Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?Ĭhoosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. The accessible narrative, clear context, and intricately recorded details of the lives of the enslaved provide much-needed understanding of the complexities and contradictions of the country’s founding. ![]() Ona Judge’s determination to maintain control over her life will resonate with readers. Dunbar, whose adult version of this story was a National Book Award finalist, and co-author Van Cleve have crafted a compelling read for young people. Despite poverty and hardship, Ona Judge remained free, thwarting the most powerful man in America. In 1796, Martha Washington decided to give Ona as a wedding present to her granddaughter-but Ona made her escape by ship to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, setting up years of attempts by allies of Washington to return Ona to slavery. ![]() The Washingtons chose to rotate their enslaved out of the state to maintain ownership. “The criteria were clear: obedient, discreet, loyal slaves, preferably of mixed race.” After the seat of government moved to Philadelphia, the Washingtons were subject to the Gradual Abolition Act, a Pennsylvania law that mandated freedom for any enslaved person residing in state for more than six months. When George Washington was elected president, it was up to Martha to decide who among their enslaved would go with them. Ona Judge was the daughter of a white indentured servant, Andrew Judge, and an enslaved woman, Betty, on the Mount Vernon plantation, growing up to become Martha Washington’s personal maid. Near the end of her life in the 1840s, she decided to tell her story to newspaper reporters, and it was snapped up by abolitionist groups as well.Īuthor Erica Armstrong Dunbar is an excellent researcher and storyteller who manages to blend what is known of Ona’s days with some details that can only be conjectured to create a compelling personal history of one woman who persistently sought a freer life.A young enslaved woman successfully escapes bondage in the household of George and Martha Washington. But she persevered, marrying and raising children in freedom if not luxury. She would spend the rest of her life in danger of being kidnapped and returned to her owners. So, on Saturday, May 21, 1796, at the age of 22, Ona slipped away from the Washingtons’ Philadelphia mansion, never intending to return. Having spent six years with the first president’s household in the nation’s capital (then Philadelphia), she had enjoyed certain freedoms among the free black people of Pennsylvania and did not wish to be uprooted, removed back to Virginia, and have her ownership transferred to Washington’s fiery-tempered step-granddaughter, which is what the Washingtons wanted. Both parents worked for the Washingtons, and, by the laws of the day, Ona Judge was enslaved like her mother. Ona Judge was the daughter of an English indentured servant and an enslaved woman of African ancestry. In Erica Armstrong Dunbar’s Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge, that is exactly what we have. There is nothing like a personal story-an enslaved person's personal and true story-to get a deeper perspective. In traditional biographies of the Washingtons, the subject of slavery rarely comes up, or, if it does, it is given a paragraph or perhaps a chapter to explain the “peculiar institution” as it related to the first First Family.
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