Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave

Never Caught

• Genre: Nonfiction; historical biography
• Originally Published: 2017
• Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
• Structure/Length: 13 chapters; author’s note, foreword, epilogue, interviews, and notes; approximately 272 pages; approximately 6 hours, 45 minutes on audio
• Central Concern: Never Caught unveils the story of Ona Judge, an enslaved woman owned by George and Martha Washington, who risked everything for freedom. Erica Armstrong Dunbar illuminates the challenges Judge faced, both in her daring escape and while living as a fugitive. This biography sheds light on the Washingtons’ determined efforts to recapture Judge, offering a critical reexamination of America’s first president and the contradictions of freedom in the nascent United States. Consequently, the narrative is both a personal account and a broader exploration of slavery in the American North and the founding era.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Descriptions of slavery, including the treatment of enslaved individuals and the systemic injustices they faced; racial discrimination; struggle for freedom; references to the deaths of family members; references to and threat of sexual violence including rape

Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Author

• Bio: American historian and academic; often explores African American history and women’s roles within it; work has focused on uncovering the hidden stories of Black women who have been marginalized in historical narratives
• Other Works: A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City (2008); She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman (2019)
• Awards: National Book Award (finalist, 2017); Frederick Douglass Book Award (2018)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Guide:

• Freedom and the Myth of the “Noble Slaveowner”
• The Need to Reexamine History
• The Vulnerability of Black Female Bodies

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Teaching Guide, students will:

• Explore background information on the topics of national myths and slavery in colonial America to increase their engagement with and understanding of Never Caught.
• Read/study paired texts and other brief resources to deepen their understanding of themes related to Freedom and the Myth of the “Noble Slaveowner,” The Need to Reexamine History, and The Vulnerability of Black Female Bodies.
• Demonstrate their understanding of Judge’s changing circumstances by writing two interviews with Judge that take place at different stages of her life.
• Compose essays analyzing relationships among key ideas and the significance of various arguments regarding the role of speculation in the text, Ona Judge’s uniqueness, and other topics.