Anne Edmunds's Reviews > The Queen's Slave Trader: John Hawkyns, Elizabeth I, and the Trafficking in Human Souls

So... 25 years ago my husband's grandmother gave me a copy of the family tree for the maternal side of his family. Both of Grandma's parents were Mayflower descendants. (My people were European dirt farmers who came to the U.S. beginning around 1879). Looking over the tree, I saw "Sir John Hawkyns" and thought "cool! he's got a Sir in there!" Years later, when Wikipedia was invented, I looked him up and was... Well, it was not good. Hawkyns basically invented the English Triangular Trade. Yup. He kidnapped actual human beings from Africa, burned their villages, and shackled and sold them into slavery. Horrible.

This book essentially maps out not only Hawkyns' role in this "profitable" ( and HIGHLY immoral) business, it explains the degree that Queen Elizabeth I was supportive of it. In fact, she initially disapproved, but changed her mind when presented with the profits, and became an investor.

Hawkyns himself had no such moral qualms. Was he Protestant or Catholic? Depends who he was dealing with. A simple trader or pirate? Depends, again, on which was more advantageous. Worried about the innocents he captured, abused and sold like cattle? Nope.

The author repeatedly uses the phrase "bullyboy tactics" when describing Hawkyns. He was complicated, successful, and highly, highly despicable.