Short answers, pulled from the story.
Sir Francis Drake was an English explorer and privateer born around 1540 at Crowndale Farm in Tavistock, Devon. He is best known for leading the second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580, the first English expedition to accomplish it. The Spanish branded him a pirate and called him El Draque, the Dragon.
Sir Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation when Golden Hind sailed into Plymouth on the 26th of September 1580 with 59 remaining crew. The voyage had begun aboard Pelican on the 13th of December 1577 with five ships and 164 men. The queen's half-share of the cargo surpassed the rest of the crown's income for that entire year.
Sir Francis Drake died of dysentery on the 28th of January 1596, aged about 56, while anchored off the coast of Portobelo after a failed assault on Panama. He asked to be dressed in his full armour and was buried at sea in a sealed lead-lined coffin near Portobelo Bay.
Sir Francis Drake served as vice admiral of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588, commanding the galleon Revenge under Lord Howard of Effingham. He captured the disabled Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora del Rosario along with Admiral Pedro de Valdés. The decisive action was fought off Gravelines after the English launched eight fire ships at Calais.
Yes, Sir Francis Drake took part in the early English slaving voyages of his cousin John Hawkins and of John Lovell. There is good evidence for his presence on the last two of four slaving voyages made by Hawkins' ships between 1562 and 1569, during which approximately 1,200 Africans were enslaved. Scholar Kris Lane lists Drake among the first English slave traders.
Queen Elizabeth I knighted Sir Francis Drake aboard Golden Hind at Deptford on the 4th of April 1581, following his circumnavigation of the world. The dubbing was actually performed by a French diplomat, Monsieur de Marchaumont, to gain implicit French political support for Drake's actions. His motto was Sic Parvis Magna, meaning "Great achievements from small beginnings."
Sir Francis Drake claimed the Pacific coast of what is now Northern California as Nova Albion, or New Albion, for Queen Elizabeth I on the 17th of June 1579. He posted an engraved plate of brass to assert sovereignty for Elizabeth and every successive English monarch, and had friendly interactions with the Coast Miwok.