Erica Armstrong Dunbar

"A revelatory account of the actions taken by the first president to retain his slaves in spite of Northern laws. Profiles one of the slaves, Ona Judge, describing the intense manhunt that ensued when she ran away."--NoveList.

The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge

Never Caught

Jeff Brown 

3.25 stars. The book did a good job describing what it was like for the war-torn Washington and his spotlight-wary wife to move to the new nation’s capital, what it was like for slaves that went with then, the ones left behind, and the juggling that occurred of getting the slaves in and out of the state to keep on the right side of the stricter Pennsylvania laws on slavery. But it was the author’s heavy-handedness of the constant and variety of synonyms to describe the slaves. In one paragraph, I counted seven different words meaning slaves, and in another I counted eight. Luckily I’ve returned the book so I won’t bore you with a list. However, this approach turned a 4-star book into nearly a point less. Otherwise, an informative read.

Rachel Benton

I really enjoyed this book, I found it very informative. I didn’t know that interracial relationships between Indentured servants and slaves were not as shocking and even on some degree accepted. George Washington remarked he had a preference to mulatto slaves. Though these relationships didn’t change status of the slaves in them, they were still slaves, and any children born to these unions were slaves themselves.

I also like that we can see a clear contrast between Ona Judge and other slaves, compared to the Washington’s. I think that we tend to forget this side of Washington’s and focus more on their public image.

So its shocking to the system when you hear that George Washington was the one to sign off on the fugitive slave act law. He was not above whipping his slaves, or in a desperate attempt to get Ona back threatened to harm her family. Its things like this that challenge your perception on people.

The only criticism that I really had was that I felt that she did a lot of speculations, which is fine to a degree, but what was turning me off is that she was speculating on how people were feeling, especially if you have no proof that they were feeling that way, and your guessing based on your own viewpoint.

Otherwise, the book was very well researched. I thought it was organized very well, and it was very detailed which I liked. There are a lot of surprises that pop up throughout the book. I highly recommend this, if your interested African American history, slavery, and early America.

Here is link to full review : 
https://historycornerblog.wordpress.c...

Never Caught The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge

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