author
Nathaniel Gordon
Remembered today as the only person executed by the U.S. federal government for participating in the Atlantic slave trade, this 19th-century sea captain has become a stark figure in the history of slavery and American law. His story sits at the crossroads of commerce, crime, and the nation’s struggle over human bondage.
1 Audiobook
The Golden Judge
by Nathaniel Gordon
About the author
Born in Portland, Maine, in 1826, he went to sea at a young age and later became captain of the slave ship Erie. In 1860, U.S. authorities captured the vessel on the coast of Africa with hundreds of enslaved Africans on board.
He was tried under the Piracy Law of 1820, which made the slave trade a capital crime for American citizens. After conviction, he was hanged in New York City on February 21, 1862, becoming the only person executed by the federal government for that offense.
His case is often remembered less as a literary or creative legacy than as a grim historical landmark. It is frequently cited as an example of how rarely U.S. anti-slave-trade laws were fully enforced, even as the brutality of the transatlantic slave trade was widely known.