Person    | Male  Born 1540  Died 27/1/1596

Sir Francis Drake

Categories: Exploring, Race Issues, Seriously Famous

Countries: Panama

Sea captain, explorer and pirate. Born in Crowndale, near Tavistock, Devon. He spent his formative years in the house of his cousin Sir John Hawkins and by 1565 was voyaging to Guinea and the Spanish Main. In 1572 he plundered on the Isthmus of Panama and became the first Englishman to see the Pacific Ocean. His famous circumnavigation of the globe took place from 1577 to 1580. He played a leading part in harassing the Spanish Armada as it passed through the English Channel. Died of dysentery at Porto Bello, Panama.

Drake and Hawkins were England's first slavers. As early as 1560 they entered the slave trade, travelled to West Africa to buy men and women for onward transportation to the West Indies where they were sold to the Spanish as slaves.

2023: LBC reported: "Sir Francis Drake Primary School to be renamed over slave trading past following BLM protests".

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Sir Francis Drake

Commemorated ati

Imperial Hotel - statue 06 - Drake

This statue is surely modelled on the Boehm statue of Drake erected at Tavist...

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Sir Francis Drake

Sir Francis Drake In 1581 Queen Elizabeth I commanded that Francis Drake's sh...

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Alexander Berry

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Edward Little

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