Erica Armstrong DunbarAnmeldelser

Eye opening!

This book about Ona Judge and her bondage to and later escape from Martha and George Washington is well researched and very informative. There is a great deal of historical information shared so the reader can better understand the challenges and sadness of slavery. Or at least have a peek into that era and be saddened by how black people were treated.

This intimate history of one of George and Martha Washington's slaves shows how utterly delusional the Washingtons were with regard to the feelings of the people they owned. Some of their behavior is even despicable. Still the story itself is intriguing and inspirational

Ona Judge, sometimes called Oney, grew up as a slave on George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon. She was Martha Washington's personal handmaid, and traveled with the family to New York and Philadelphia. When she learned that she was to be given as a gift to Eliza Custis, Martha Washington's spoiled granddaughter, she took her freedom. One night, while the Washingtons were at dinner, she walked out of the house and boarded a ship that took her to New Hampshire, where she started a new life. Of course, the Washingtons were outraged, and determined to get Ona back, but despite several efforts, she remained free for the rest of her life.

This is the Young Readers' Edition of Dunbar's similarly-titled adult book. I think it would be very accessible for a middle-school reader with some knowledge of US history. The writing is straightforward, and includes definitions of terms (e.g. abolition, manumission) in the text when the authors deem necessary. The authors do make a choice to speculate on motives and emotions for the historical figures when such things cannot be known, but it's always clear that they are speculating and not stating facts ("Ona might have felt..."). All in all, a good historical book for young readers, though adults may find it over-simplified in spots.

What a spectacular story, what an amazing woman Ona Judge was. Born a dower slave to Martha and George Washington, Ona escaped from slavery at the age of 22 when she learned that she was to be given to the Washingtons' granddaughter and her new husband. Like the title says, despite all his attempts, Washington never caught Ona and she gave two interviews in her 70s to abolitionist newspapers at the end of her life, telling her story.

Erica Dunbar Armstrong is a strong storyteller. As a Canadian, I have only general knowledge of American history and Never Caught was extremely enlightening for me. I think she does a very good job of balancing the background of slavery in the United States with Ona's story, keeping an eye always that the reader understands the nuances of Black womanhood and how it would have affected Ona and other enslaved women. While the book is very clearly deeply researched (it's too easy to imagine the author poring over microfiche in darkened archives) Dunbar Armstrong does a really good job of keeping the formal and difficult academic language out of the text.

*3.5

A brief but fascinating in depth look at the life of Harriet Tubman. Although she is most known for her leadership in the underground railway, history often doesn’t talk about her other great contributions to society.
Definitely a recommended reading for all history buffs.

Really excellent biography of the Washington's escaped slave Ona Judge. I appreciated that the author offers a lot of ideas for how Ona would have reacted emotionally to things that happen in her life, but is careful to remind us that we know very little about her, and to base these impressions off of Ona's own words. I also loved that the author is able to lay out the main complicated issues around slavery and around what different states and cities were doing about it without ever letting the reader forget that the act of enslaving another human being is wrong and that it is a horrific part of American history. I also loved reading about the people who weren't willing to break laws on Washington's behalf. Realyl well done. Probably on the teen end.

Gripping tale, beautifully rendered and a quick read. It serves as a perfect retort to those talk show hosts blabbing on about how slavery wasn't all bad. It also serves as a reminder to how people can rationalize dehumanizing other people. I started looking it over in a book store, took it home and didn't want to put it down. So I didn't. I recommend this book.

The storytelling of history rivals that of David McCullough though this author's outrage at the goings on is loud on the pages. For example, she quotes a manager's letter saying he gave the slave woman a good whipping and in the next sentence refers to the brutal whipping. (I'm too lazy to get the proper quotes but that is the gist.) I did not find her outrage lessened the accuracy and perhaps that insertion of a modern lexicon for the events made the story more readable.

I'm so glad Ona Judge's story is abroad in the world. She's clearly a woman of grit, determination, resourcefulness, and strength of belief, and there are far too few women from her time period and experiences known to history. ...But I did not really enjoy this portrayal of her story.

Part of the reason for that is that, while the title, subtitle, and summary promise an exciting pursuit of a daring runaway slave, half the book is actually just historical description of the Washingtons' movements around the country, accompanied by X slaves and living in Y houses and hosting thus and such parties and struggling with this and that health issues. Why on earth should I care what the Washingtons' house in Philadelphia looked like? I'm here for Ona Judge!

In addition to delving into what feels like irrelevant historical details, Dunbar tends to repeat herself. I can't tell you how many times I had to read that domestic servants' lives in the late eighteenth century were backbreaking and onerous. I can say that reading it once would've been sufficient.

And then there's the attribution of emotions and motives to the various people populating Ona's story. To be fair, the history I read tends to be either juvenile/YA or about objects (salt, paper, etc.), so I'm accustomed to a very pared-down just-the-facts-ma'am approach to historical writing. Lots of footnotes, lots of "proof" of whatever is being asserted.

Dunbar's tendency, then, to impute feelings or motives to historical figures without any basis in primary sources may be typical of historical biographies—I don't know. But I found it incredibly uncomfortable to read. How does she know that? I kept thinking. Maybe Ona wasn't sad to see that fellow slave go back to Virginia; maybe she and he never got along and she was glad he was going away!

The fact that so many of the emotional beats of the narrative seemed unattached to primary sources left me second-guessing every human-related conclusion Dunbar tried to draw. And since...eventually...the book got around to addressing the very human topics of slavery and freedom worth fighting for, my lack of confidence in Dunbar's depiction stole almost all the poignancy and power from Ona's story.

I'm still very glad it's out there, but I would honestly have much preferred to read Ona's story from her own words and interviews than to have encountered it in Never Caught.

Original idea and excellent research.
Written at a basic level, was this to appeal to mass audience?

Would like very much to read other books by this Author. Will recommend to friends for reading - both enjoyment and learning. I learned much about our US history and the home of President Washington. I felt for Ona that while she was free, her family eventually became free yet through means that did not lead to isolation or poverty which she experienced. I admire Ona's her bravery and spirit.

A National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction. Never Caught is the eye-opening narrative that details the account of Ona Judge, a slave who ran away from the household of George and Martha Washington.

70. [Never Caught] by Erica Armstrong Dunbar If ever a book was written to appeal to earnest book club mavens, this is it. From its tabloid-style subtitle to the author's fanciful imaginings of Ona Judge's feelings (which often have a distinctly 21st century sensibility somehow) this is a sorry excuse for a historical narrative. (And it somehow became a National Book Award finalist, fer sobbin' out loud!) There's non-fiction, and then there's historical fiction. This is a a mish-mash of those things, and the author makes no excuse for what have to be fabrications of detail. I've rated it 2 stars for some interesting and presumably factual information about George and Martha Washington and circumstances of his presidency that I somehow never encountered before, but I may be talking myself out of one of those stars as I write this.

Ona Judge was one of the enslaved women included in the Custis Estate---Martha Washington's property during her lifetime, as a result of her first husband's death. Martha could sell Ona or give her away to a family member, but she could not (even had she wished to) emancipate her. Ona traveled with the Washingtons as part of Martha's household staff when they left Mount Vernon for New York, and later for Philadelphia as the new nation's capitol transitioned from one city to the other. When Martha's granddaughter, Eliza, was about to married, Martha made plans to gift Ona to her. In Philadelphia at the time, any enslaved person who had resided there for a period of six months was entitled to request their freedom. The Washingtons made sure to pack up the household, including all the servants, to return to Mount Vernon periodically, thereby "resetting the clock" on their servants' residence. Just before Eliza's marriage and one of those trips back to Virginia, Ona Judge took the opportunity to walk away from the Executive Mansion on High Street in Philadelphia, into the sheltering care of the local free black community, which managed to spirit her out of Pennsylvania to New Hampshire where she lived for the rest of her life, always technically a fugitive slave. The "relentless pursuit" referred to in the subtitle consisted of 1) the usual runaway slave advertisement published in 2 Philadelphia newspapers, describing Ona Judge and offering a $10 reward for any person who would "bring her home"; 2) an attempt, nearly 4 months after Judge's escape, by Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, to persuade her to return to Mount Vernon with him. (The President had learned of Judge's whereabouts through Senator Langdon of New Hampshire, whose daughter knew Ona by sight and happened to see her on the street in front of the Langdon residence in Portsmouth) and 3) another attempt at persuasion at George Washington's request in 1799, three years after Ona's escape. In each case when a representative of the Washingtons approached Ona Judge with a proposal that she return to their household with a promise of eventual freedom, she emphatically refused to go with the emissary, insisting that she preferred her freedom now, thank you. No attempt to restrain, retain or remove her by force from her home was made by either of the individuals involved, even though they had Federal law on their side---the Fugitive Slave Act which has been signed into effect by none other than President George Washington himself. The word "relentless" apparently means something entirely different to Erica Armstrong Dunbar or her publisher than it means to me.

This is a fascinating story, without doubt. The background against which it played out is made clear in [Never Caught], but the documentary evidence to establish the detail is fairly limited, and simply cannot support the type of narrative non-fiction Dunbar attempted here. There are extensive notes at the end of the text, but unfortunately they never answer the screaming question raised in my mind over and over as I was reading, namely "How do we KNOW this?" I have to conclude that we DON'T know most of what the author presents to us as fact about Ona Judge's actions, feelings, expectations, and thought processes. I can appreciate an unreliable narrator in a work of fiction; in a text offered as History, I call Major Shenanigans. Not recommended (oh, is that redundant?)

audio - children's nonfiction / US history and biography

incredible story, edited for younger audience (5th grade and up). Ona's story is one we don't hear about in school, and I am glad to have learned about her, as well as about the Washingtons and the time period.

This is the story of a black slave, property of George and Martha Washington, and how she escaped slavery.

Ona Judge was born into slavery and ended up on the estate Mount Vernon. She was the personal slave of Martha and came with Martha when she married George. When Washington was elected President and moved first to New York, then Philadelphia, some slaves made these trips with them, Ona was one of them. During her life in the North Ona saw Free Blacks and craved that freedom beyond all else. Once in Philadelphia, where slavery was being "phased out" that urge to run became harder to resist. With the help of Free Black friends, Ona ran.

I really enjoyed this story, but it was really not a bio of Ona, as it is marketed. The meat of the story revolved around George and Martha and their treatment of their slaves, and how they were just stymied that one of the slaves they treated so well(not true) would run. They became obsessed with getting her back-especially George who would have to pay the estate of Martha for her loss.

If you love history, this is a good book for you.

I'm torn between appreciating George Washington's uncertainty about slavery in the end, and disgust for his participation in the subterfuge needed to keep his slaves enslaved when living in Philadelphia by moving them back & forth between Philly and Virginia every 6 months to keep them. HIs adjustment of his will to allow his wife to keep his slaves after his death even though he emancipated them.
It is a disappointment that there isn't more about Ona and an enlightenment; there just isn't much information & help in tracing Black family members because of their enslavement.
This was well written and an important story. As one reviewer said, You'll never look at the Washington's the same after this.

When people started a campaign to commemorate a woman on U.S. currency several years ago, Harriet Tubman was selected to replace President Jackson on the $20 bill. While the Trump Administration has delayed that from happening, it still may occur later in this decade.

So if Harriet Tubman is a significant enough person to be placed on our currency, it makes sense to review her life and actions, and reading Erica Armstrong Dumbar's book, "She Came to Slay", is a good way to satisfy that need.

Most people will recognize Harriet Tubman as a suffragist and a key member of the Underground Railroad, rescuing slaves from the south and helping them find freedom in the North or in Canada.
But there's more to her story than just that. The book tells the story of her life, explains how she helped to liberate hundreds of slaves, adds that she worked for the Union army during the Civil War, and much more. The book is enlightening and entertaining, and shows that Tubman has earned the right to be commemorated for her bravery and dedication working for freedom and human rights.

Nuance. This book will explore a world of cultural and historical nuance and for that I can't praise it enough.

A semi-novel semi-history it's an easy read and a window into a world thankfully long gone.

Read this one. It's not a long read, and the insight is priceless.

Couldn't finish because the writing was too uninspired and the author never deeply examines the motives of any of the historical figures. It's especially strange in the case of George Washington, who freed all of his slaves in his will.

After reading this, as well as a book about Sally Hemings, a slave owned by Thomas Jefferson, I am left with the frustration that this history is not taught in our schools. We need to explain to ourselves why Washington did not have more compassion for the lives of people under autocratic rule of a different nature. A powerful book about what was gained and what was lost. I am left, as always when thinking about slavery and it’s devastating effect on the centuries to come, with the quote, “there are none so blind as those who will not see.” http://www.actualfreedom.com.au/richard/abditorium/nonesoblind.html½

A very accessible, well-written biography of Harriet Tubman which I think would be ideal to give to someone—particularly a teen/young adult reader—who is new to this remarkable woman's life and career. Tubman's fierce determination to achieve emancipation comes through loud and clear in Erica Armstrong Dunbar's prose, although some of the stylistic choices (such as the title) may date this book more quickly or make it seem more frivolous than it is.

It must be really hard to etch out a history of a person who wanted to stay hidden and was, heck, not even considered a full person back then. Giving that, this is an excellent book... tries to give possible scenarios for time lapses, bases some theories on how others thought at that period, yet never claimed exact knowledge. Loved it.

Audiobook narrator: excellent

I thoroughly enjoyed this well researched and thoughtful biography. I found this extremely readable and nicely paced. The author uses white sources, The Washington's, to track Judge's early years acknowledges that and still manages to leave The First Family in the background. Skillfully done. Ona has her own voice and tells her own story.
George and Martha Washington are truly despicable people. I hope they died in abject pain, George for one did.

Ona Judge was born into slavery at Mount Vernon in the 1770s as the dower property of Martha Washington, wife of the first President of the United States. In the 1790s, aware that she was to be given as a "wedding gift" to Martha Washington's mercurial granddaughter, Judge made the decision to escape into freedom, drawing on the help and support of a network of free Blacks to escape hundreds of miles north to New Hampshire. While never legally emancipated, the certain embarrassment that any news stories about a former president chasing a fleeing slave would cause meant that Martha's descendants eventually left Judge in peace. Legally, however, Judge remained a fugitive for the rest of her life.

Neither George nor Martha Washington come off well in this account. It's long mystified me why so many Americans seem to imbue at least their earliest presidents with a kind of infallible aura. No such virtue is on display here. George Washington deliberately exploited loopholes in the law so that he would not have to manumit the people whom he enslaved, preferring to deny them their freedom rather than live within his means. His wife seems to have had no sense at all of the humanity of those whom she enslaved—even though it is likely that at least some of them were blood relatives of hers, given the long-standing pattern of white men raping Black women.

Ona Judge, however, was clearly a woman of immense bravery, determination, and will-power, and I wish that we knew more about her than can be gleaned from a handful of archival references and the two newspaper interviews which she gave towards the end of her life. Erica Armstrong Dunbar does an excellent job in presenting Judge as a full person amid a meticulous recreation of life for enslaved people in the late 18th-century United States. But there are points where Dunbar goes out too far on the evidentiary limb, telling us that Judge must have felt X or definitely thought Y when we've got absolutely no way of knowing. I found myself wishing either that Dunbar had edited this down into a tight, engaging magazine article or taken the extra step of fictionalisation and turned this into a novel.

RGG: Well-written, interesting, important historical biography. The format and content is simplified for younger readers, but it still requires a fair amount of background knowledge. Level "Y."