# Free Blacks Kidnapped and Enslaved; Was This Really a Thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 5, 2014, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934 "2014-03-05T16:36:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/21 "2014-03-05T22:24:11Z")
It doesn’t look so easy to me. Any free black people would presumably have any number of other people who knew them in their free state, whether friends, neighbors, family and so on. These people could presumably vouch for them and testify that they are not slaves escaping from so-and-so. The arguments people are making in this thread are somewhat analogous to saying that anyone nowadays could kidnap any kid and claim it’s their child, because who would believe the kid and you could fake the papers. I appreciate that it _could_ have been different with blacks back then, but until someone brings actual evidence that it _was_, the question remains unsettled. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/22 "2014-03-05T22:33:01Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > But I think you’re hinting about something else… Not hinting at all. Look up the [Barbary Pirates](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_pirates) who raided the northern Mediterranean and round up the English Channel and even as far afield as Iceland. This is something that should be well-known. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/23 "2014-03-05T23:05:07Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > We all know about this particular incident. The question for this thread is how prevalent it was. I asked for cites to back up what **Little Nemo** posted, which was not focused on one particular incident. > > I don’t know if you were intending snark, but if so, it’s snark failure. How about this one. It’s not kidnapping if you are not considered anymore than property or subhuman once you cross the Mason-Dixie line. All of the court records are going to show up as property disputes. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/24 "2014-03-05T23:17:42Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > It doesn’t look so easy to me. > > Any free black people would presumably have any number of other people who knew them in their free state, whether friends, neighbors, family and so on. These people could presumably vouch for them and testify that they are not slaves escaping from so-and-so. Any of which is irrelevant in a pre-civil war society geared toward the righteous act of violently enslaving its black population. > [@](#): > > The arguments people are making in this thread are somewhat analogous to saying that anyone nowadays could kidnap any kid and claim it’s their child, because who would believe the kid and you could fake the papers. > > I appreciate that it _could_ have been different with blacks back then, but until someone brings actual evidence that it _was_, the question remains unsettled. There’s no need to even fake papers. All you need is one person to swear that the kidnapped person is a known fugitive. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/25 "2014-03-05T23:39:22Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > It doesn’t look so easy to me. > > Any free black people would presumably have any number of other people who knew them in their free state, whether friends, neighbors, family and so on. These people could presumably vouch for them and testify that they are not slaves escaping from so-and-so. Sure, **IF** you could contact them and get them to come for you without getting kidnapped themselves. There wasn’t any “You get one phone call” back then. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/26 "2014-03-05T23:50:20Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I can’t produce numbers but the legal system made it possible and it definitely did happen. The Fugitive Slave Act said that all a person had to do was identify a black person as a runaway slave and that gave them the legal right to take that person into custody (and it was illegal for anyone else to interfere - other people were in fact legally obligated to assist if asked). The slave hunter then transported the accused person down to a court in a southern state where there was a hearing to determine if they actually were a runaway. There was effectively no due process; the accused was not allowed to present a defense or any witnesses. So the hearing pretty much came down to the slave hunter repeating his story. The judge then ruled whether or not his claim was true. And as added incentive, the judge was paid a higher fee if he declared the accused was a slave then he was if he declared he was not. It was my understanding that the northern states had managed to essentially neuter the fugitive slave act as an effective law by finding workarounds on the state level. Does anyone else know if this is true? Looking it up on wikipedia, it mentions how these workarounds were a major motivation for southern secession. > **[Personal liberty laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Liberty_Law)** > > In the context of slavery in the United States, the personal liberty laws were laws passed by several U.S. states in the North to counter the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Different laws did this in different ways, including allowing jury trials for escaped slaves and forbidding state authorities from cooperating in their capture and return. States with personal liberty laws included Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Vermont. > ... This is really [heartbreaking](http://blackpressresearchcollective.org/2013/12/09/beyond-12-years-a-slave-the-early-black-press-and-the-kidnapping-of-free-black-children-by-kim-gallon/)to read, but I guess it isn’t unexpected. Kids were the main target of slavers because nobody listened to them, they had their health in front of them, they were smaller, etc. etc. > [@](#): > > While much has been made of the kidnapping of Solomon Northrup, the kidnapping of free Black children occurred more often than the abduction of free Black adults. Children were particularly vulnerable to kidnappers or “man-stealers” as they were easier to take than adults. 2 Children were less likely to have freedom papers on their person. Children also lacked the credibility of adults, even Black ones, and had a more difficult time convincing others of their free status. Children bound out to employers to contribute to the household income were often taken. Instead of releasing children back to their parents at the end of their labor agreement, some employers sold the children into slavery. Employers such as these took advantage of African American families and children made vulnerable because of poverty and their tenuous status as free Blacks. However I can’t find how common this is. Was it dozens a year, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands? I don’t know. It seems sadly to be a very profitable venture. A slave could get you $500-2000 back when people earned less than a dollar a day. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/27 "2014-03-06T00:00:50Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > Any free black people would presumably have any number of other people who knew them in their free state, whether friends, neighbors, family and so on. These people could presumably vouch for them and testify that they are not slaves escaping from so-and-so. > > The arguments people are making in this thread are somewhat analogous to saying that anyone nowadays could kidnap any kid and claim it’s their child, because who would believe the kid and you could fake the papers. > > I appreciate that it _could_ have been different with blacks back then, but until someone brings actual evidence that it _was_, the question remains unsettled. All of this presumes that: 1. A white bounty hunter/slave-catcher really cares to listen to the wailing, pleading, filthy-lying-criminal subhuman they’ve just collared. 2. That the black person they collared can find white people who will vouch for him. Remember we are talking about a racist society, where a black person isn’t in a legal or social position to “vouch” for anything. He may have tons of best pals, but if they’re black their word means absolutely nothing. And we’re talking about someone being enslaved. Who they hell wouldn’t lie to protect their friend from that? 3. That the white people who will vouch for him have some real authority. I mean, what is the schoolteacher really going to do if the bounty hunter snatches the nice darkie who busted up her chifferobe that one time? Write a sternly worded letter to the Women’s League? If you’re a recently freed slave who has just moved into town, even friendly whites might think, “Hey, this guy could be anyone. He might just be a runaway for all I know.” ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/28 "2014-03-06T00:31:28Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Not hinting at all. Look up the [Barbary Pirates](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_pirates) who raided the northern Mediterranean and round up the English Channel and even as far afield as Iceland. This is something that should be well-known. I don’t have to look up the Barbary pirates, either. You seem to be angry that no recent popular entertainment has been based on whites being enslaved. Why the anger? General history is documentary fodder. Feature films need specific human stories to work. And somebody who wants to produce those stories. The numbers of white folks captured by pirates & enslaved hardly compares with the African slave trade. Weren’t many of them eventually ransomed? Far more eventually returned home than African slaves did. Actually, I think the Irish sent into permanent exile in the New World by Cromwell, _et al.,_ had more drama. Still, I doubt BBC will ever come up with a documentary… ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/29 "2014-03-06T00:41:53Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > We all know about this particular incident. The question for this thread is how prevalent it was. I asked for cites to back up what **Little Nemo** posted, which was not focused on one particular incident. It’s likely impossible to know just how prevalent such kidnappings were, but even during the Civil War, it was believed to be extensive. See, for example, [this letter](http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mal:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28d2744600%29%29) received by Lincoln in 1863. For examples of pre-Civil War kidnappings, see [Patty Cannon’s gang](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_Cannon) See also the [“Kidnapping”](http://books.google.com/books?id=cCMbE4KKlX4C&pg=RA1-PA237&lpg=RA1-PA237&dq=free+blacks+kidnapped+slaves&source=bl&ots=xVqLw1YhxI&sig=jpQ1eU9FC7D9Up6hqJ-JQRIkRFk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=psAXU57xDovooATn7oLYDw&ved=0CGcQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=free%20blacks%20kidnapped%20slaves&f=false) entry in the _Encyclopedia of African-American History, 1619-1895_ for more accounts. Those cites don’t give the numbers involved, but demonstrate the practice was certainly more widespread than the one now-famous incident… ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/30 "2014-03-06T00:46:42Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Slaves were property, and like any other property, there would have been documentation. Sure, but documentation wouldn’t keep a free person from being kidnapped and sold. If a black man had papers showing he was free, the slaver just took them and burned them. Done. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/31 "2014-03-06T01:02:33Z")
Was the financial reward strong enough to this being an organised thing? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/32 "2014-03-06T01:06:15Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > It doesn’t look so easy to me. > > Any free black people would presumably have any number of other people who knew them in their free state, whether friends, neighbors, family and so on. These people could presumably vouch for them and testify that they are not slaves escaping from so-and-so. I take it you have not seen the film. Just to remind everyone of the precise circumstances portrayed in the movie, Northup, a resident of upstate New York, was convinced to accompany two men to Washington, DC believing he was being provided work as a musician. He was then drugged and kidnapped, and surrepticiously transported to Louisiana. There he was brought before a judge, where a man he had never met claimed that he (Northup) was a runaway slave named Platt, and the man’s lost property. Northup was asked if had any papers proving he was not the person the man said he was; he of course did not, and that was that. There simply was no chance for anyone to vouch for him at the time of his enslavement, and the film shows that several later attempts he made to get word to persons he knew back home were thwarted, and in fact put him at high risk of murder. Now, for me focusing on how many of these kind of kidnappings may have occurred rather misses the point. The circumstances of Northup’s confinement and eventual freedom are relevant mainly for the fact that this made it possible for a story of slavery from the inside to have been told; had he been the usual, illiterate slave held captive from birth or childhood, and died on the plantation, his story probably would never have seen the light of day. A major point of the film is that while Northup was indeed released, he left behind dozens of people (on that one plantation alone) who would continue to be subject to the most apalling abuse, some to the end of their lives. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/33 "2014-03-06T01:13:56Z")
Slavery in the US did not end with the Emancipation. It continued in two ways. The larger way was **Peonage.** The other way, which continued into the 1960s, was **Convict Leases.** Peonage was a twisted, extreme form of share-cropping, and people who tried to escape were beaten or killed. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/zHGB_ckvKQw/hqdefault.jpg "The Untold Story: Slavery In The 20th Century") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHGB_ckvKQw) Convict Lease was a legal construct that allowed farmers and businesses to pay the local sheriff to arrest people on phony charges and press them into servitude. Corrupt lawmen would pick up “vagrants” to fill the orders with able-bodied (mostly) black men to work in the fields from sunup to sundown. > **[The San Diego Union-Tribune - San Diego, California & National News](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/)** > > News about San Diego, California ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/34 "2014-03-06T01:23:48Z")
A free black person might have had white friends, but the kidnappers usually took their victims hundreds of miles away from where they were captured. Even if you wanted to help, you often did not have the time or money to travel to testify and even then it would just be argued you were just abolitionists who never knew the black person at all and were just stirring up trouble. Like I always say, the hardest thing for people to do is understand that people in the past _thought_ differently than we do. We look at the situation through 21st century eyes\* and many of our internalized assumptions did not exist in the early 19th century. BTW, the Personal Liberty Laws were exactly the reason the South seceded – according to[the secessionists themselves.](http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_scarsec.asp) \*My corollary for that is that people will vehemently deny that they’re doing that, even when their assumptions are in every sentence the write on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/35 "2014-03-06T01:26:15Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > Any free black people would presumably have any number of other people who knew them in their free state, whether friends, neighbors, family and so on. These people could presumably vouch for them and testify that they are not slaves escaping from so-and-so. How? Nobody kidnaps someone and goes around town to check whether anyone will vouch for them before they sell them into slavery. Get serious. > [@](#): > > The arguments people are making in this thread are somewhat analogous to saying that anyone nowadays could kidnap any kid and claim it’s their child, because who would believe the kid and you could fake the papers. Not even close. Nobody who buys a slave gives a damn where it came from. It’s a slave. Who cares? Nobody is coming to get him and present papers or vouch for him and get him back. It’s incredibly easy to imagine it happening, as it did. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/36 "2014-03-06T02:18:21Z")
The North in this era, especially Philadelphia, was characterized by considerable resentment towards free blacks, especially those that were successful. There were repeated anti black riots, where whites attacked black people in the streets and destroyed black business, churches, schools, and residential areas. So black Americans really didn’t have the protection of the law; in many respects they were persona non grata. In many cases they did organize to defend themselves against kidnapping. [http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc\_print.aspx?fileID=GR7967&chapterID=GR7967-292&path=books/greenwood](http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_print.aspx?fileID=GR7967&chapterID=GR7967-292&path=books/greenwood) > [@](#): > > He also became the leader of the black community in resisting the Gap Gang kidnappers, who were keeping the blacks in a state of constant terror. In an account he wrote with the aid of other blacks and published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1866, Parker related how he and his friends organized the black self-defense organization to prevent the Gap Gang from kidnapping Negroes and selling them as slaves. > **[Gap, Pennsylvania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap,_Pennsylvania#The_Gap_Gang)** > > Gap is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Salisbury Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States, with a ZIP code of 17527. The population was 1,931 at the 2010 census. U.S. Route 30 passes through the town, which is also the terminus for four Pennsylvania highways: 772, 741, 897, and the heavily used 41, which leads toward Wilmington, Delaware. > Gap lies approximately 16 miles (26 km) east of Lancaster and 49 miles (79 km) west of Philadelphia. > Gap was ... > [@](#): > > The Gap Gang > > In the mid 19th century there was a group of men known as “The Gap Gang”. They would engage in raids and robberies of citizens traveling the Lancaster Philadelphia Turnpike. They were notoriously known for kidnapping free blacks, and escaped slaves and selling them back to slave traders in Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. The Gap Gang were most noted for their involvement in the Christiana Riot.[3] [Fugitive Slaves and the Unfinished American Revolution: Eight Cases, 1848-1856](http://books.google.com/books?id=_wKvp9btIvYC&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=%22the+gap+gang%22+slavery&source=bl&ots=YUm9SBYAMg&sig=uu_sIhCriBWSNqig1Y_u4qbB6c8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rdcXU_KPOMShogTyvYLYDA&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22the%20gap%20gang%22%20slavery&f=false) > [@](#): > > such unscrupulous businessmen as Philadelphian George Alberti, famous for kidnapping “easy a hundred” blacks and making huge profits selling them to the South > [@](#): > > Sometimes they furnished descriptions of blacks, often free blacks living on adjacent farms, who used them to obtain fraudulent ownership certificates from Southern courts ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/37 "2014-03-06T02:37:11Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Slaves were property, and like any other property, there would have been documentation. No doubt court records from those times still exist and could be searched. This brings up an interesting point; among the free population in the early 19th century, who _did_ carry identifying documents or papers of any kind? You’d think that the plaintiff would have had to provide affirmative evidence of the supposed slave’s identity, and that the slave belonged to him. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/38 "2014-03-06T02:47:04Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Free whites were routinely captured and sold into slavery. Of course, because they were white, it isn’t film-worthy. I think it’s because it wasn’t “routine.” It may have happened, but it was probably extremely rare. White slaves were a thing in the Carribbean for a while though - England siphoned off the Irish that way. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/39 "2014-03-06T02:54:02Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > How about this one. It’s not kidnapping if you are not considered anymore than property or subhuman once you cross the Mason-Dixie line. All of the court records are going to show up as property disputes. And what good would it do to have your local Northern friends and family come down to vouch for you? If they were black, their testimony was probably inadmissible, never mind the grave personal risk they would run by attempting to provide it. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934/40 "2014-03-06T03:51:27Z")
> [@sisu](#): > > Was the financial reward strong enough to this being an organised thing? Just before the Civil War, a healthy slave was worth about the same as a car is today. Is the financial reward enough today that there are people who steal cars? And 'chop shops; to disassemble them and sell the parts, etc? Yes, it was very definitely worth it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-blacks-kidnapped-and-enslaved-was-this-really-a-thing/682934.md?page=3)