By Erica Armstrong Dunbar
Nearly every American knows the basic outlines of United States’ favorite founding father and his wife, George and Martha Washington, the country’s first President and First Lady. From grade school to high school Americans are taught about the rise of George Washington from soldier to president, his trials on the battlefield and tribulations of the presidency. Martha lurks largely in her husband’s historical shadow, and further back in the shadows are the people of color whom the Washington’s enslaved.
One of the Washington’s enslaved emerges from the shadows of her owners and their fame in Erica Armstrong Dunbar’s book, “Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless pursuit of their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge.”
Upon the death of George Washington, Martha burned all of the correspondence between them, only a had full of letters survived, making details of their relationship and what they discussed vanish in a cloud of smoke. The Washingtons placed a couple of “Fugitive Slave” ads in newspapers, and Ona Judge herself gave a couple of very short newspaper interviews. That is the skeleton on which Ms. Dunbar hangs her narrative. What does survive is the Washington’s correspondence with the rest of the Washington & Custis families and those entrusted with the care of Mount Vernon, which gives muscle to the author’s narrative. Ms. Dunbar relies on educated speculation using phrases such as “possibly” or “could have” to clothe the corpse of her subject with skin. And lastly she breathes life into Ona Judge by placing her in the correct historical light, relating the various laws and social mores of the time in which she lived.
My only criticism is the books’ sensationalistic subtitle, “The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge.” After Ona Judge gained her freedom in Pennsylvania, the Washingtons only made two serious and ultimately unsuccessful attempts to regain custody of their property and return her to Mount Vernon. I suspect this is at the hands of Ms. Dunbar’s publisher, 37 Ink, as a marketing ploy to sell more books.
“Never Caught” is meticulously researched and well written. At 272 pages it is a quick and easy read. It fills a void in the history of American slavery, the lives of George and Martha Washington, and of course Ona Judge herself.
ISBN 978-1501126390, 37 Ink, © 2017, Hardcover, 272 pages, Photograph & Illustrations, End Notes, Selected Bibliography & Index. Cover Price $26.00. To purchase a copy of this book click HERE.
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