Nathaniel Gordon: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

Line 15:

| parents =

| children =

| death_cause = [[Execution by hanging]]

| beginyear = 1851

| endyear = August 78, 1860 (allegedly did another voyage in 1848)

| apprehended = August 78, 1860

| targets = Africans

| victims = Hundreds

Line 25:

}}

'''Nathaniel Gordon''' (February 6, 1826 – February 21, 1862) was an American slave trader who was the only person in the [[United States]] to be tried, convicted, and executed by the federal government for having "engaged in the [[Atlantic slave trade|slave trade]]" under the [[Piracy Law of 1820]].{{sfn|Soodalter|2006|p=1}}

==Early life==

Line 35:

In 1848, Gordon's boat, ''Juliet'', was searched by the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] for evidence of slave trading. After no evidence of slave trading could be found, Gordon was released from their custody. However, there were allegations that Gordon had indeed gone to Africa, taken a cargo of slaves, and returned to [[Brazil]], where slavery was still legal at the time.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Sample text for Library of Congress control number 2005055897 |url=http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0641/2005055897-s.html |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=catdir.loc.gov}}</ref>

In 1851, Gordon, captaining the ''Camargo,'' went on another expedition from Brazil to Africa. Gordon took on 500 Africans and set sail for Brazil. He had to take numerous measures to avoid naval patrol ships. Gordon was nevertheless chased by a British [[man-of-war]]. After arriving in Brazil and dropping off the Africans, Gordon burned his ship to destroy evidence. The Africans were seized and some of Gordon's men were arrested and charged. Gordon himself escaped by dressing intoin women's clothes.<ref name=":1" />

Shortly after the ''Camargo'' voyage, Gordon, captaining ''Ottawa'', made a slaving voyage to Cuba, where slavery was also still legal, with a cargo of Africans. Only about 25 percent of the Africans survived, with Gordon later claiming that a rival trader had poisoned them. After landing in Cuba, Gordon again burned his ship afterwards to destroy evidence.<ref name=":1" />

In late July 1860, Gordon set sail aboard the ''Erie'' for the west coast of Africa. On August 7, 1860, he loaded 897 slaves aboard ''Erie'' at [[Sharks Point]], [[Congo River]], [[West Africa]].,<ref name="Spears 1900 464">{{Citation

| last = Spears

| first = John R.

Line 46 ⟶ 48:

| year = 1900

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VR5fi49ZUs0C&pg=PA464

}}</ref><blockquote>On the afternoon of August 7, 1860, he took on board 890 (one account says 897) slaves, of whom only 172 were grown men and 162 grown women. Gordon was one of those infamous characters whoapparently preferred to carry children because they couldwould not rise up to avengefree his crueltiesthemselves. </blockquote>AccordingThe today after reportsloading, Gordon''Erie'' wassailed responsiblefrom forthe atCongo leastRiver, 29only deaths.to Those who died were thrown overboard.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Execution of Gordon The Slave-Trader |url=https://blackhistory.harpweek.com/7illustrations/slavery/ExecutionOfSlavetrader.htm |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=blackhistory.harpweek.com}}</ref> ''Erie'' wasbe captured by the [[USS Mohican (1859)|USS ''Mohican'']] 50within mileshours.<ref fromname=":0" a Cuban port on August 8, 1860./><ref name="harpers">[http://www.sonofthesouth.net/slavery/slave-trader.htm "The Execution of Gordon, The Slave-Trader"], ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'', March 8, 1862.</ref> Commander [[Sylvanus William Godon]] had a [[prize crew]] take command of ''Erie'' and ordered them to sailfirst transport the freed slaves to [[Liberia]], and then return to New York. Liberia was the American colony established in West Africa by the [[American Colonization Society]] for the settlement of free blacks from the United States. According to reports, andduring thenthe return15-day passage to NewLiberia Yorkat least 29 captives died and were thrown overboard.<ref>{{Cite Thereweb |title=Execution of Gordon The Slave-Trader |url=https://blackhistory.harpweek.com/7illustrations/slavery/ExecutionOfSlavetrader.htm |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=blackhistory.harpweek.com}}</ref> In New York, the ship wouldwas to be auctioned off, and Nathaniel Gordon, [[first mate]] William Warren, and [[second mate]] David Hall would stand trial.<ref name="Spears 1900 464" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Howard |first=Warren S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rbmSrE5-B7IC |title=American Slavers and the Federal Law |date=1963 |publisher=University of California Press |pages=223 |language=en}}</ref>

Commander Godon had four other of Gordon's crewmen placed on the [[USS Marion|USS ''Marion'']]: Thomas Nelson, Samuel Sleeper, Thomas Savage, and John McCafferty. The ship''Marion'' sailed to Portsmouth, [[New Hampshire]], where they were put on trial. In November 1860, the four crewmen were convicted of voluntarily serving on a slave ship but acquitted of engaging in the slave trade. Each of them was fined $1 and sentenced to about ten months in prison.<ref>{{Cite book |last=White |first=Jonathan W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=avu6EAAAQBAJ |title=Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade |date=2023 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-7502-6 |pages=132–133 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=HISTORY OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE FEDERAL COURTS |url=https://www.nhd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/NHFedCtHistory.pdf}}</ref>

==Trials==

[[File:Slave trading criminal case involving Nathaniel Gordon.png|right|250px|thumb|Slave[[Presentment]] tradingby criminala casefederal involving[[Grand juries in the United States|grand jury]], charging Nathaniel Gordon before the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York|US District Court for the Southern District of New York]] with the crime of slave trading, October 25, 1860]]

The [[United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York]], [[James I. Roosevelt]], offered Gordon a $2,000 fine and two-year sentence in exchange for information about his financial backers. However, Gordon, confident that he wouldn't face any severe consequences, rejected the deal, believing it was not lenient enough.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Historian sheds light on a shameful period - The Boston Globe |url=http://archive.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2006/08/01/execution_case_puts_slave_trade_under_the_microscope/?__goto=loginpage |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=archive.boston.com |language=en}}</ref> The case was repeatedly delayed due to the onset of the Civil War. By the time of Gordon's trial, a new district attorney, [[Edward Delafield Smith]], had been appointed. Smith saw the Gordon case as a chance to become prominent and an opportunity to set an example for all future slave traders. He wanted Gordon executed.<ref name=":2" />

Gordon's first trial in [[New York City]] in June 1861 ended in a mistrial, with the jury voting 7-57–5 in favor of a conviction, allegedly due to bribes. Smith immediately pushed for a retrial. To counter potential tampering and bribes, the government had the jury [[Jury sequestration|sequestered]]. Among the arguments used by Gordon's lawyers during his second trial were technicalities that had successfully been exploited in other trials:<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=William Lee|author-link=William Lee Miller |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H_EWaLCjXTgC |title=President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman |date=2009 |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=978-1-4000-3416-1 |language=en}}</ref>

* The federal government did not have the authority to try Gordon, on the ground that ''Erie'' was not an American ship, because it had been sold to foreigners.

Line 63 ⟶ 67:

<blockquote>

You are soon to be confronted with the terrible consequences of your crime, and it is proper that I should call to your mind the duty of preparing for that event which will soon terminate your mortal existence, and usher you into the presence of the Supreme Judge.

Let me implore you to seek the spiritual guidance of the ministers of religion; and let your repentance be as humble and thorough as your crime was great. Do not attempt to hide its enormity from yourself; think of the cruelty and wickedness of seizing nearly a thousand fellow-beings, who never did you harm, and thrusting them beneath the decks of a small ship, beneath a burning tropical sun, to die in of disease or suffocation, or be transported to distant lands, and be consigned, they and their posterity, to a fate far more cruel than death.

Line 70 ⟶ 74:

Do not flatter yourself that because they belonged to a different race from yourself your guilt is therefore lessened – rather fear that it is increased. In the just and generous heart, the humble and the weak inspire compassion, and call for pity and forbearance. As you are soon to pass into the presence of that God of the black man as well as the white man, who is no respecter of persons, do not indulge for a moment the thought that he hears with indifference the cry of the humblest of his children. Do not imagine that because others shared in the guilt of this enterprise, yours, is thereby diminished; but remember the awful admonition of your Bible, 'Though hand joined in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished.'<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=The Harbinger |title=A Death-Blow at the Slave-Trade |page=18 |date=January 1862 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cicEAAAAQAAJ&q=Let%20me%20implore%20you |publisher=Ward & Co. |location=London}}</ref>

</blockquote>In February 1862, Smith allowed William Warren and David Hall to plead guilty to lesser charges under the [[Slave Trade Act of 1800]]. Warren, who claimed he was not an American citizen, was sentenced to 8 months in prison, while Hall was sentenced to 9 months in prison. Because both men were broke, they were each fined only one dollar. During sentencing, Judge Shipman told Hall that he was being treated extremely leniently and warned him "if caught engaged in it again, the punishment would be severe."<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1862-02-27 |title=The Slave-trade.; UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT. Before Judge Shipman. THE MATES OF THE SLAVER ERIE. (Published 1862) |work=The New York Times |language=en |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1862/02/27/archives/the-slavetrade-united-states-circuit-court-before-judge-shipman-the.html |access-date=2023-08-11}}</ref>

==Appeals for pardon and execution==

After Gordon's conviction, his supporters appealed to [[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] for a pardon. While Lincoln was well known among his contemporaries for his compassion and for issuing many pardons during his presidency, he refused to consider one for Gordon, even going so far as to refuse to meet with Gordon's supporters.<ref name="The Limits of Lincoln's Mercy">{{Cite web|url=https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/the-limits-of-lincolns-mercy/?mtrref=en.wikipedia.org&gwh=9A29505E87490155A8F01B2E022843D3&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion&_r=0|title=The Limits of Lincoln's Mercy|first=Ron|last=Soodalter|work=The New York Times|date=February 23, 2012|location=New York|access-date=April 14, 2017|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://archive.today/20170414210322/https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/the-limits-of-lincolns-mercy/?mtrref=en.wikipedia.org&gwh=9A29505E87490155A8F01B2E022843D3&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion&_r=0|archive-date=April 14, 2017}}</ref> Lincoln said at the time, "I believe I am kindly enough in nature, and can be moved to pity and to pardon the perpetrator of almost the worst crime that the mind of man can conceive or the arm of man can execute; but any man, who, for paltry gain and stimulated only by avarice, can rob Africa of her children to sell into interminable bondage, I never will pardon."<ref name="The Limits of Lincoln's Mercy"/>

On the question of a commutation, Lincoln wrote that "I think I would personally prefer to let this man live in confinement and let him meditate on his deeds, yet in the name of justice and the majesty of law, there ought to be one case, at least one specific instance, of a professional slave-trader, a Northern white man, given the exact penalty of death because of the incalculable number of deaths he and his kind inflicted upon black men amid the horror of the sea-voyage from Africa."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Soodalter|first=Ron|date=2009-08-18|title=Hanging Captain Gordon|url=https://www.historynet.com/hanging-captain-gordon.htm|access-date=2021-12-23|website=HistoryNet|language=en-US}}</ref> Lincoln did give him a two-week [[stay of execution]] to "[make] the necessary preparation for the awful change which awaits him", <ref>Behn, Richard. [http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=3&subjectID=1 "Introduction."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070715170938/http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=3&subjectID=1 |date=2007-07-15 }} ''Mr. Lincoln and Freedom''. The Lincoln Institute, 2002.</ref><ref>Lincoln, Abraham. ''Stay of Execution for Nathaniel Gordon'' (February 4, 1862). 5 ''Collected Works'' 128 (1953).</ref> setting the new execution date for February 21, 1862, on the grounds that Gordon had been misled into thinking he would not be executed.<ref>[http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p2.cfm?doc=184 Text of the stay of execution granted to Gordon by Abraham Lincoln] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040901191023/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p2.cfm?doc=184 |date=2004-09-01 }}, 1862, Gilder Lehrman Document Number: GLC 182, ''Digital History''.</ref>

Early the morning before the execution, Gordon unsuccessfully attempted [[suicide]] with [[strychnine]] poison.{{sfn|Soodalter|2006|pp=210–211}} Three doctors worked four hours to keep him alive by pumping his stomach, [[catheter]]izing him, and force-feeding him [[brandy]] and [[Whisky|whiskey]]. After regaining consciousness, he cried out "I've cheated you! I've cheated you!" Gordon then begged the doctors assist his suicide, saying he would rather die alone than suffer the humiliation of being publicly executed. He said he'd "suffered the agony of a dozen deaths."{{sfn|Soodalter|2006|pp=210–211}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=How the Slave Trade Died on the Streets of New York |url=https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/how-the-slave-trade-died-on-the-streets-of-new-york |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=The Gotham Center for New York City History |date=September 2016 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Daily Dispatch: February 27, 1862., [Electronic resource], The recent execution in New York. |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2006.05.0411:article=pos=54 |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> He was sufficiently revived to be fit enough for execution.{{sfn|Soodalter|2006|pp=218–220}} Gordon's last words, spoken to his executioner, were: "Make short work of it now, Bill. I'm ready."{{sfn|Soodalter|2006|p=224}}

Line 88 ⟶ 92:

==Further reading==

* Thomas, Hugh (1997). ''The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870.'' New York: Simon and Schuster.

* White, Jonathan W. (2023). ''Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade''. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 131-144&nbsp;131–144.

* ''Annual reports and charter, constitution, by-laws, names of officers, committees, members, etc., etc.'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=RmUZAAAAYAAJ&dq=nathaniel+gordon+trial+andrews&pg=RA1-PA120 googlebooks] Retrieved September 12, 2009

Line 110 ⟶ 114:

[[Category:Businesspeople from Portland, Maine]]

[[Category:Executed American mass murderers]]

[[Category:Executed American slave owners]]

[[Category:Executed people from Maine]]

[[Category:Executed slave traders]]

[[Category:19th-century American slave traders]]

[[Category:People convicted of human trafficking]]

Line 118 ⟶ 121:

[[Category:People executed by the United States federal government by hanging]]

[[Category:Presidency of Abraham Lincoln]]

[[Category:Piracy in the Atlantic Ocean]]

[[Category:Piracy in the United States]]