Black History ToolKit
2.11 The British Empire and the Slave Trade
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Episode notes
John Hawkins is considered to be the first English slave trader. He left England in 1562 on the first of three slaving voyages. In 1563 he sold slaves in St Domingo, his second voyage was in 1564 and his final, and disastrous voyage was in 1567. At this time British interests lay with African produce rather than with the slave trade and between 1553 and 1660 numerous charters were granted to British merchants to establish settlements on the West Coast of Africa to supply goods such as ivory, gold, pepper, dyewood and indigo.
Portugal and Britain were the two most ‘successful’ slave-trading countries accounting for about 70% of all Africans transported to the Americas. Britain was the most dominant between 1640 and 1807 when the British slave trade was abolished. It is estimated that Britain transported 3.1 million Africans (of whom 2.7 million arrived) to the British colonies in the Caribbean, North and South America and to other countries.
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