
Points of contention are confined to the citations, and overt academic theorizing is avoided. You can help by converting this section, if appropriate. This section is in list format but may read better as prose. The Washington’s never stopped searching for Ona Judge. It also details the lengths to which the Washingtons went to try and recover their "property," including using their extensive network of contacts, newspaper advertisements, and threatening legal action.ĭunbar also explores the broader historical context of slavery in the United States, including the Fugitive Slave Act and the legal and social systems that supported slavery.ĭespite the Washingtons’ efforts, Ona Judge managed to evade capture and lived the rest of her life as a fugitive slave in New Hampshire, where she married and had children. The book describes the brutal realities of slavery in the United States during the late 18th century. Dunbar describes the network of allies that Ona relied on to make her escape, as well as the extensive efforts that the Washingtons made to try and recapture her. The next section of the book focuses on Judge’s escape and the Washingtons' relentless pursuit of her. Dunbar also details the unique challenges that Judge faced as a slave in the Washingtons' household, including the pressure to conform to the expectations of her powerful and demanding owners.

This includes information about the daily life of enslaved people, including backbreaking labor, cruel punishments, and the constant threat of being sold to another plantation. The beginning of the book depicts Ona Judge and her life as a slave in the household of George and Martha Washington. The book chronicles the life of Ona Judge, an enslaved woman owned by George and Martha Washington, and her escape from the President's household in Philadelphia in 1796. Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge is a non-fiction book by American historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar, published in 2017. "A crisp and compulsively readable feat of research and storytelling" (USA TODAY), historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar weaves a powerful tale and offers fascinating new scholarship on how one young woman risked everything to gain freedom from the famous founding father.2017 non-fiction book by Erica Armstrong Dunbar At 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. Yet freedom would not come without its costs. 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, she was denied freedom.

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.
#Ona judge book free
As the President grew accustomed to Northern ways, there was one change he couldn't abide: Pennsylvania law required enslaved people be set free after six months of residency in the state.

In setting up his household he brought along nine slaves, including Ona Judge.

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. Abstract:"Finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction A startling and eye-opening look into America's First Family, Never Caught is the powerful story about a daring woman of "extraordinary grit" (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
