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Period: Oct 1, 1500 to
ENglish Slavery in the New World
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Oct 1, 1562
1562
The first event relating to slavery in the New World for the English. John Hawkins of Plymouth becomes the first English sailor to acquire slaves in the New World by trading illegally with Spanish merchants, providing an example for other merchants and settlers to follow. -
1588
Their victory in the Spanish Armada increases the English presence in the New World along with the ambitions of the English. The English increase their presence through the slave trade. -
1614
Bermuda becomes a possession of the British Crown. It will soon become a colossal part of the sugar trade in the New World which will require many African and naive slaves to maintain the sugar cane production. -
1617
The first record of slaves in Bermuda, now an English colony. -
1617
Bermuda officially becomes a British colony, African and local natives are enslaved. -
1627
Henry Powell, along with 80 British settlers and 10 slaves from Africa found a colony on the island of Barbados. -
1644
A group of 11 enslaved Africans and natives in New Amsterdam, which would later become New York and an English colony, successfully petition against the government in what is the first group manumission in an English colony. -
1657
Richard Ligon publishesd his book, "A True and Exact Historie of the Island of Barbadoes ", which contained one of the first depictions of English slave plantations. -
1657
George Fox writes a letter which is the first letter written by a Quaker which expresses some doubts about the slavery and the slave trade in the New World. -
1671
A group of Quakers, including George Fox and William Edmundson, visit Barbados and come into conflict with the Barbadian plantocracy for demanding that slave-owners should treat their slaves with humanity and convert them to Christianity. -
1676
A Quaker named Alice Curwen writes a letter which hesitantly declares her denouncement of slavery. She is the first Quaker to do so. -
1676
Bacon's Rebellion begins with Nathaniel Bacon and his rebels opposing William Berkeley's government in Virginia due to political disagreements.