In this way, she humanizes a woman in history who represents a population that has historically been underexamined. Specifically, Ona Judge had “the wit to find allies, to escape, to out-negotiate, to run, and to survive” (.

She specifically wrote Never Caught because the narrative of “a woman who found the courage to defy the President of the United States” fascinated her. Professor Dunbar is also the national director of the Association of Black Women Historians and continuously advances Black women’s history in the larger American historical conversation. Her scholarship focuses on “uncomfortable concepts of slavery, racial injustice, and gender inequality,” where she “marvel at the incredible triumph of survival and the beautiful history of resistance” ( ). Erica Armstrong Dunbar, the author of Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge, at George Washington’s estate in Mount Vernon, Va. She is currently the Charles and Mary Beard Professor of History at Rutgers. Throughout Never Caught, historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar shows how the growing free Black communities in New York, Philadelphia, and New Hampshire aided Ona Judge Staines in her quest for liberty, helping her to realize the freedom and agency she craved but struggled to feel was possible or tenable. When she was told that she was going to be given as a wedding gift to Martha Washington’s granddaughter, Ona made the bold and brave decision to flee to the north, where she would be a fugitive.įrom her childhood, to her time with the Washingtons and living in the slave quarters, to her escape to New Hampshire, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, along with Kathleen Van Cleve, shares an intimate glimpse into the life of a little-known, but powerful figure in history, and her brave journey as she fled the most powerful couple in the country.Noted historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar earned her BA in history and Afro-American studies at Penn and earned her MA and PhD at Columbia.

In this narrative, Erica Armstrong Dunbar reveals a behind-the-scenes look at the Washingtons when they were the First Family-and an in-depth look at their slave, Ona Judge, who dared to escape from one of the nation’s Founding Fathers.īorn into a life of slavery, Ona Judge eventually grew up to be George and Martha Washington’s “favored” dower slave. The story of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington’s runaway slave, who risked everything for a better life-now available as a young reader’s edition!

Erica dunbar ona judge