Remember that the only American ever executed for slave-trading was a Mainer | Steve Collins

Although Maine may seem remote from the slave society of the plantation-era South, it wasn’t as far removed as most people think. On today, [Juneteenth,](https://www.centralmaine.com/2025/06/17/juneteenths-roots-include-maines-emancipation-day-celebrations-steve-collins/) consider the case of Nathaniel Gordon, the only American executed for engaging in the slave trade. Gordon was born and raised in Portland. An 1820 federal law decreed that anyone caught on the high seas engaging in slave trading “shall be adjudged a pirate and on conviction shall suffer death.” For four decades after its adoption, few captains were charged and none faced anything more than a slap on the wrist. In 1860, Gordon, though, was about to find out how much had changed with President Abraham Lincoln’s election, the secession of Southern states and the advent of a bloody Civil War. As the captain of a 500-ton sailing ship named Erie, Gordon traveled from Cuba to the mouth of the Congo River in Africa carrying cargo that included 150 barrels of rum. After selling the liquor and various foodstuffs, Gordon headed a few miles up the river. After docking, he loaded the Erie with almost 900 terrified Africans held in bondage: men, women and children, who accounted for more than half of the group, packed between decks in gruesome circumstances. The overloaded ship set sail, hoping to turn a profit back in Havana by hauling its abducted passengers to slave markets there. Advertisement The following day, an American warship set off in pursuit and apprehended the Erie. At least 18 people in its hold had already died. Gordon and his crew were placed under arrest and the surviving Africans were taken ashore, treated for their ailments and released. Gordon was sent to New York City, where he was indicted for piracy and convicted. The judge in the case, William Davis Shipman, expressed no sympathy for the Mainer. “Think of the cruelty and wickedness of seizing nearly a thousand human beings, who never did you any harm, and thrusting them between the decks of a small ship, beneath a burning tropical sun, to die of disease or suffocation, or be transported to distant lands, and consigned, they and their posterity, to a fate far more cruel than death,” Shipman said in court. “Remember that you showed mercy to none — carrying off, as you did, not only those of your own sex, but women and helpless children.” Shipman warned Gordon that he was “soon to pass into the presence of that God of the Black man as well as the white man. Do not indulge for a moment the thought that he hears with indifference the cry of the humblest of his children.” Advertisement Gordon sought a reprieve from President Lincoln, who rejected the plea. [Lincoln wrote](https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/lincoln-execution-slave-trader-1862) in response that he “felt it my duty to refuse.” He did grant the condemned man two extra weeks to begin “making the necessary preparation for the awful change which awaits him.” After Gordon sucked down a glass of brandy and cried out at his fate from a gallows at The Tombs in New York, he had a hood placed over his head and a noose put around his neck. On Feb. 21, 1862, a trapdoor sprung beneath his feet and he became the first and only American to die for engaging in the slave trade. That these events took place is something we should remember — today and all days. In order to learn from the stunning injustices of the recent past, we must keep in mind the necessity to do right by one another, especially the most helpless among us. Copy the Story Link Tagged: [columns](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/columns/) [](https://www.pressherald.com/author/steve-collins) [Steve CollinsColumnist](https://www.pressherald.com/author/steve-collins) Steve Collins became an opinion columnist for the Maine Trust for Local News in April of 2025. A journalist since 1987, Steve has worked for daily newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Maine and served. [More by Steve Collins](https://www.pressherald.com/author/steve-collins)