The Slave Trader Abraham Lincoln Refused to Pardon
05/13/25 • 9 min
On this episode of Our American Stories, Nathaniel Gordon of Portland, Maine, holds the distinction of being the only American ever executed for the crime of slave trading. Although many were caught in the act, sentences were often lenient, and most slave traders knew they had little to fear—until Abraham Lincoln. Jonathan W. White, author of Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade, shares the story of the man Lincoln refused to pardon—and explains why. Special thanks to the U.S. National Archives for this audio, taken from an online lecture Dr. White gave.
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On this episode of Our American Stories, Nathaniel Gordon of Portland, Maine, holds the distinction of being the only American ever executed for the crime of slave trading. Although many were caught in the act, sentences were often lenient, and most slave traders knew they had little to fear—until Abraham Lincoln. Jonathan W. White, author of Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade, shares the story of the man Lincoln refused to pardon—and explains why. Special thanks to the U.S. National Archives for this audio, taken from an online lecture Dr. White gave.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Our American Stories - The Slave Trader Abraham Lincoln Refused to Pardon
Transcript
And we returned to our American stories.
Speaker 2A while back.
Speaker 1On this show, we did the story of the Sleeping Sentinel, a man who fell asleep at his post during the Civil War and was sentenced to be executed before Abraham Lincoln stepped in and pardoned him. Lincoln was known for his pardons during the Civil War, getting men off the hook for going
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