Book Review: Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge

by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Published 2017

America has always had a worshipful relationship with the first President of the United States. George Washington is THE founding father. He was called the father of his country, and almost 300 years later it still feels like America looks to him as the patriarch of note.

Washington is so loved that Mount Vernon, his home with a mansion, several slave quarters, and lots of fields that slaves worked, was only recently called a plantation in mainstream literature. We do not like to think of Washington’s failures as a human. He is made of Mount Rushmore stone. He is flawless.

This is why Erica Armstrong Dunbar’s book title may jolt readers right from the start. The Washingtons’ PURSUIT. Not search, not journey. They were pursuing their slave, who also was a runaway. Runaway? Did a slave find being owned by George and Martha Washington so terrible that they ran away?That can’t be right. George was a kind master, whatever that means.

In fact, Ona Judge, a young woman who accompanied the Washingtons to New York City and Philadelphia, did find her enslavement intolerable. Dunbar goes to great lengths to put you in this young woman’s shoes. She couldn’t read or write. She was separated from other slaves at a young age to work with her mom in the mansion, so she didn’t have the ability to commiserate and share experiences with other slaves, not even her family members. She had no privacy, she had no real time to socialize. She was at Martha Washington’s every call.

Not only does this book portray Ona Judge in detail, but it also showcases the Washingtons as villains. Dunbar talks about George Washington’s bad temper and how he was pragmatic about whipping slaves if they didn’t behave themselves. Sometimes misbehaving meant appearing to be lazy or making mistakes all the time. Martha Washington, rather than being presented as she always is, the loyal and almost royal First Lady, is presented as temperamental, an unfeeling owner of slaves, and a woman who wanted to find Ona Judge not out of care but so she could gift Judge to a newly married granddaughter.

Not too long ago, a book like this would not have gotten any credence. Heck, people didn’t believe not all that long ago that Thomas Jefferson started a whole biracial branch of his family with Sally Hemings. “Thomas Jefferson has black descendants? Show me the DNA.” Of course, the DNA revealed the truth.

Dunbar’s book is accessible linguistically. She boils down complex concepts into language that could in many instances be absorbed by an elementary school student. She doesn’t have to use big words or a lot of citations because this is a human story. It’s a human story where the Washingtons are the bad guys and an unknown woman almost lost to history is the hero.

If you want to take a look at a different side of history, this book is most assuredly one you should read.