I did not know about the Reverse Underground until reading this. This is more research material than book, but it was still a good read and very informative. It was greatly disturbing as well.

This book was eye opening. I had to continually remind myself that I was reading a nonfiction book. Amazing research and stories that will forever remain in my mind.

Even though I'm fascinated with historical nonfiction I don't read a lot of it preferring to read historical fiction based on true events .
Heart wrenching historical details given of five free boys kidnapped into slavery.
The terror they endured shows a total lack of human decency from the captor.
Brutal and sadly true a hard read.

Pub Date: 15 Oct 2019
I was given a complimentary copy. Thank you.
All opinions expressed are my own.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

Stolen is a true story about five boys who were kidnapped and smuggled into slavery....AND their brave attempts to not only escape, but bring their captors to justice.

What a raw, powerful journey. Stolen really caught my attention from the getgo. I cannot wrap my mind or heart what these boys went through.

4.5/5

Richard Bell uses rich, scarce, and historical sources that make up this educational story concerning the lesser-known facts concerning the Reverse Underground Railroad. Recent movie buffs are familiar with Solomon Northup story, and 12 YEARS A SLAVE was lucid tale, but Bell is prompt and quick to point out that there will always be holes and speculation surrounding the RU.

There are a few dry spells throughout the book, but the historical facts and the perniciously dark turns regarding American life led up to a gleaming conclusion, overcast with liberation.

Stolen is a heart wrenching and a historical lesson of evil. Slavery,ignorance,and torture is a history lesson that never seems to be learned, but just gets repeated is some form of some area of the world. This book is so well written and the characters are well developed. This is a must read.

This book was a hard read for me. I am usually a fast reader, but I trudged through this book. The writing was easy and the story had a consistent flow. It was the content that was disturbing. I know this is our country's history, but I am disturbed because it happened. I wonder, how many would be okay with this if it were the "norm" today? I am truly afraid of the answer.

I have seen history books, in our educational system, gloss over slavery as though it never happened (or worse, that those who were enslaved consented to it). I have witnessed those who flippantly laugh about this part of history while others shout that all the blacks should be sent back to Africa. The ignorance is saddening. It's what people have chosen to tell themselves so that their conscience can rest easy.

I heard of people being kidnapped and dragged into slavery, free people, but I did not realize how elaborate the operation was, so much so that it was given a name: The Reverse Underground Railroad. My heart broke for the boys and women who were part of this story as well as the many others who were never able to have their stories told. I understand that most of the people who experienced this horror did not have a happy ending. This is a book that should be in schools. Richard Bell did extensive work to piece this story together and I was in awe of what his research revealed.

I thank Netgalley, Simon & Schuster, and 37 Ink for the honor of receiving an ARC copy of this book for my honest review.

Brutal, heart-rending, and sadly, true - this is why I can only read so much history or historical fiction.

We've all heard of the Underground Railroad. How many of us know of the Reverse Underground Railroad? Richard Bell, in painstaking detail, with photos and documents, tells us how traffickers and slave traders stole away thousands of legally free African Americans - ripped from their families - never to be seen again - to feed the demand for slaves in the decades before the Civil War. Snatching free black people, children in particular, "was more widespread than is generally known, especially after 1808, when the importation of foreign-born slaves was banned."

We know so little about the conductors and agents who trafficked these people because "the identities of all but a handful still remain a secret." Unlike Nazis who were caught and convicted after World War II, most of these villains walked free and remain unscathed in news reports and history books.

Philadelphia was "bitterly divided by racism," with white people "ever more enamored of schemes to deport to Liberia or Haiti black neighbors they regarded as idle and worthless." Bell delivers statistics and stories, documented and researched. As he puts it, "Throughout the early 1820s, white thugs beat, robbed, or otherwise molested many black residents, knowing full well that city authorities were unlikely to prosecute them."

Worse, anti-kidnapping work was very dangerous.

Is there no end to the injustices, horrors, shocks, and sad stories? I had to put this book down for a while just to keep my sanity. An Amazon reviewer, Kathy F., says it so well, I will quote her:

> This is a meticulously researched, well-written and important read. At the same time, it is very dark, and emotionally, a very difficult read, and I found myself needing to take frequent breaks from it.
> There is no possible way, despite the author's efforts, to truly understand the horrors of that time. As with WWII, it is challenging to wrap my mind around the madness, inhumanity and pure evil occurring and the complicity of those who stood by afraid to become involved to stop it.

Is there a bright light to be found? In places, yes. Black churches served as sanctuaries for fugitives from slavery and worked "to transform a group of refugee migrants fresh from slavery into a cohesive and self-supporting community of respectable citizens. Education was essential to these efforts," and "many African American parents believed that teaching their children to read and write was the surest path to prosperity, dignity, and respectability."

Only a few pages after that, we get stories of chimney sweeps, children working in dangerous conditions, and those who survived would have a lifetime of breathing problems and higher rates of cancer.

Slave traders stole children from free families and sold them into slavery, and parents in the free north would warn their children not to wander alone and to beware of strangers offering jobs that sounded too good to be true. It is unthinkable that so many free people, not just children, were tricked into becoming slaves. "Twelve Years a Slave" was no isolated incident. "Husbands and wives reminded each other to carry their freedom papers at all times and to keep them up to date," Bell writes. Parents "pestered their sons and daughters to stay in large groups, to read body language, to steer clear of certain streets, and to be wary of promises too good to be true." Neighborhood watch groups formed, but in most cases, "the efforts of vigilante neighbors to tackle traffickers and intercede in kidnappings fell tragically short." Operatives worked in the shadows, quickly and quietly.

Most of the book focuses on the story of five boys who managed to escape. Cornelius Sinclair had a father who wouldn't give up. "Boy Lost," he posted in newspapers, paying for the poignant ads. I will say no more in hopes that anyone reading this review will just go read the book instead.

Bell adds in the Acknowledgments,

"The thought that anyone could take our children from us--and that we might be powerless to stop them--still tears at me in a primal, elemental way. Families belong together."

These horror stories feel so recent. They're not fiction. Thank you Richard Bell for bringing them to light, and thank you Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for providing me with an ARC of this book. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to bring myself to write about it.

#Stolen #NetGalley

I don't read a lot of nonfiction- I find it to be dry and can be a bit boring. Stolen by Richard Bell is a strong exception to this stereotype. I was thoroughly fascinated by the story and how he wrote it. I learned a lot about slavery and before this novel never knew of anything about "The Reverse Underground Railroad". Living close to Memphis, while not the hot spot for this kind of activity, I can't help but wonder. If you like to read books about slavery, I highly recommend this very enlightening book.

This book is fabulously and thoroughly researched and wonderfully written, and is yet another example of the amazing and fascinating stories out there, hiding in newspaper articles, city council minutes, and court records. At one time everyone knew of these stories due to the extensive newspaper coverage, and now no one does. These are the stories that get people interested in history, yet most students in middle and high school are still taught boring famous name-date-place history, rather than history involving regular people--tradesmen, apprentices, county officials, landowners, jury members, newsmen, abolitionist groups members, farmers, sailors, newspaper readers.

In this book Bell examines the story of 5 free black boys and 1 runaway kidnapped into slavery in Philadelphia in the 1820s. They, a woman legally purchased, and a woman kidnapped in Delaware were forced into a coffle overland to Mississippi with their small-time kidnappers. One boy (the literate one, unsurprisingly) was sold in Tuscaloosa. The rest were taken on. And then, in Mississippi, one of the boys was beaten to death by his kidnapper. And then another told his entire story to a potential purchaser.

And what did that man do? He told. He got the courts involved. The county official wrote to the mayor of Philadelphia, and in the end--well over a year later--the kidnap victims were freed and returned home.

The story itself is amazing--the cast of characters that made this seemingly impossible story happen. A nearly bankrupt wannabe plantation owner, county- and state-level government officials, the mayor of Philadelphia and his high constable, judges, two Methodists, an Alabama jury, a Scottish immigrant who traveled from Philadelphia to Alabama on his own dime to testify, and random people called in on favors--all came together to get the 4 surviving kidnap victims home. So many people I would not expect to care affected the outcome of this particular instance. Mayor Watson of Philadelphia tried to rescue other victims kidnapped by the same Delaware gang, but was largely unsuccessful. Solomon Northrup chronicled his own story in Twelve Years a Slave--and while the story Bell tells only covers about 2 years, the time lag before telephones, the internet, and truly reliable mail service is astonishing. The kidnap victims spent weeks trekking overland, and then months and months essentially living as and being treated as slaves (back pay was not awarded in their freedom suit), just waiting for mail to go back and forth.

The other amazing thing about this story is the sources. And the research it took to pull them together. Court minutes and documents, newspaper articles, pamphlets, journals, legislative records, minutes from abolition groups, and so many more primary sources--they are out there, in different states and counties and archives, just waiting to be combined with their counterparts from other places.

STOLEN: FIVE FREE BOYS KIDNAPPED INTO SLAVERY AND THEIR ASTONISHING ODYSSEY HOME

Author’s Bio
Richard Bell is the author of Stolen. He currently teaches Early American History at the University of Maryland.


Who is the target audience?
The answer in a word is; humanity.

Synopsis'
The time is 1825, the place Philadelphia, North America, and a small group of free black boys about to be kidnapped and transported as slaves. They are going to serve the needs and wants of a slave hungry South and its human Grissom for the Cotton Kingdom Mill. The real story, however, relates to the titanic strengths and fortitude exhibited by the 5 boys placed in the untenable excruciating predicament of having lived free and taken as slaves under the threat of violence. Despite the seemingly overwhelming odds, the boys seek ways to escape their bondage and return home. To discover if they manage to escape and the consequences of the events affecting their lives, you will have to read it yourself. At its worst, this is one example of mans’ inhumanity to man. At it’s best, this is a call to the resilience of spirit and the power of unity in the face of extreme privation and enormous adversity.

Conclusion
Masterfully written, flawlessly researched, and a tale of 5 free men abducted and taken on a journey of epic proportions. This is a work for our times; lest we forget. I cannot recommend this book enough.


Acknowledgment

My sincere thanks go to: NetGalley, and 37 Ink for affording me the opportunity to review “Stolen”.

Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home

When I first picked up Stolen, I thought I was reading of five boys in an imagined history, free in their difficult but navigable world, and the tale had the feel of shady, but survivable, adventure. The kind of adventure where a reader is first introduced to the main characters precisely at the point where the adventure presents itself upside-down and backwards. . .. but a reader knows that, having got reader’s attention, the storyline will right itself and proceed on a progressive, forward direction. You know – the way most good fiction starts! Very soon, though, with footnotes aplenty, paintings of actual places and powerful people and endnotes promised, this reader soon realized this was no fiction.

With sinking heart I read it all. Every last endnote. Shameful, terrifying to think real people, regardless of age went through these horrors. Then heartbreaking to realize their ages, just little kids. My heart went out to the women that were with them, and all the abuse they must have suffered and the hopelessness all of them had to carry with them constantly. Even the imbecilic keepers who imposed this unrighteous dominion – what if one little rebellious desire arose in their hearts – why are we doing this? This doesn’t feel right. . . how fast would they have to squash that good urge due to the general mores and sick traditions of their society and families? How fast does a good person turn into the same monster from which they are running? How does that song go?

[Verse 1]
You've got to be taught to hate and fear
You've got to be taught from year to year
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught

[Verse 2]
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade
You've got to be carefully taught

[Verse 3]
You've got to be taught before it's too late
Before you are six or seven or eight
To hate all the people your relatives hate
You've got to be carefully taught

(From the musical, South Pacific, <i>You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught</i> by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II)

In his book "Stolen," author Richard Bell presents a serious case for the realities of the “Reverse Underground Railroad”: the active business of going North and kidnapping free black citizens and getting them to a part of their world that would willingly turn a blind eye as citizens and neighbors were hauled off into the shadows, where they would be shipped to buyers with money in hand for the best deals on the river. That these five boys made it back. . .well not all did, and that’s part of the sorrow. . .that they made it back was nothing short of miraculous. Not all victories are happy. . . and they did make it back, but carried the memories down through the generations (if there be generations). Appalling. Astonishing. On one hand I think of my ancestors with reverence and veneration. On the other – What the Hell Were YOU Thinking?????!!!!! How can anyone justify this?? What got you to THAT place???

Outrage stoked. If that was the goal. I’m there. A worthy read.


A sincere thanks to Richard Bell, 37 Ink / Simon & Shuster and NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was one of the first book reviews that was difficult for me to write. The subject matter was so powerful and sensitive I wasn't sure I could do it justice. Let me start by saying that Stolen by Richard Bell is a book that is a must read for everyone. It tells the story of two women and in particular five boys named Cornelius, Sam, Enos, Alex and Joe that were kidnapped in the North (PA) and sold into slavery in the South, taken by human traffickers in the 1820’s for no other reason but greed and financial gain. With no new influx of slaves from abroad, these human traffickers would kidnap free men, women and children or buy and resell slaves from the North to plantations down South where free labor was in demand and questions about the origin of these men, women and children were often not asked.

Stolen primarily focuses on these five unfortunate young boys who were taken from their family and friends. The crimes committed against these children were atrocious, yet not uncommon at this time in history. These boys became the victims of what was known as the Reverse Underground Railroad, the opposite of the Underground Railroad. Instead of being led to freedom, these victims of the Reverse Underground Railroad were free children, men and women of color that were outright kidnapped or led away with promises of work or food. Held against their will, shackled and kept in the most horrible conditions, they were marched South to be sold to the highest bidder not knowing what awaited them or if they would ever see their families again.

What they endured for months was nothing short of torture. Their families living their own private hell back home not knowing what happened to their children or loved ones. Through a series of events and with the help of a few men who were willing to right an injustice their stories were eventually told and the children returned to their families. However, there were many more victims of the Reverse Underground Railroad that will forever be lost. Names and faces that would never make it home. Not only anguish for the victims, but heartbreak for their families. The stories of these lost men, women and children cry out to be heard and in light of the rise in human trafficking today, this story is so relevant and more important than ever.

This book was not a page turner and at times was difficult to read. Sometimes I had to put it down because the content was difficult and left me emotionally disturbed, but I continued to read because I needed and wanted to know what happened to these boys and if they ever saw justice and their families again. Stolen will touch so many hearts in so many ways, but it’s a story that must be told and I’m grateful to Richard Bell for telling it.

I want to thank publisher Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book Stolen by Richard Bell. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I think this book is definitely an important book to read, but be prepared to have your heart broken. It’s disturbing in many ways, but sadly this was reality. If you like learning about history, you should read this book. Have tissues and take lots of breaks, they will be needed.
Will make sure I recommend to those I feel can handle the topic.

This is a difficult book to read. It is filled with horrible, untenable, lurid, accounts of the miseries thrust upon innocent men, women, and children. I cannot even begin to imagine how the captors of these five young, innocent, free boys and two women could treat them this way and then go on to spend time with normal humanity, as though they were actually a part of it. This is a "just the facts” type of book, no pretty fill-in story or fluff, it just lays the facts out there, ugly as they are. If you are interested in an education in the sordid ways of procuring slave labor, then this is a book you must read. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance read copy.