For another, some of the early verses rely on knowledge of Washington that I did not have, which made them harder to follow. It’s not the sort of thing you dive into you have to approach it on its own terms, and that may mean going into it slowly. For one thing, it can be dense for such a small book. The one trouble I had was with getting into the book at the very beginning. Instead, the verse let itself be shaped to fit the poems, which is as poetry should be. The poems never felt as though they were stretching for a rhyme, or altering themselves to fit the form of verse. For much of the book, Judges story is the Washingtons story: Judges. I enjoyed the flow of the verse, and the rhymes that occasionally sprang out from the lines. Erica Armstrong Dunbar traces the life of slave Ona Judge from shortly before. Perhaps, out of the combination of both, we can learn to be better.Ĭhichetto’s poetry is beautifully written, with a clear love for his subjects. Perhaps we can be inspired by the wondrous even as we are repelled by the horrific. Perhaps, this book says, George Washington (and American history itself) is too complex and contradictory to be boiled down to being one thing or the other. To leave one out would be to forget a part of history. The two voices weave in and out, never quite speaking to one another but always in tandem. Her words provide a counterpoint to Washington’s, never directly calling him out but always reminding the reader of another narrative which has been for too long overshadowed. At the same time, however, he presents us with Ona Judge, an enslaved woman kept by Martha Washington. In beautiful, rich verse, he presents us with the Washington so many of us grew up hearing about: the war hero, the statue of a man who rose above the rest to become the president all others would be measured against. To some, it seems he can only be one thing or the other, only hero or villain.Įnter James Chichetto. He was always known as a slaveowner, but in recent years fewer people have been willing to brush over that part of his history. Revered as the father of the nation and the first president (not to mention the general who led the colonies through their revolution), his legacy has lately become more tarnished. From her childhood to her time with the Washingtons and living in the slave quarters to her escape to New Hampshire, Erica Armstrong Dunbar (along with Kathleen Van Cleve) shares an intimate glimpse into the life of a little-known but powerful figure in history and her brave journey as she fled the most powerful couple in the country.George Washington is a familiar figure in American history. When she was told that she was going to be given as a wedding gift to Martha Washington's granddaughter, Ona made the bold and brave decision to flee to the North, where she would be a fugitive. In honor of Women’s History Month in March, discover how an enslaved woman’s escape to freedom brought her from the home of George Washington to the New Hampshire seacoast. Born into a life of slavery, Ona Judge eventually grew up to be George and Martha Washington's "favored" dower slave. A National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction, Never Caught is the eye-opening narrative of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington's runaway slave, who risked everything for a better life - now available as a young listener's edition! In this incredible narrative, Erica Armstrong Dunbar reveals a fascinating and heartbreaking behind-the-scenes look at the Washingtons when they were the First Family - and an in-depth look at their slave, Ona Judge, who dared to escape from one of the nation's Founding Fathers. My name is Ona Judge, and I escaped from the household of the President of the United.
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