Erica Armstrong Dunbar is the Charles and Mary Beard Professor of History at Rutgers University. Her first book, A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City, was published by Yale University Press in 2008. Her second book, Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge was a 2017 finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction and a winner of the 2018 Frederick Douglass Book Award. She is also the author of She Came to Slay, an illustrated tribute to Harriet Tubman, and Susie King Taylor and is the co-executive producer of the HBO series The Gilded Age.
"In this riveting and thoroughly researched account of the life of
Ona Judge Staines, historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar carefully and
compellingly constructs enslaved life inside The President's House
and in the larger urban and rural communities of the time. A true
page-turner, readers will come away with a deeper appreciation of
enslaved people's lives and a disturbing portrait of George and
Martha Washington as slave owners. This book will change the way we
study the history of slavery in the U.S, the history of American
Presidents, and especially the burgeoning field of black women's
history."--Daina Ramey Berry, Historian at the University of Texas
at Austin and author of The Price for Their Pound of Flesh
Never Caught is a gripping story of courage of a black slave woman
who sacrificed many things including her family to gain freedom.
Never Caught shows freedom is more important than anything else.
What makes Never Caught uniquely interesting and important is that
this is one of the rare narratives from a black woman slave. It
also shines light on the dark corners of American history and the
first Family, the Washingtons.-- "Washington Book Review"
"A valuable addition to African-American history, Never Caught pays
a triple dividend."-- "Richmond-Times Dispatch"
"There are books that can take over your life: Try as you might,
you can't seem to escape their mysterious power. That's the feeling
I had when reading the tour de force, Never Caught." -- "Essence
Magazine"
"Totally engrossing and absolutely necessary for understanding the
birth of the American Republic, Never Caught is richly human
history from the vantage point of the enslaved fifth of the early
American population. Here is Ona Judge's (successful) quest for
freedom, on one side, and, on the other, George and Martha
Washington's (vain) use of federal power to try to keep her
enslaved."--Nell Irvin Painter, author of Sojourner Truth, A Life,
A Symbol
"With the production of the Tony-award winning play, Hamilton, many
Americans have been reminded of the noble actions of the nation's
fathers and mothers in birthing a new country founded on democracy,
liberty, and freedom. In Never Caught historian Erica Armstrong
Dunbar pulls back the curtain on their individual actions by
focusing on Ona Judge, an enslaved woman owned by Martha and George
Washington, who stole herself to freedom and refused to be
reenslaved. Piecing together the fragments of a life, in vivid
prose, Dunbar reminds us of the tremendous toll slavery visited on
men and women of conscience and conviction, both black and white.
This is a must read for anyone interested in this nation's long
pursuit of perfecting freedom."--Earl Lewis, President of The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
"A fascinating and moving account of a courageous and resourceful
woman. Beautifully written and utilizing previously untapped
sources, it sheds new light both on the father of our country and
on the intersections of slavery and freedom in the flawed republic
he helped to found."
--Eric Foner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Fiery Trial and
Gateway to Freedom
"Never Caught is the compelling story of Ona Judge Staines, the
woman who successfully defied George and Martha Washington in order
to live as free woman. With vivid prose and deep sympathy, Dunbar
paints a portrait of woman whose life reveals the contradictions at
the heart of the American founding: men like Washington fought for
liberty for themselves even as they kept people like Ona Staines in
bondage. There is no way to really know the Washingtons without
knowing this story."--Annette Gordon Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning
author of The Hemingses of Monticello
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