Historical Context
From the 16th to the 19th century, Britain became one of the leading powers in the transatlantic slave trade—a vast system that forcibly transported more than three million Africans to the Americas. British merchants, shipowners, investors, plantation owners, and even tribe leaders made immense profits from enslaved labor that worked sugar, tobacco, and cotton plantations across the Caribbean colonies. The trade fueled Britain’s economic rise and imperial expansion, embedding slavery into the nation’s commerce, culture, and politics. Understanding this history reveals how deeply the slave trade shaped Britain’s wealth, social order, and global influence long before its abolition in 1834. Below are some of the people involved in the barbarous practice that enslaved some so others could become fantastically rich.
The Politics of the Slave Trade
One of the first men known to participate in the slave trade was Sir John Hawkins, whose story is explained in the video above. In the late 1550s, Hawkins kidnapped 300 African people, shipped them to Spain’s Caribbean colonies, and traded them for animal hides to bring back to Britain. Queen Elizabeth I supported two more of his slave trading voyages, realizing that this triangular trade could be very profitable for the country. The royal family continued to support the Transatlantic Slave Trade after the 1600s. King Charles I approved of the transportation of enslaved Africans to the Caribbean, King Charles II supported British companies, and founded the Royal African Company, that bought and sold kidnapped Africans, and Queen Anne directly profited from a contract she created regarding selling enslaved people to Spain’s colonies (“What can portraits tell us”). Starting in the sixteenth century, as seen with Elizabeth I, British monarchs had been encouraging overseas trade as an easy source of finance for the government. The royals gave trading companies special privileges that allowed them to monopolize the market. James, Duke of York, was a major shareholder in the Royal African Company, and with King Charles II’s support and collaboration with Edwyn Stede, governor of Barbados, the scale of British slaving rapidly increased. One British man who found success in slaving was John Pinney. He owned a sugar plantation on Nevis, on which about 200 enslaved Africans were forced to work. His management of the plantation and his Bristol sugar importing business made Pinney very wealthy. He believed that “God ordain’d ‘em [black people] for ye use & benefit of us [Europeans]” (“John Pinney”). Separate individual traders made petitions and pamphlets to protest the Company's domination of the trade, supporting the idea of economic self-interest and individualism for overall economic growth. Both parliamentary parties, Whigs and Tories, had many members who were supportive of the slave trade for purposes of economic expansion, so neither the Royal African Company nor separate traders were attached to a specific party ideology.
This video discusses Sir John Hawkins and his family and their nefarious role in the British Transatlantic Slave Trade (Glinski-Boyd).
Sir John Hawkins
This is a portrait of John Hawkins, one of the first British men known to participate in the slave trade.
John Hawkins led an expedition of three ships, Saloman, Jonas, and Swallow, to Guinea in West Africa where he acquired around 500 slaves for transportation to the Americas. There is evidence that many of these slaves, considered at the time by both buyer and seller as a mere commodity without any human rights, were already slaves of African rulers before Hawkins purchased them (“World History Encyclopedia”).
John Pinney
This is a portrait of John Pinney, a British man who owned a successful plantation on Nevis.
John Pinney said "Since my arrival I’ve purchased 9 negroe slaves at St Kitts and can assure you I was shock’d at the first appearance of human flesh expos‘d to Sale. But surely God ordain’d ‘em for ye use & benefit of us: otherwise his Divine Will wou’d have been made manifest by some particular Sign or Token” ("John Pinney').
King Tegesibu of Dahomey
King Tegesibu of Dahomey became a rich man during the transatlantic slave trade years, earning £250,000 a year around 1750. He sold Africans to the slave traders, sending them on the dangerous voyages that ended in lives of endless work and loss of freedom if they could survive the treacherous journey. His income was far more than any English duke at that time (Thomas 955)
