Talk:Nathaniel Gordon

Crime?
This article never states what crime Gordon committed. Was this after slave trading/transporting was made illegal? Someone needs to cleanup and clarify. --ClintFord 15:10, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

See the reference to Soodalter's book. The conviction was for an act of piracy, slave trading being deemed to be the same thing under the 1820 Act and thus amenable to capital punishment. Gordon was the only slave captain hanged in the US because of the courts' reluctance to convict. -- Navarine, 21 September 2006