12/24/2023 0 Comments Never caught by dunbar![]() ![]() The book’s primary focus is on Ona and her family at Mount Vernon and the family she created after her escape. In the case of Ona, they were initially convinced that she had been tricked into escaping and later furious at her “ingratitude” after being “treated like one of the family.” The Washingtons justified their actions to themselves by assuming that the slaves needed to be taken care of. They chased Ona for years trying to recapture her. They actively prevented their slaves from being manumitted in Philadelphia. Ona was not only one of their slaves to escape or to try to escape. They were well aware that their slaves were not happy living in slavery. The book also strips away any illusions the reader may have about the Washington family and slavery. ![]() ![]() A depressed or worried or angry owner could mean trouble for slaves. The book stresses repeatedly that one of the most important jobs of a house slave was to manage the moods of their owners. George worries about the country, his finances, and his teeth, and Ona is stuck with managing these people’s moods. Martha worries about Eliza, which is why she wants to give Eliza one of her most skilled slaves (her attitude is not that different from if someone gifted a new family with a top-of-the-line Kitchen Aid Mixer and a Roomba). This book shines in revealing Martha, George, and Ona as people, with flaws and moods and family problems. Ona lived the rest of her life as a free woman. The Washingtons were furious over her “ingratitude” and tried for years to recapture her, but between a political situation in the North that forced them to tread delicately, and Ona’s ingenuity, they never succeeded. Faced with betrayal from Martha and a potentially difficult future with the emotionally volatile Eliza, Ona ran away in 1796. ![]() When Martha’s granddaughter Eliza got married, Martha decided to give Ona to Eliza. They also made sure to periodically send their slaves back to Mount Vernon for a short while, so that none of the slaves would reside in Philadelphia for six consecutive months (according to Philadelphia law at the time, slaves that resided in Philadelphia for six consecutive months were entitled to manumission). Philadelphia was a hub for abolitionists and the Washingtons were careful to keep their slaves isolated from anyone who might “lure” them into escaping. When the Washingtons left Mount Vernon for Philadelphia, where the capital was located, they took Ona with them. She became Martha’s personal maid as well as one of her most skilled seamstresses. George also owned slaves at the time of the marriage, and after the marriage he acquired more through purchase or because of births. When Martha Washington married George, she was a widow with about 100 “dower slaves” (slaves that she inherited from her previous marriage that would have to be passed down to the children she had with her deceased husband). In the process, the book describes the struggle the new nation had with slavery and how different states and different individuals dealt with the matter. Impeccably researched, historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar weaves a powerful tale and offers fascinating new scholarship on how one young woman risked it all to gain freedom from the famous founding father.Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge is a nonfiction book about the efforts of one of George and Martha Washington’s slaves, Ona Judge, to secure her freedom. Yet freedom would not come without its costs.Īt just twenty-two-years-old, Ona became the subject of an intense manhunt led by George Washington, who used his political and personal contacts to recapture his property. So, when the opportunity presented itself one clear and pleasant spring day in Philadelphia, Judge left everything she knew to escape to New England. Though Ona Judge lived a life of relative comfort, the few pleasantries she was afforded were nothing compared to freedom, a glimpse of which she encountered first-hand in Philadelphia. Every six months he sent the slaves back down south just as the clock was about to expire. Rather than comply, Washington decided to circumvent the law. As he grew accustomed to Northern ways, there was one change he couldn't get his arms around: Pennsylvania law required enslaved people be set free after six months of residency in the state. In setting up his household he took Tobias Lear, his celebrated secretary, and nine slaves, including Ona Judge, about which little has been written. When George Washington was elected president, he reluctantly left behind his beloved Mount Vernon to serve in Philadelphia, the temporary seat of the nation s capital, after a brief stay in New York. A startling and eye-opening look into America s First Family, Never Caught is the powerful narrative of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington s runaway slave who risked it all to escape the nation s capital and reach freedom. ![]()
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