Join The Gist of Freedom (www.blackhistoryUniversity) with guest David Lesser, of The David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Bookstore. David specializes in Afro-Americana, slavery, and the Civil War. 

In 1860, Nathaniel Gordon, one of the last American slave ship captains, made a voyage to West Africa and loaded his ship, the Erie, with 900 Africans, 600 of whom were children. As the Erie left Africa to begin its long homeward trek, an American warship intercepted it about 50 miles from the African coast. Captain Gordon was arrested and taken to New York for trial. The court found Gordon guilty of breaking the U.S. anti-slave trading law and sentenced him to hang. The infamous Captain Gordon remains the only American slave trader ever to be executed by the United States.