The Kidnapping Club by Jonathan Daniel Wells tells the story of the building of a city and the battle for its soul. The role of slavery in American history has been undergoing a renewed historical study, and this work is a valuable contribution. While slavery and the slave trade were illegal in New York, the city benefited from and helped maintain Southern slavery. Wells helps shine a light on how New York offered insurance, loans, brokerage, ships and more which helped maintain the slave economy and continue the transatlantic slave trade – to the financial benefit of the city. The legal system not only enforced the fugitive slave laws, but at times was a collaborator in the kidnapping and enslaving of free blacks. Wells gives valuable insights into how the city, its institutions and culture helped foster slavery in the name of national unity and prosperity. To do so, Wells masterfully brings to life nineteenth century New York. Additionally, he devotes great attention to particular individuals and instances of exploitation but also heroic resistance – as well as the tensions within the abolitionist movement.

"The Kidnapping Club" by Jonathan Daniel Wells provides a unique analysis about the role that New York's financial markets played in fueling and upholding slavery in the United States. This book provides a very thorough examination of a topic that I just learned more about in listening to episode 2 of "The 1619 Project." As we as a society take a closer look at the legacy of slavery and the continuous oppression of Black people, we often gloss how much of the western world's financial markets were propelled by slavery. "The Kidnapping Club" makes it clear that the North and South were equally investing in maintaining slavery. I highly recommend this book!

Eye opening account of how slavery was supported outside of the southern United States. There are plenty of familiar names and landmarks in this book to connect the present with the past. The reader will gain a greater perspective of what the country was like preceding the Civil War. The institution of slavery is revealed in a way most texts avoid, and this heightened exploration sheds even greater light onto the motivations that perpetuated this atrocity for so long.