with a guy who probably is not the nicest person wehave ever met.

On the way to the Spanish Colonies, manyof the slaves got sick and quite a few died. However, this did not stop Johnand he still went to the Spanish Colonies to sell the rest. As it turned out,he made quite a bit of money.

           Hemade his trip to the Spanish Colonies with 400 slaves, cloves, wax and ivoryfrom the Portuguese vessels, and more. He sold most of these things for variousprices and made a small fortune. However, when he had 140 slaves left, theSpanish got mad. They demanded that he stop selling, as he didnÕt have alicense. He asked for a license, and of course, the Spanish official,Bernaldez, said no. He offered Bernaldez 3/4 of the remaining slaves, who weremostly old or handicapped. Bernaldez still said no. John persevered. He offeredthe previous offer, plus a Portuguese ship and itÕs cargo. This time Bernaldezsaid yes, giving him a license to sell another 35 slaves.                                                                                                                                                                                   

After selling the rest, John Hawkinswent back to Plymouth, and was promptly elected mayor for his services.However, he continued to slave trade, and made large profit, almost beingcaptured by the Spanish several times. The Spanish tried to stop him fromcontinuing to slave trade, but they were up against too much. Guzman de Silva,a Spaniard, asked the QueenÕs officials to stop him, fearing that John wouldbecome one of the pirates drifting around Africa, but they told him to talk tothe Queen. She refused to stop John, knowing the profit that Hawkins was makingfor his country. Guzman told the King, and the king simply said to wait.However, they failed to arrest him in his further trips to the SpanishColonies. Also, the Pontes took part in the slavery, as well as the Queen, notcaring that they were trading human beings like themselves.

John did a lot of bad things in his lifelike slavery trading. We have all been taught in school about American historyand we know that slaves used to be a part of our country too. We however, justlike the British, got rid of it, because we realized that it was cruel. Werealized that people arenÕt objects to be toyed with or sold, no matter whatcolor their skin may be. No matter what accent or place they come from, wewelcome them because we realize that we are all humans, not lower or higher.

Well, you can see that John did justwhat he shouldnÕt have done: he treated humans like objects because of theircolor and race. He did something that canÕt really be forgiven, but he also didsome pretty good things for the British that we would approve of too. ForinstanceÉ

After John finished slave trading, hewas an overly rich man. He had a humongous fortune. So, he was free to do as hewished. Not under the Queens orders, but simply because he wanted too, Johnpretended to betray his country. He went to the Spanish and told them that hewas willing to be a spy and try to assassinate Queen Elizabeth the first. Hedid indeed be a spyÉbut not for the Spanish. While pretending to be trying toassassinate the Queen, John was secretly passing information about the war thatthe Spanish had been planning to wage on the British to his own country. He wasalso trying to free prisoners that the Spanish had taken. In the process of hisplan his own government arrested him, but the mistake was soon cleared up.

As you can see, John Hawkins wasnÕt allthat bad. He risked everything for his own country as well as the prisonersinside the Spanish jail. As you can guess, the British won the war against theSpanish as they knew their every move, thanks to JohnÕs neat spy-work. Also,the prisoners inside the Spanish jail were released, and John was knighted offthe coast of Britain for his work in defeating the Spanish Armada. JohnÕs crestwas an African in chains and he wasnÕt ashamed of it. However, John did a lotof good work that doesnÕt quite make up for his slave trading, as that kind ofthing canÕt really ever be made up for, but it shows that he isnÕt really allthat bad.

At first, John had been an innocentmerchant leading a rich and innocent life. He had made alliances, and mostlyhad worked on family matters. He hadnÕt even came close to becoming a pirate.

However, as he started to slave trade,he realized how much profit he could make from slave trading and piracy andbegan to do just that. He made a fortune, but killed many people for the sakeof that fortune. Also, he had been doing just fine in Plymouth without thatfortune, but got it anyways for luxuries. He didnÕt really need those luxuries,and he killed many people for them.

Then, however, he risked all he had,like I have previously said to successfully defend Britain from the Spanishinvasion and saved prisoners from prison. This was a very good deed becausechances are that they would have died.

Over all I would have to say thatalthough John Hawkins slave traded without remorse for things that he didnÕtneed, making his huge fortune, he wasnÕt all that bad. He had some good in himtoo; at first he had been honest, after all, and he saved his country as wellas prisoners from the Spanish jail. I think that John deserved that knighthood,slavery crest or not. He may have done some bad things but overall I think hereally was good deep down. I doubt he understood at that time just what he wasdoing; trading humans like objects. If he had realized the full effect of whathe had done, I believe he would have had some remorse. John Hawkins wasknighted for a good reason; overall, he was an honest and good man.