Richard Bell

Richard Bell is Professor of History at the University of Maryland and author of the book Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home, which was a finalist for the 2020 George Washington Book Prize and the Harriet Tubman Prize. His most recent book, The American Revolution and the Fate of the World, was published by Penguin in November 2025.

Bell received his PhD from Harvard University and his BA from the University of Cambridge. He has served as the Mellon Fellow in American History at Cambridge University, the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the American Antiquarian Society, a Mayer Fellow at the Huntington Library, a Research Fellow at the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Abolition and Resistance at Yale University and as a Resident Fellow at the John W Kluge at the Library of Congress.

He is also a frequent lecturer and debater on the C-Span television network. He maintains a list of upcoming events at Richard-Bell.com.

Articles by this Author

Stolen into Slavery, Fall 2020 George Washington Prize | Vol. 65, No. 8

While the Underground Railroad helped enslaved black people escape north, another version ran in reverse, sending free men, women, and children back into bondage.

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