eBook - ePub
Never Caught
The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
- 272 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Never Caught
The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
About this book
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).
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. In setting up his household he brought along nine slaves, including Ona Judge. 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. Rather than comply, Washington decided to circumvent the law. Every six months he sent the slaves back down south just as the clock was about to expire.
Though Ona Judge lived a life of relative comfort, she was denied freedom. So, when the opportunity presented itself one clear and pleasant spring day in Philadelphia, Judge left everything she knew to escape to New England. Yet freedom would not come without its costs. 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.
“A crisp and compulsively readable feat of research and storytelling” (USA TODAY), historian and National Book Award finalist 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 and most powerful man in the United States at the time.
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. In setting up his household he brought along nine slaves, including Ona Judge. 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. Rather than comply, Washington decided to circumvent the law. Every six months he sent the slaves back down south just as the clock was about to expire.
Though Ona Judge lived a life of relative comfort, she was denied freedom. So, when the opportunity presented itself one clear and pleasant spring day in Philadelphia, Judge left everything she knew to escape to New England. Yet freedom would not come without its costs. 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.
“A crisp and compulsively readable feat of research and storytelling” (USA TODAY), historian and National Book Award finalist 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 and most powerful man in the United States at the time.
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Yes, you can access Never Caught by Erica Armstrong Dunbar in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Social Science Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Index
A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.
Page numbers of illustrations appear in italics.
A
abolitionism
Description of a Slave Ship (broadside), 30–31
Douglass and, 185
Franklin and, 31
manumission societies, 34–35, 42
newspapers of, xvii, 185
in northern states, 24
in Philadelphia, 31, 65, 83
religious groups and, 31, 43, 65–66, 83
Adams, Abigail, 92, 175
Adams, John, 92, 141, 153, 163
Adams, T. H., 218n109
African Free Schools, 34–35
African Society, 35
Alexandria, Virginia, 190
free black community in, 190
“Mount Washington,” 194
Allen, Richard, 77, 83, 85, 107–8, 218n108
American Revolution, 15–16, 52
emancipation of slaves and, 42
slaves in, 141, 175, 181
Washington as commander, 15–16
Anglicans, 43
Archibald, Thomas H., xvii, 171, 185
Arlington House, Virginia, 192–93
Arnold, Benedict, 55
Austin (slave, brother to Ona Judge), 7–8, 9, 50
attends Southwark Theatre, 76
children of, 85, 215n85
death of, 85–86
as dower slave, 70
traveling alone, 68, 212n68
as waiter/butler for Washington, 23, 28–29, 42, 54
Washington’s plan to circumvent Pennsylvania’s gradual abolition law and, 68
wife, Charlotte, 23, 85, 104, 207n23, 215n85, 217n104
B
Bank of Washington, 195, 196
Banneker, Benjamin, 31–32, 208n32
Bard, Samuel, 46, 47
Bartlett, John and Ann, 180, 224n180
Bassett, Burwell, Jr., 164
Langdon and, 164, 167–68
Wash...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Dedication
- Author’s Note
- Foreword
- One: Betty’s Daughter
- Two: New York–Bound
- Three: New York in Black and White
- Four: The Move to Philadelphia
- Five: The Blacks in the Family
- Six: Life in Philadelphia
- Seven: The Wedding
- Eight: The Fugitive
- Nine: Slavery and Freedom in New Hampshire
- Ten: A Close Call
- Eleven: The Negotiator
- Twelve: Mrs. Staines
- Thirteen: The Survivor
- Epilogue: Ona’s Sister: Philadelphia Costin
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- Illustration Credits
- Index
- Copyright