John Hawkins's First Slave Voyage

October 1, 1562

The Plymouth captain John Hawkins, backed by London merchants, sailed to Sierra Leone, seized three hundred Africans, and sold them in Hispaniola. It was the first English transatlantic slaving voyage, conducted in defiance of Spanish monopolies. A grim new line of commerce had opened for Elizabethan England. The commercial success demonstrated the slave trade's profitability and encouraged further English involvement in the traffic.