sentences: "By virtue of its geography, as well as a minuscule African American population, it was literally the farthest removed from the heat of the slavery issue.In 1840, when Gordon was 14 years of age, Portland counted only 402 African Americans, out of 15,218 residents; by 1860, the year of his final voyage, the number of residents had grown to 26,342, while the African American population had dropped to 318.