Amid all this, however, Washington never. It is time for America to select its next president. On September 19th, the address is printed. He entreats the publisher of a prominent Philadelphia newspaper to print his farewell address. From her childhood, to her time with the Washingtons and living in the slave quarters, to her escape to New Hampshire, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, along with Kathleen Van Cleve, shares an intimate glimpse into the life of a little-known, but powerful figure in history, and her brave journey as she fled the most powerful couple in the country. In the late summer of 1796, Washington is preparing to step down as presidenthe wants to return to Virginia. When she was told that she was going to be given as a wedding gift to Martha Washington's granddaughter, Ona made the bold and brave decision to flee to the north, where she would be a fugitive. Born into a life of slavery, Ona Judge eventually grew up to be George and Martha Washington's "favored" dower slave. In this incredible narrative, Erica Armstrong Dunbar reveals a fascinating and heartbreaking behind-the-scenes look at the Washingtons when they were the First Family-and an in-depth look at their slave, Ona Judge, who dared to escape from one of the nation's Founding Fathers. "Accessible.Necessary." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)Ī School Library Journal Best Nonfiction Book of 2019! A National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction, Never Caught is the eye-opening narrative of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington's runaway slave, who risked everything for a better life-now available as a young reader's edition! She thereby offers readers an unprecedented glimpse into a complex, fraught, and pivotal moment in American history."A brilliant work of US history." - School Library Journal (starred review) Never Caught is the eye-opening narrative of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washingtons runaway slave, who risked everything for a better life available as a. Dunbar provides careful, empathetic imaginings of what not only Ona but also her enslavers, the Washingtons, might have felt as their lives shifted rapidly in time with the changing and developing United States. Dunbar’s reverence for Ona’s bravery is evident in the pages of Never Caught as she charts Ona’s enduring dedication to making her own way in the world and maintaining her hard-won freedom at all costs. Dunbar uses her deep, expansive knowledge of Pennsylvania history and emancipation studies to reconstruct what life must have been like for Ona Judge as she traveled from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia, encountering for the first time thriving communities of free Black men and women and considering what price she might be willing to pay for freedom. Ona Judge’s story is one that is rarely told-and in bringing it to light, Dunbar seeks to interrogate the enduring effects of slavery, paternalism, and racism on American society. The result is a book which seeks to examine themes of slavery and paternalism, freedom and agency, the failed promises of America, and whose stories get preserved in the historical record. Dunbar’s historical narrative fuses information gleaned from letters and diary entries with fictionalized speculation rooted in sociopolitical mores of the late 1700s. Erica Armstrong Dunbar is a historian, scholar, and Pennsylvania native whose scholarship and academic career, in her own words, have focused on “the lives of women of Africa descent who called America their home during the 18th and 19th centuries.” In Never Caught, Dunbar seeks to probe a little-known facet of George Washington’s legacy: the escape of Washington’s wife Martha’s “dower slave” Ona Maria Judge and Washington’s fervent but ultimately failed attempts to recapture Ona from New Hampshire, strip her of her freedom, and return her to slavery at Mount Vernon.
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