# John Hawkins's First Slaving Voyage (1562)

URL: https://allhistories.com/sierra-leone/timeline/1562-john-hawkins-s-first-slaving-voyage
Location: Sierra Leone coast
Themes: main-event

By the mid-sixteenth century Spain's American colonies were hungry for enslaved labour, but the trade was formally reserved to licensed Portuguese and Spanish merchants. Plymouth merchant John Hawkins, backed by London investors, decided to break into this lucrative market. In October 1562 Hawkins sailed with three ships, the Salomon, Swallow and Jonas, to the Upper Guinea coast. Along the coast of Sierra Leone he took around 300 Africans, partly by raiding and partly by seizing Portuguese vessels already carrying captives. He then crossed the Atlantic and sold them in Hispaniola at Isabela, Puerto Plata and Monte Cristi, places where local officials did not enforce Spanish trade restrictions, exchanging them for hides, sugar, ginger and pearls before returning to England in 1563. The voyage was highly profitable and persuaded Queen Elizabeth I and leading courtiers to invest in further expeditions. Hawkins is generally regarded as the pioneer of the English slave trade, and Sierra Leone was the first part of Africa from which English ships carried captives to the Americas. Hawkins's coat of arms later bore the image of a bound African. The trade he began would, over the next two and a half centuries, carry millions of Africans across the Atlantic. At this point in the timeline (1562–1563), no single ruler is recorded in this dataset for this date; the coast and interior were divided among Sapes, Mane, Temne, Bullom, Sherbro, Susu, Limba and other kings and chiefs, with European traders holding only forts and trading posts.

## Why it matters
Hawkins's raid on the Sierra Leone coast marked the beginning of England's involvement in the Atlantic slave trade.

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — John Hawkins (naval commander)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hawkins_(naval_commander))
- [Wikipedia — Atlantic slave trade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — John Hawkins](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=John+Hawkins)
- [Wikipedia — Portuguese Contact and The Mane Invasions (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sierra_Leone)