Six months after the formation of the NYPD, its most reluctant and talented officer, Timothy Wilde, thinks himself well versed in his city?s dark practices ? until he is horrified to learn of the gruesome underworld of the "blackbirders," who snatch free Northerners of color from their homes, masquerade them as slaves, and sell them as to the South to toil as plantation property. But in 1846, slave catching isn?t just legal ? it?s law enforcement.
