Portland native Nathaniel Gordon was the only person in the country ever to be h

Authors

Ron Soodalter

Source

Portland Monthly

Date

1-1-2009

Additional Date Information

Winterguide 2009

Pages

59, 82-83

Abstract

Portland native Nathaniel Gordon was the only person in the country ever to be hanged for slave trading, an execution sanctioned by President Abraham Lincoln. His father, also named Nathaniel, was tried in New York for trying to smuggle a slave into the country. Before Lincoln's election, neither Congress nor the U.S. Navy went out of their way to impede the Atlantic Slave Trade. Petitions from all over the country, including 18,000 signers from Portland, asked for Lincoln's clemency, which he refused. Years later, Gordon's son Nathaniel returned from New York to Portland, and that Nathaniel's son, Nathaniel "Ned" Gordon became a Gannett newspaper editor. With details on the case.

Subjects

Slave trade, Trials United States, Gordon, Nathaniel, Lincoln, Abraham

Recommended Citation

Soodalter, Ron, "Portland native Nathaniel Gordon was the only person in the country ever to be h" (2009). Maine News Index – Portland Monthly. 1510.
https://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/news_portmonthly/1510