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Nov 13, 1444
Start of European slave trading in Africa.
When the first Europeans arrived in the late fifteenth century, many inhabitants of the Gold Coast area were striving to consolidate their newly acquired territories and to settle into a secure and permanent environment
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/history/slave-trade.php -
Nov 13, 1502
First enslaved Africans in the Americas when the Europeans conquer Mexico.
The most important motive for early European exploration across the Atlantic was the dream of enormous riches.Upon arriving in the Americas, the Spanish and Portuguese sought precious metals or land that could be worked for profit, usually by slave labor.
http://webs.bcp.org/sites/vcleary/ModernWorldHistoryTextbook/Imperialism/section_3/turningpoint1.html -
Nov 13, 1562
Sir John Hawkins becomes England’s first slave trader
when he embarks on a voyage to Sierra Leone and loads his ship with 500 Africans to be sold to estate o wners in the West Indies. He burns African villages and towns in order to get slaves.
http://www.wlcsd.org/Loonlake.cfm?subpage=1456475 -
Nov 13, 1564
Queen Elizabeth I sponsors Sir John Hawkins’ second voyage
providing him with a 700 ton ship, Jesus of Lubeck. He captures 500 Africans in Guinea and trades them in the West Indies. Over the next five years he will make 3 more trips, totalling 1200 slaves. -
First ‘indentured servants’
The idea of indentured servitude was born of a need for cheap labor. The earliest settlers soon realized that they had lots of land to care for, but no one to care for it. With passage to the Colonies expensive for all but the wealthy, the Virginia Company developed the system of indentured servitude to attract workers. Indentured servants became vital to the colonial economy.
http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/indentured-servants-in-the-us/ -
Charles II grants a monopoly for the trading of slaves
to the Royal Adventurers into Africa, a company led by James, Duke of York, Charles II’s brother.Britain fully entered the slave trade in 1660 when Charles II helped found a new company called “Royal Adventures into Africa”. The company was granted a monopoly on the British slave trade for 1000 years, and its members included the royal family and the aristocracy.
http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_slavery.htm -
The Royal African Company succeeds the Royal Adventurers
Africa and operates a monopoly on the slave trade, transporting an average of 5 000 slaves each year between 1680 and 1686. -
The Royal African Company’s monopoly is ended
the slave trade opened to all. By the end of the century, England leads the world in the trafficking of slaves -
Britain becomes the biggest slave trading country
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Quakers
who will later lead the abolitionist movement ban slave trading amongst their followers. -
The abolitionist
Granville Sharpe collects evidence showing slavery to be incompatible with English law -
John Wesley, a Methodist preacher
