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: 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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