65 pages • 2 hours read
Erica Armstrong DunbarNever Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave
Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Freedom and the Myth of the “Noble Enslaver”
Dunbar reiterates throughout Never Caught that human bondage is always wrong, no matter how supposedly lenient a master might be. No one should be treated as the property of another person. Judge’s life is far from easy. She loses her family, loses her husband, loses her children at a young age, works physically taxing jobs, lives in constant fear of recapture, and ultimately ends up living in abject poverty in a house full of women In similarly destitute positions. Despite all of this, even at the end of her life, Judge asserts that she would rather have died than be returned to slavery.
Slavery is dehumanizing. As Dunbar illustrates, an enslaved person has no autonomy. They do not have a say in what happens to their body or how they spend their time; anything they do have can be taken away at a moment’s notice, and with no warning. Freedom is about having choices: where to live, whom to marry, and what job to perform. While free Black people still lacked much of the autonomy that white people in Judge’s era had, any choice is better than no choice. In saying that she would “rather suffer death than be returned to slavery” (197), Judge makes clear that death is preferable because it would be her choice. While it may be final, it is at least within her control, while a life in bondage is not.
Integral to Dunbar’s main theme of freedom is the notion that there can be no such thing as a supposedly noble enslaver. Depictions of truly horrifying enslavers are common even in current media, focusing on enslavers who whip, rape, and kill with little to no provocation. These depictions are based on the idea that evil is always obvious, whereas historical data suggests otherwise. A master who treated his slaves relatively well tends to be subject to far less historical scrutiny, with the excuse being that a slave’s life could have been worse.
Much of Never Caught combats the idea that there are gradients in terms of some slavery being better or worse, depending upon the enslaver’s treatment of his or her slaves. Anyone who owns enslaved people is still stripping those people of their freedom and autonomy, whether they beat them or not. Dunbar specifically includes several passages from primary sources in which Washington and his associates express confusion as to why a “well-cared-for” slave would be unhappy. His prejudice is so complete that he does not realize that his statement is odd, and in shining a light on these beliefs, the text invites its audience to study their own beliefs about such notions.
The Need to Reexamine History
Dunbar’s choice of Judge as a subject is as much about Judge herself as it is about her enslavers. George Washington is revered in American history, often portrayed as a man who could do no wrong. He is as much a myth as an actual man, and Dunbar seeks to strip the myth away and expose the man underneath. While he may have contributed enormously to the foundation of the United States, George Washington and his wife were products of their time, supporting practices that stripped Black people of their freedom while simultaneously fighting for freedom against the British.
By showing the morally questionable side of Washington’s beliefs and behaviors, Dunbar encourages the reader to reexamine other aspects of history. Washington is not the only figure who is a product of his time. Rather than mythologizing the past, Never Caught suggests considering the realities of the past and accepting that many of the figures we consider heroes also engaged in inhumane practices, the ramifications of which are still being felt today.
Dunbar’s book highlights that the Black experience has traditionally been undersold, if acknowledged at all, in American history classes. Yet, Black and white history are inexorably intertwined. Instead of considering Black history as a side note, scholars should bring the totality of American history into focus:
We who write Black History cannot track our ‘bleeding countrymen through the widely scattered documents of American History’ and still believe in America. We cannot see luster when we must glimpse it through oceans of tears. We cannot—do not wish to—write with detachment from the agonies of our people. We are not satisfied to have our story accepted into the American saga. We deal in redefinitions, in control, in moving to set our own vision upon the blindness of American historiography (Harding, V. “Beyond Chaos: Black History and the Search for the New Land.” Institute of the Black World, Black Paper 2, 1970, p. 13).
Dunbar’s book is a start to this type of true historical integration. Continuing to reexamine history in this way ensures that future generations will understand with greater clarity the truth about historical figures and the origins of American racism.
The Impact of Historical Inquiry on the Present
Never Caught aims to rectify the legacy of slavery and racism inherent in American society. The book uses meticulous research and scholarship to portray history through the lens of Black experience, which adds a perspective lacking in many historical narratives. The telling of Judge’s story intertwined with that of the Washingtons shows that Black and white history cannot be separated. Rather, the polarization of Black and white experiences in history “narrow[s] the debate toward one of inclusion or exclusion [… and] tends to prohibit the interpretive practice that is at the core of historical thinking” (Sotiropoulos, Karen. “Teaching Black History after Obama” Social Studies. Jul/Aug 2017, vol. 108, no. 4, pp. 121-28). The text demonstrates that without a holistic historical picture, American history considers the “contributions” of African Americans but does not cast them as fully participatory. Dunbar’s use of primary documents to reveal Judge’s experience in visceral detail illustrates an alternative approach:
Historians of the black past continue to have a most important role in steering America to a new way to inhabit the dungeon side of its past; they can help ‘Black people and everyone in this country develop a common understanding of the important role that the black struggle for human rights has played through the years not only to advance Black people but also to humanize this country’ (Boggs, G. L. The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the 21st Century. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2011, p. 79)” (Sotiropoulos, pp. 121-28).
The goal of Dunbar’s use of historical research in the novel is to popularize and humanize history, illustrating Judge’s difficult situation and inviting the reader to empathize with her humanity, in addition to complicating the canonical picture of Washington as the country’s benevolent white founding father. More broadly, studying the abolition of slavery underscores the fundamental importance of human rights and the dignity of all people. It serves as a reminder of the need to protect and uphold these rights in the face of ongoing abuses. Perhaps most importantly, the fight against slavery involved individuals from various backgrounds working together. Recognizing the intersectionality of Black and white efforts to end slavery can strengthen contemporary movements by promoting solidarity and inclusivity.
Related Titles
By Erica Armstrong Dunbar
