Nathaniel Gordon was an American slave trader who was the only person in the United States to be tried, convicted and executed for having "engaged in the slave trade" under the Piracy Law of 1820.
18 Facts About Nathaniel Gordon
2.
Nathaniel Gordon went into shipping and eventually owned his own ship.
3.
Nathaniel Gordon had a wife named Elizabeth and a two-year-old son named Nathaniel at the time of his final voyage to Africa.
4.
When Gordon was 12, his father was arrested for attempting to smuggle slaves into the United States.
5.
However, there are no records of how the case was resolved, albeit it is known that Nathaniel Gordon's father was not executed.
6.
However, there were allegations that Nathaniel Gordon had indeed gone to Africa, taken a cargo of slaves, and returned to Brazil, where slavery was still legal at the time.
7.
In 1851, Nathaniel Gordon, captaining the Camargo, went on another expedition from Brazil to Africa.
8.
Nathaniel Gordon took on 500 Africans and set sail for Brazil.
9.
Nathaniel Gordon had to take numerous measures to avoid naval patrol ships.
10.
The Africans were seized and some of Nathaniel Gordon's men were arrested and charged.
11.
Shortly after the Camargo voyage, Nathaniel Gordon, captaining Ottawa, made a slaving voyage to Cuba, where slavery was still legal, with a cargo of Africans.
12.
Only about 25 percent of the Africans survived, with Nathaniel Gordon later claiming that a rival trader had poisoned them.
13.
In late July 1860, Nathaniel Gordon set sail for the west coast of Africa.
14.
Nathaniel Gordon was extradited to New York to face a federal trial.
15.
On November 9,1861, Nathaniel Gordon was found guilty of piracy by engaging in the slave trade.
16.
Nathaniel Gordon received the death sentence mandated under the law, with the execution date set for February 7,1862.
17.
Early the morning before the execution, Nathaniel Gordon unsuccessfully attempted suicide with strychnine poison.
18.
Nathaniel Gordon was sufficiently revived to make a speech before approaching the gallows, in which he asked his friends to take care of his wife and child and falsely claimed the prosecutor had misled him into believing he would be spared.