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.
