Richard Bell is the author of
Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped Into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home, published by Simon & Schuster in 2019.
Stolen tells the true story of how five young Black boys were kidnapped from Philadelphia in 1825. Dr. Bell recounts the boys’ journey as they were forced to travel south into slavery. Those familiar with Solomon Northup’s
Twelve Years A Slave or Erica Dunbar’s
Never Caught will find Dr. Bell’s
Stolen to be a must read, as he explores how one kidnapping was shaped by the larger history of slavery, the interstate slave trade, the law, and a host of other factors.
Dr. Bell is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland – College Park, where he studies United States history and culture in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
Derek Litvak is a Ph.D. student in the department of history at the University of Maryland.