1862: Nathaniel Gordon, slave trader

ExecutedToday.com ^ | February 21, 201 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

On this date in 1862, the American commercial shipper Nathaniel Gordon was hanged at the Tombs for slave trading.

Importing slaves to the U.S. had been nominally illegal for over half a century, but had never been strongly enforced. In 1820, slaving (regardless of destination) had even been defined as piracy, a capital crime.

Importation of kidnapped Africans into the United States did significantly abate during this period, and that was just fine with U.S. slaveowners ever paranoid of servile rebellion.

But a voracious demand for conscript labor persisted elsewhere whatever the legal situation. About 3 million slaves arrived to Brazil and Cuba, the principal slave shipment destinations, between 1790 and 1860 — even though the traffic was formally illicit for most of this time.

Great Britain was endeavoring to strangle the Atlantic slave trade, but the diplomatic weight she had to throw around Europe didn’t play in the U.S. Washington’s adamant refusal to permit the Royal Navy to board and search U.S.-flagged ships made the stars and stripes the banner of choice for human traffickers profitably plying the African coast. “As late as 1859 there were seven slavers regularly fitted out in New York, and many more in all the larger ports,” one history avers.

Hanging crime? No slave-runner had ever gone to the gallows as a “pirate” — not until Nathaniel Gordon.

The U.S. Navy did mount its own anti-slaving patrols, but the odd seizure of human cargo was more in the line of costs of doing business than a legal terror for merchants....

[Republican in occupied CA]

The only good slave owner or slave trader.

[Vigilanteman]

Didn’t realize this Manhattan prison was still around as the Manhattan Detention Complex not far from Wall Street. Although it is clearly modernized and rebuilt.

[NorthMountain]

Slave owner:

Also greatest President ever.

[cowboyusa]

Also, wanted slavery to end, and Emancipated his Slaves upon his wife’s death.

[NorthMountain]

All true, but look at post #2, to which I replied.

[Tired of Taxes]

The 1820 Piracy Law made transatlantic slave-trading punishable by death.

Gordon once escaped capture by dressing as a woman.

When he was captured, the slaves on this ship were sent to Liberia.

[cowboyusa]

My point was that the Founders wanted slavery ended, but could not bring the Country into being without Compromise.

[Gene Eric]

The slave trade was in reality a British run operation.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Without doubt.

Probably the greatest man ever. Period. Take that, commie America-haters.

[Hiddigeigei]

:The slave trade was in reality a British run operation."
But the British Africa slave trade in Britain was ended by Parliament shortly before the American Congress ended it. An inherited sin for which we will always be punished, even we so-called whites who know we have African ancestry. When they became too white to be considered slaves, they became cousins and given dowries in Virginia (my great-grand mother). It weren't all that simple.

[NorthMountain]

John the Baptist.

[the OlLine Rebel]

I guess that could be.

Generally I mean as far as what happened because of Washington.

And I have little doubt he is the most revered and beloved man ever. The things people went through and fashioned in that time to honor him is quite incredible, as well as some century after.

[NorthMountain]

Father of Our Country. There were people who wanted to put a crown on his head. He would have none of it ... that contributes to his greatness.

[minnesota_bound]

A democrat was hanged for slavery.