Never Caught: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

Just days after Whipple sends his December response to Washington, Ona celebrates her first Christmas in Portsmouth, likely pushing aside yearning for her family back at Mount Vernon in order to focus on the holiday—and the new man in her life, Jack Staines. By January of 1797, Ona and Jack are married. Her freedom has allowed her to choose the person she will spend her life with—and draw from him a measure of security, protection, and perhaps even prosperity.

Jack Staines is, like many other free Black men in the Northeast at the time, an experienced seaman. Though many white men see seafaring jobs as “unstable and unseemly,” to Black men, the freedom of the sea and the decent wages of these jobs represent opportunity, protection, and a chance to see other parts of the country (even though journeys to the South or the Caribbean carry danger and the threat of capture or enslavement.) For married seamen like Jack, the unpredictable, demanding nature of their work means long absences from their homes, their spouses, and any children they might have.

Whipple soon learns that Ona has married Jack Staines when Whipple hears that the two of them have applied for a marriage certificate at the county clerk’s office. Whipple tells the clerk about Ona’s background—and exactly who her powerful “owners” are. The clerk, then, makes it all but impossible for Ona and Jack to finalize their marriage. In response, Ona and Jack travel to a town called Greenland a few miles outside of Portsmouth and obtain their marriage license there on January 14th of 1797. Ona, Dunbar writes, likely chooses to wear one of her fine dresses from her time with the Washingtons for the ceremony.

Ona adopts her husband’s last name and begins settling into married life. The census from 1797 records Ona and Jack as living with two other roommates—likely boarders or individuals in need, perhaps even people who have recently escaped from slavery, just like Ona. Soon, Ona becomes pregnant, but she continues working as a domestic up to the very end of her pregnancy. In 1798, Ona delivers a baby girl—she and Jack name the child Eliza.

Meanwhile, back in Mount Vernon, Eliza Parke Custis Law gives birth to her first child. On January 19th of 1797, Eliza welcomes a daughter, whom she gives her own name. Both Ona and Eliza are newly married women, and both now have daughters who share the same first name.

By July of 1799, Washington has been a private citizen for about two years. He decides to resume his attempts to recapture his “runaway property.” He recruits Martha Washington’s nephew Burwell Bassett Jr., a Virginian senator, to take up the search again. Washington still believes that a mysterious Frenchman is responsible for luring Ona away from bondage—and he urges Bassett not to accept any of her attempts to negotiate. Under the guise of a visit with Senator John Langdon, Bassett travels to New Hampshire—but in the years since he first reported Ona’s whereabouts to Washington, Langdon has become more vocal about his own personal opposition to slavery.

One day, Ona opens the door to find Bassett standing before her—she recognizes him, knowing members of Martha and George’s family well after her years of enslavement. Ona knows she cannot run—her husband is at sea, and her young daughter is in the house. As Bassett tries to convince Ona to return with him to Virginia, Ona refuses to listen to him—she states, once again, that she will not return to slavery, even as Bassett tries to assure her that the Washingtons will set her free immediately upon her return. According to Bassett’s notes, Ona utters the words “I am free now and choose to remain so.” Bassett knows he has little recourse—he cannot take Ona by force, which would draw attention to what he is doing. Bassett simply walks away from the Staines household, his pride dented but his resolve still burning.

Bassett returns to Langdon’s house and informs the senator he will not leave New Hampshire without Ona—even if he has to take her by force. Either Langdon himself—or, more likely, one of Langdon’s Black domestic servants—sends word to Ona that her life is in danger. The next day, Bassett returns to the Staines house to confront Ona yet again—but he finds her home empty. Ona has outrun and outmaneuvered the president once more. Ona and her daughter travel to Greenland to take shelter at the home of a free Black family, the Jacks.

Bassett returns to Virginia in October of 1799 and delivers the news of his failure to George and Martha Washington. He also relays information about Ona’s present circumstances—her child, the result of her marriage to a free Black man—not a Frenchman. George and Martha realize that now that Washington is no longer president, his powers of influence are waning—especially amongst former political allies whose views no longer align with theirs.