{"id":53453,"date":"2017-04-12T21:18:56","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T21:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=53453"},"modified":"2017-04-12T21:18:56","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T21:18:56","slug":"never-caught-the-washingtons-relentless-pursuit-of-their-runaway-slave-ona-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=53453","title":{"rendered":"Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Atria<\/a> (an imprint of Simon and Schuster)
\nFebruary 2017
\n272 pages
\nHardcover ISBN: 9781501126390
\neBook ISBN: 9781501126437<\/p>\n

Erica Armstrong Dunbar<\/strong><\/a>, Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Black Studies and History
\nUniversity of Delaware<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

A startling and eye-opening look into America\u2019s First Family, Never Caught<\/em> is the powerful narrative of Ona Judge<\/a>, George<\/a> and Martha Washington\u2019s<\/a> runaway slave who risked everything to escape the nation\u2019s capital and reach freedom.<\/p>\n

When George Washington was elected president, he reluctantly left his beloved Mount Vernon<\/a> to serve in Philadelphia<\/a>, the temporary seat of the nation\u2019s capital. In setting up his household he took Tobias Lear<\/a>, his celebrated secretary and eight slaves, including Ona Judge, about whom little has been written. As he grew accustomed to Northern ways, there was one change he couldn\u2019t get his arms around: Pennsylvania<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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. So, when the opportunity presented itself, Judge left everything she knew to escape to New England<\/a>. Yet freedom would not come without its costs.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

With impeccable research, 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.<\/p>\n