Never Caught: Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

Throughout the spring of 1796, as the Washingtons begin preparations to return to Virginia, Ona is anxious and fearful—yet she knows she must remain attentive to Martha and focused on her work lest she draw attention to herself. Ona is aware of the existence of runaway slaves—but she knows just how difficult it is to live life as a fugitive, especially in unforgiving Northern climates. She is also aware that if she runs away, as one of Martha Washington’s dower slaves, she will be an extremely high-profile fugitive—the world will not be kind to her. Added to the stressful thoughts of surviving on the run is the fact that Ona is illiterate and has no hope of reading a map even if she could obtain one.

Newspapers run frequent ads placed by masters seeking the return of runaway slaves, most of whom are Black men—often, enslaved Black women have children and cannot make the journey alone. News of these ads, Dunbar writes, would have surely made their way to Ona and her fellow slaves—yet the fear the existence of the ads inspires is tempered by stories of successful escapes that spread just as quickly by word of mouth.

Washington himself is a watchful slaveholder constantly ready for the disappearance or escape of one of his slaves. Two years into his presidency, in February of 1793, he signed into existence the Fugitive Slave Act, which made the capturing and reclaiming of fugitive slaves legal. Even Northern states, where the practice of human bondage is waning, were forced under federal law to comply with the act—and, as a result, passed “personal liberty” laws of their own to provide a trial by jury for any Black person accused of being a fugitive. Ona and her fellow slaves at High Street, Dunbar writes, would no doubt have known about the Fugitive Slave Act—and the resistance to it up north.

Around this time, Ona decides to risk everything in order to be free—she is afraid, but she is determined not to become Eliza’s slave, and she is furious with the Washingtons for treating her so poorly after so many years. One evening in mid-May of 1796, while George and Martha eat dinner, Ona takes advantage of her rare alone time and slips out of the High Street house, disappearing into Philadelphia’s free Black community—likely into the arms of a network of free people ready to come to her aid.

There remains today no record of when or how the Washingtons realized that Ona was missing. Yet on May 23rd, just two days after her escape, the steward for the Executive Mansion places ads in two local papers seeking the return of a runaway slave belonging to the President of the United States. The ads describe her as light-skinned, freckled, and slender—and in possession of “many changes of very good clothes.” A $10 reward is offered for Ona’s return. Ona knows she cannot stay in Philadelphia, where she will be vulnerable and visible, and that she cannot flee to New York for similar reasons. Ona decides to escape the city by boat and head north to Portsmouth, New Hampshire—likely at the suggestion of the Philadelphian community of free Black men and women.

John Bowles is a sailor and the operator of a freight business which transports lumber and fish up and down the eastern seaboard. Ona boards Bowles’s boat sometime between May 10th and 21st, likely paying for passage to New Hampshire either out of her own savings of the small gifts the Washingtons gave her over the years, or with the help of the free Black community in Philadelphia. By May 21st, Bowles’s ship, the Nancy, is on its way north. The shipmaster turns a blind eye to Ona, though it is odd for a Black woman of her age to travel alone. Ona is now a fugitive—but for the time being, she is free.