Bookish AfroLatina's Library | Never Caught: The Washin...

Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge

Erica Armstrong Dunbar

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.

30 Book Recommendations for Women’s History Month & Beyond!

Activism:

• How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
• An Abolitionist's Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World by Patrisse Cullors
• The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race by Jesmyn Ward
• Be A Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—and How You Can, Too by Ijeoma Oluo
• Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and The Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis

Historical Romance:

• Women Who Dare Series by Beverly Jenkins (& the rest of her books)
  • Rebel
  • Wild Rain
  • To Catch a Raven
• Las Leonas series by Adriana Herrera
  • A Caribbean Heiress in Paris
  • An Island Princess Starts a Scandal
  • A Tropical Rebel Gets The Duke
• The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
• Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
• The Luna Sisters Series by Liana De La Rosa
  • Ana María and The Fox
  • Isabel and The Rogue
  • Gabriela and His Grace

History:

• Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler by Ibi Zoboi
• A Curious History of Sex by Kate Lister
• A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry & Kali Nicole Gross
• Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by Saidiya Hartman
• Girl in Black and White: The Story of Mary Mildred Williams and the Abolition Movement by Jessie Morgan-Owens

Historical Fiction:

• 'Til the Well Runs Dry by Lauren Francis-Sharma
• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
• The Gilded Years by Karin Tanabe
• The Taste of Sugar by Marisel Vera
• Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
• Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler

Conclusion

These book recommendations support exploring themes of justice, identity, and the resilience of women through various genres.