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Speaker 1: And we returned to our American stories. A while back.

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Speaker 1: On this show, we did the story of the Sleeping Sentinel,

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Speaker 1: a man who fell asleep at his post during the

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Speaker 1: Civil War and was sentenced to be executed before Abraham

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Speaker 1: Lincoln stepped in and pardoned him.

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Speaker 2: Lincoln was known for.

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Speaker 1: His pardons during the Civil War, getting men off the

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Speaker 1: hook for going a wall, being under age, jumping bounty.

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Speaker 1: The President was empathetic despite the circumstances, but there was

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Speaker 1: one man Lincoln refused to pardon. Here to tell the

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Speaker 1: story is Jonathan W. White, and we'd like to thank

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Speaker 1: the US National Archives for allowing us to use this audio.

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Speaker 2: Let's get into the story.

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Speaker 3: To tell a story, we actually have to go way

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Speaker 3: back to seventeen eighty seven, the Constitution declared that the

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Speaker 3: slave trade could continue for twenty years, and so after

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Speaker 3: a twenty year period, Congress abolished the Transatlantic slave trade.

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Speaker 3: But unfortunately, the slave trade continued and Africans were kidnapped

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Speaker 3: on the West coast of Africa and transported to the

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Speaker 3: New World for years and years and years. After the

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Speaker 3: slave trade was made illegal, and in August of eighteen sixty,

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Speaker 3: Nathaniel Gordon went to the west coast of Africa, and

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Speaker 3: a ship called the Eerie kidnapped eight hundred and ninety

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Speaker 3: seven Africans, going for the most vulnerable that he could seize.

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Speaker 3: Most of these people were women and children. And as

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Speaker 3: he put them onto his ship, he used a knife

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Speaker 3: and he cut off all the clothing off of the

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Speaker 3: adult men and women. They were completely naked, and he

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Speaker 3: separated the men and women into different parts of the ship.

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Speaker 3: It took him forty five minutes to do that. He

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Speaker 3: was clearly an expert at the trade. This was probably

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Speaker 3: at least his fourth voyage. This voyage, though, he was

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Speaker 3: caught by a US ship, sent to New York City,

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Speaker 3: put into prison, and he awaited trial.

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Speaker 2: He knew there was nothing to fear up until this point.

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Speaker 3: For the previous forty years, since eighteen twenty to eighteen sixty,

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Speaker 3: no one had ever really been punished for slave trading.

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Speaker 3: They knew it was piracy, they knew they could be executed,

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Speaker 3: but federal administrations decided that they just wouldn't prosecute these.

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Speaker 2: Cases very strongly.

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Speaker 3: And the thing about New York City in the eighteen

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Speaker 3: fifties and eighteen sixties was New York had become the

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Speaker 3: financial hub of the Transatlantic slave trade. And so Gordon

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Speaker 3: went to jail in New York City, but was put

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Speaker 3: in what we would today consider a minimum security prison,

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Speaker 3: and he was allowed to go out of the prison

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Speaker 3: and walk around New York City and have fancy dinners.

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Speaker 3: And he acted like a gentleman and was not convicted.

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Speaker 2: He had a hung.

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Speaker 3: Jury, and it's probably because members of the jury were bribed.

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Speaker 2: But then.

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Speaker 3: Abraham Lincoln was elected and he put into place a

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Speaker 3: new prosecutor in New York City, a new US Marshall.

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Speaker 3: They moved Nathaniel Gordon to what we would today consider

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Speaker 3: a maximum security prison called the Tombs or the Halls

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Speaker 3: of Justice in Midtown Manhattan, and they decided that they

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Speaker 3: would prosecute him a second time.

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Speaker 2: Then this time Nathaniel Gordon was sentenced to be executed.

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Speaker 3: Now you might think that this is a great moment

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Speaker 3: in the history of morality in this country, that a

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Speaker 3: man who has been involved in the slave trade is

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Speaker 3: finally going to get the punishment that he and so

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Speaker 3: many others deserved. But believe it or not, thousands of

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Speaker 3: Northerners wrote to Abraham Lincoln and asked him to pardon Gordon,

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Speaker 3: or at least to commute the sentence so that he

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Speaker 3: wouldn't be executed. You shouldn't execute a guy like this.

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Speaker 3: Gordon was the husband of a young wife. She was

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Speaker 3: devoted to him. She had a young son with him.

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Speaker 3: He had a nice mother, he had some good sisters,

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Speaker 3: he had a lot of friends. Other people wrote to

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Speaker 3: Lincoln and said, you know, Nathaniel Gordon never expected to

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Speaker 3: be punished for this crime because no one else has

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Speaker 3: been punished.

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Speaker 2: For it before, and it wouldn't be right to punish him.

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Speaker 3: In February of eighteen sixty two, Gordon's wife and mother

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Speaker 3: came to the White House to try to meet with

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Speaker 3: Lincoln and try to persuade him. You've got to please

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Speaker 3: pardon Nathaniel, and Lincoln has to decide what to do.

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Speaker 2: Lincoln refused to meet with them.

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Speaker 3: The truth is in February of eighteen sixty two, at

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Speaker 3: the time that Gordon's wife and mother came to the

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Speaker 3: White House, Lincoln was suffering very badly. His two younger sons,

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Speaker 3: Willie and Tad, were both very ill. Willie mortally so

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Speaker 3: he would die before the end of the month, and

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Speaker 3: so Lincoln just couldn't deal with the thought of meeting

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Speaker 3: with these women and talking to them about pardoning Gordon.

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Speaker 3: Lincoln was dead set on in forcing the law, but

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Speaker 3: Lincoln did make a decision that had an impact. He

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Speaker 3: issued a two week stay of execution, two weeks to

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Speaker 3: prepare for what's coming.

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Speaker 4: Whereas it appears that at a term of the Circuit

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Speaker 4: Court of the United States of America for the District

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Speaker 4: Court of New York, held in the month of November

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Speaker 4: eighty eighteen sixty one, Nathaniel Gordon was indicted and convicted

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Speaker 4: for being engaged in the slave trade. And whereas a

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Speaker 4: large number of respectable citizens have earnestly besought me to

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Speaker 4: commute the said sentence of the said Nathaniel Gordon to

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Speaker 4: a term of imprisonment for life, which application I have

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Speaker 4: felt it my duty to refuse. And whereas it has

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Speaker 4: seemed to me probable that the unsuccessful application made to

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Speaker 4: commute his sentence may have prevented the said Nathaniel Gordon

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Speaker 4: from making the necessary preparation for the awful change which

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Speaker 4: awaits him.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 4: Therefore be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, have granted,

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Speaker 4: and do here by grant unto him a respite of

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Speaker 4: the above recited sentence until Friday, the twenty first day

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Speaker 4: of February eighty eighteen sixty two. In granting this respite,

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Speaker 4: it becomes my painful duty to admonish the prisoner that,

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Speaker 4: relinquishing all expectation of pardon by human authority, he refer

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Speaker 4: himself alone to the mercy of the common God and

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Speaker 4: Father of all men. In testimony whereof I have hitherto

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Speaker 4: signed my name and caused the seal of the United

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Speaker 4: States to be affixed done in the city of Washington,

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Speaker 4: this fourth day of February eighty eighteen sixty two, and

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Speaker 4: of the independence of the United States the eighty six

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Speaker 4: signed Abraham Lincoln.

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Speaker 3: Lincoln said that Gordon needed to prepare for the awful

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Speaker 3: change which awaits him. This is a pretty incredible statement

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Speaker 3: for Lincoln to say. People like Nathaniel Gordon saw Africans

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Speaker 3: and African Americans as subhuman. They were only merchandised to

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Speaker 3: be tray. There was no value in them as far

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Speaker 3: as Gordon was concerned as people, only as labor. And Lincoln,

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Speaker 3: in granting this respite this two week period, was saying,

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Speaker 3: they are human beings who are part of humanity that

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Speaker 3: have a common God and father, and they deserve the

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Speaker 3: dignity and respect that all people deserve. Nathaniel Gordon tried

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Speaker 3: to commit suicide the night before the execution. Someone snuck

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Speaker 3: some poison into the tombs and he took it, and

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Speaker 3: the guards heard him wretching, and they rushed in and

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Speaker 3: they saw what had happened, but they would not allow

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Speaker 3: him to cheat the gallows. They got a doctor who

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Speaker 3: pumped his stomach, he vomited out the poison, and then

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Speaker 3: they walked him to the gallows the next day and

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Speaker 3: made sure that justice was done.

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Speaker 1: And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling

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Speaker 1: by our own Monty Montgomery, and a special thanks to

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Speaker 1: Jonathan W. White all of Shipwrecked, a true Civil War

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Speaker 1: story of mutinies, jailbreaks, blockade running, and the slave trade.

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Speaker 1: And what a story we heard this Nathaniel Gordon, Well,

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Speaker 1: he was about to be prosecuted for a second time,

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Speaker 1: and this time was sentenced to execution. This isn't a

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Speaker 1: time when people simply weren't punished, but the crime of

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Speaker 1: breaking the laws regarding slave trade. Even Northerners sympathized and

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Speaker 1: rallied around Nathaniel Gordon. And then came that fateful moment

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Speaker 1: where the families tried to meet Lincoln and Lincoln denied them.

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Speaker 1: He didn't have it in him. He was already dealing

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Speaker 1: with his own grief, and I think he knew what

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Speaker 1: the answer was. He knew what it was like to

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Speaker 1: lose someone he would soon lose his own son, Willie.

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Speaker 1: What he wrote that letter, He wrote that Gordon needed

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Speaker 1: to prepare for the awful change that awaited him. What

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Speaker 1: words to receive from the President, not to pardon, but

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Speaker 1: quite the opposite, a death sentence. In a preparation to

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Speaker 1: get himself set.

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Speaker 2: With the Lord.

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Speaker 1: He tried to cheat his hanging, but that did not

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Speaker 1: prevail the story of Nathaniel Gordon. Here on our American

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Speaker 1: Story