Never Caught

The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge

Erica Armstrong Dunbar

• Publisher: 37 Ink
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781501126437
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

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.

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...