Historian Richard Bell joins us to discuss his book, Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and their Astonishing Odyssey Home

Stolen is the gripping and true story about five boys who were kidnapped in the North and smuggled into slavery in the Deep South. In Philadelphia in 1825: five young, free black boys fall into the clutches of the most fearsome gang of kidnappers and slavers in the United States. Lured onto a small ship with the promise of food and pay, they are instead met with blindfolds, ropes, and knives.

Over four long months, their kidnappers drive them overland into the Cotton Kingdom to be sold as slaves. Determined to resist, the boys form a tight brotherhood as they struggle to free themselves and find their way home and bring their captors to justice.

Dr. Richard Bell is Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland. He holds a PhD from Harvard University. He has held major research fellowships at Yale, Cambridge, and the Library of Congress and is the recipient of the National Endowment of the Humanities Public Scholar award. He serves as a Trustee of the Maryland Historical Society, as an elected member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and as a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Stolen: An Evening with Richard Bell