Erica Dunbar’s Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge is an important piece in the study of African-American slavery in the United states because it puts into context the divide between the life of a slave in the North and in the South. There is a common misconception that is often brought up when discussing slavery in America and that is the belief that slaves in the Northern states had an easier time with slavery than Southern states. This myth comes from the belief that a typical Northern slave was a domestic worker performing tasks requiring skilled labor or house service and a typical Southern slave worked in low skill, plantation farming: tobacco, cotton, rice and indigo. However, this is …show more content…
an incorrect and dangerous view of slavery. There was no such thing as a typical slave life, not even in the South; while talking about the many diverse forms of slavery in the South, Peter Kolchin states, “Such diversity has contributed to sharp disagreement among historians over the nature of Southern slavery, about which virtually every assertion can be challenged with counter-examples.” The story of Ona Judge is another one of these counter-examples that disrupts the myth that Northern slaves were better off than Southern slaves.
Dunbar does a great job using limited sources to piece together the story using aspects of both historical imagination and historical memory. Dunbar’s account of the life of Ona judge is a great read not only because of the research put into its creation but because of Dunbar’s ability to truly bring the piece alive through historical memory. Historical memory, described by Pierre Nora, is “life, borne by the living societies founded in its name.” or to put …show more content…
it more succinctly, memory is the biased and abstract view of what life was like from the period. Dunbar practices this historical imagination throughout the book, like when she explains the marriage of Martha Custis and George Washington; Dunbar speaks of how, “All the enslaved women who would leave for Mount Vernon most likely worried about their new master’s protocol regarding sexual relations with his slaves” (Dunbar 2017, 7). Along with historical memory, Dunbar uses historical imagination which could be described as an understanding of a missing spot in history that is inferred from outside knowledge. There are multiple points throughout the book where Dunbar is able to add to Judge’s story by practicing this concept of historical imagination; one of the best examples is as Judge is fleeing the Washington’s estate in Philadelphia and she boards a boat to New Hampshire (Dunbar 2017, 113). By using her knowledge of the period Dunbar is able to reconstruct a haunting image of what the trip would have been like, “The unsettled sea likely forced Judge’s stomach to turn summersaults, sending her to look for refuge from her nausea above deck” (Dunbar 2017, 118). It is Dunbar’s use of both historical memory and historical imagery that makes this book so grasping and important. While Dunbar does create an interesting and dramatic story some of what she states to be facts is revealed to be unsubstantiated, in some cases.
This can be found very early on in the book, in the very first chapter to be exact. Dunbar is setting up the introduction of Ona by explaining the life of her mother Betty. Before Ona was born, Betty had two children with an unknown father and Judge even states that, “The intricacies of Betty’s romantic life at Mount Vernon remain unclear...” (Dunbar 2017, 8). However, on the same page Dunbar then states when talking about Tom and Betty Davis, Ona’s siblings, that their last names had “... most likely linked them to a hired white weaver named Thomas Davis” (Dunbar 2017, 8). While this may be somewhat of a logical inference it is unsubstantiated but passed over as if it was a fact. Despite this, Erica Dunbar does an excellent job curating her sources and making them known throughout her telling of Ona Judges
story.
One of the ways that life was not completely equal between black and white is when runaway slaves/servants are involved. An example of this that Breen and Innes talked about dealing with the degree of equality between white men and Negros was when seven men, six white indentured servants and one black slave, tried to escape the servitude of a ‘Mr. Reginolds’. All six of the white men received a branding, whipping, shackling, and added time to their servitude. Emanuel the Negro received 30 stripes, which was a great amount even in early Virginia, a branding, and shackling. Unlike his fellow white runaways, Emanuel the Negro was not given extra servitude time.
In Solomon Northup’s memoir, Twelve Years A Slave, he depicts the lives of African Americans living in the North as extremely painful and unjust. Additionally, they faced many hardships everyday of their lives. For one, they were stripped of their identities, loved ones, and most importantly their freedom. To illustrate this, Northup says, “He denied that I was free, and with an emphatic oath, declared that I came from Georgia” (20). This quote discusses the point in which Northup was kidnapped, and how he was ultimately robbed of his freedom, as well as his identity. Furthermore, not only were his captors cruel and repulsive, so was the way in which they treated African Americans. For instance, Northup states, “…Freeman, out of patience, tore Emily from her mother by main force, the two clinging to each other with all their might” (50). In this example, a mother is being parted from her child despite her cries and supplications, the slave owner
Slavery is a term that can create a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. During the hardships faced by the African Americans, hundreds of accounts were documented. Harriet Jacobs, Charles Ball and Kate Drumgoold each shared their perspectives of being caught up in the world of slavery. There were reoccurring themes throughout the books as well as varying angles that each author either left out or never experienced. Taking two women’s views as well as a man’s, we can begin to delve deeper into what their everyday lives would have been like.
1. The insight that each of these sources offers into slave life in the antebellum South is how slaves lived, worked, and were treated by their masters. The narratives talk about their nature of work, culture, and family in their passages. For example, in Solomon Northup 's passage he describes how he worked in the cotton field. Northup said that "An ordinary day 's work is considered two hundred pounds. A slave who is accustomed to picking, is punished, if he or she brings less quantity than that," (214). Northup explains how much cotton slaves had to bring from the cotton field and if a slave brought less or more weight than their previous weight ins then the slave is whipped because they were either slacking or have no been working to their
To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look into what the conditions and lives were like of slaves. It is no secret that African-American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific afflictions experienced by slaves, Linda Brent said, “No pen can give adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." The life of a slave was never a satisfactory one, but it all depended on the plantation that one lived on and the mast...
Many plantation owners were men that wanted their plantation ran in a particular manner. They strove to have control over all aspects of their slaves’ lives. Stephanie Camp said, “Slave holders strove to create controlled and controlling landscapes that would determine the uses to which enslaved people put their bodies.” Mary Reynolds was not a house slave, but her master’s daughter had a sisterly love towards her, which made the master uncomfortable. After he sold Mary he had to buy her back for the health of his daughter. The two girls grew apart after the daughter had white siblings of her own. Mary wa...
For most American’s especially African Americans, the abolition of slavery in 1865 was a significant point in history, but for African Americans, although slavery was abolished it gave root for a new form of slavery that showed to be equally as terrorizing for blacks. In the novel Slavery by Another Name, by Douglas Blackmon he examines the reconstruction era, which provided a form of coerced labor in a convict leasing system, where many African Americans were convicted on triumphed up charges for decades.
Slavery was the core of the North and South’s conflict. Slavery has existed in the New World since the seventeenth century prior to it being exclusive to race. During those times there were few social and political concerns about slavery. Initially, slaves were considered indentured servants who will eventually be set free after paying their debt(s) to the owner. In some cases, the owners were African with white servants. However, over time the slavery became exclusive to Africans and was no limited to a specific timeframe, but life. In addition, the treatment of slaves worsens from the Atlantic Slave trade to th...
Slavery and indentured servitude was the backbone of the Virginia economy. Slaves were considered an investment in the planter’s business and a necessity for success. The treatment of slaves was much the same as owning a piece of property or equipment. Slaves were not viewed as fellow human beings, quite the opposite they were of lesser status. Slaves and indentured servants grew tired of their treatment and responded with acts of rebellion. One such act was for the slaves and servants to run away. Indentured servants and slaves both made the incredibly brave decision to risk fleeing and capture in the hope of finding a free and better life, as opposed to continue living in their oppressed conditions. Runaway slave advertisements became commonplace in newspapers in Virginia and across the south. The advertisements represented the increasing resistance on the part of both indentured servants and slaves of their poor treatment. The advertisements were the slave owner’s resource in the return of their property. When analyzing the advertisements, it is clear the attitudes towards the servants and slaves were more of a piece of property than that of a human being. The slave owners list thing such as physical descriptions, special skills, rewards for their capture and return. This paper will compare and contrast the advertisements of indentured servant and slave runaways.
Slavery in the eighteenth century was worst for African Americans. Observers of slaves suggested that slave characteristics like: clumsiness, untidiness, littleness, destructiveness, and inability to learn the white people were “better.” Despite white society's belief that slaves were nothing more than laborers when in fact they were a part of an elaborate and well defined social structure that gave them identity and sustained them in their silent protest.
Throughout the years there has been limitless legal cases presented to the court systems. All cases are not the same. Some cases vary from decisions that are made by a single judge, while other cases decisions are made by a jury. As cases are presented they typically start off as disputes, misunderstandings, or failure to comply among other things. It is possible to settle some cases outside of the courts, but that does require understanding and cooperation by all parties involved. However, for those that are not so willing to settle out of court, they eventually visit the court system. The court system is not in existence to cause humiliation for anyone, but more so to offer a helping hand from a legal prospective. At the same time, the legal system is not to be abuse. or misused either.
Northup, Solomon, Sue L. Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon. Twelve years a slave. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Print.
Beginning in the 1830s, white abolitionists attempted to prove that American slaves suffered physically, emotionally, and spiritually at the hands of those who claimed their ownership (Pierson, 2005). Like those that were seen in our American literature text book. Not only did they suffer from those things, but they also had trouble with their identity once they moved on or was freed from slavery, that’s why we seen a lot of the former slaves changing their identity. Abolitionists were determined to educate the public on how badly slaves were being treated. They even argued the basic facts of Southern plantation life such as slave holders divided families, legalized rape, and did not recognize slave marriages as legitimate (Pierson, 2005). In the interregional slave trade, hundreds of thousands of slaves were move long distance from their birthplace and original homes as the slave economy migrated from the eastern seaboards to Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas (Thornton...
Slavery has been a part of human practices for centuries and dates back to the world’s ancient civilizations. In order for us to recognize modern day slavery we must take a look and understand slavery in the American south before the 1860’s, also known as antebellum slavery. Bouvier’s Law Dictionary defines a slave as, “a man who is by law deprived of his liberty for life, and becomes the property of another” (B.J.R, pg. 479). In the period of antebellum slavery, African Americans were enslaved on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, homes, out on fields, industries and transportation. By law, slaves were the perso...
The grounds of judicial review help judges uphold constitutional principles by, ensuring discretionary power of public bodies correspond with inter alia the rule of law. I will discuss the grounds of illegality, irrationality and proportionality in relation to examining what case law reveals about the purpose and effect these grounds.