Britain and the Slave Trade:
John Lok is the first recorded Englishman to have taken enslaved people from Africa. In 1555 he brought five enslaved people from Guinea to England. William Towerson, a London trader, also captured people to be enslaved during his voyages from Plymouth to Africa between 1556 and 1557. Despite the earlier involvement of Lok and Towerson, John Hawkins (from 1532 to 1595) of Plymouth is acknowledged as the pioneer of the English slave trade.
From 1562 onwards he made three voyages to Sierra Leone from where he transported 1,200 inhabitants to Hispaniola and St Domingue - present day Dominican Republic and Haiti. Hawkins' voyages were the beginnings of the triangular slave trade between England, Africa and the New World of the Caribbean and Americas.
The triangular slave trade worked to maximise profits. English goods were traded in Africa, from where enslaved people were carried on the infamous middle passage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and America. Goods produced in the New World were transported back to England. As Britain acquired more colonies in America and the Caribbean, so demand for enslaved Africans to cultivate and harvest the tobacco, rice, sugar and other plantation crops grew.
English involvement in the slave trade intensified after 1663, when a new patent, along with royal backing, was issued to the Company of Royal Adventurers. Succeeded in 1672 by the Royal African Company. It received royal backing, from the Duke of York, later King James II.
Under the terms of the RAC Charter, London was at the centre of English slave trading. In 1698 the monopoly on London trading with Africa was abolished. Now other ports such as Bristol and Liverpool could trade. These cities became extremely wealthy as a result.
Mr. Ed, we cannot change that which has happened but we can learn from the past. Testimony to that is Barack Obama II, an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African-American president in U.S. history. Today, here in the UK, Rishi Sunak is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2022. He is the first British Asian prime minister, he previously held the cabinet position of Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Very touchy subject, Mr. Ed, which you have handled with care. Dare we say that creatures such as emotional women and other logically challenged should not be allowed leadership roles or allowed to vote.
