Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge: George and Martha Washington's Courageous Slave Who Dared to Run Away
By Erica Armstrong Dunbar and Kathleen Van Cleve
Aladdin, 2019. Biography.
Ona Judge was born into slavery. Her father was a white indentured servant and her mother was a black slave, and they both worked on Mount Vernon plantation in the household of George and Martha Washington. Ona was the personal maid of Martha Washington and was one of the enslaved people chosen by Martha to go with the Washingtons when George was elected president. Living in New York and Philadelphia, Ona encountered free black people for the first time in her life and learned how she might become free. She also learned that if she lived in Pennsylvania, a state without slavery, for more than six months she would be considered free. She learned that the Washingtons went to great lengths to keep that from happening. Then, in 1796 when she learned that Martha intended to give Ona as a wedding gift to her cruel niece, Ona walked out of the Washington's mansion and escaped.
This is the young reader's edition of Erica Armstrong Dunbar's National Book Award finalist also called NEVER CAUGHT, and it is perfectly adapted for a younger audience. This is a compelling, narrative nonfiction that readers young and old will find accessible. This book provides essential understanding of the contradictions of the founding of America and offers context for wider discussions of slavery. Rightfully, this book does not shy from conveying the gruesome realities of slavery and so may best for more mature tweens.
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