You gonna be a fine mistress of the needle, workin' in that house for the mistress. 'Cause that house is where you gonna work when you get old 'nuf. "Well, you just take a good look, Oney Judge. It was there when you woke up at dayclean, and in the night you could see it in the mists from the quarters, candles glowing in the long windows. Like the Throne of Grace the mistress was always reading about in her Bible. For me and all the other little children on the place it was always in our line of sight. "You see that house, Oney Judge?" she said to me. She put her hand on the back of my neck, the way you hold a chicken just before you're about to chop its head off. There was lumber and stone to one end, and builders working. One day when I was three, my mama took me by the hand and dragged me to the slope of lawn that ran down to the river in front of the mansion house. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. Told with immense power and compassion, Taking Liberty is the extraordinary true story of one young woman's struggle to take what is rightfully hers. Does she stay where she is - comfortable, with this family that has loved her and nourished her and owned her since the day she was born? Or does she take her liberty - her life - into her own hands, and like her father, become one of the Gone? Slowly, Oney's perception of her life with the Washingtons begins to crack as she realizes the truth: No matter what it's called, it's still slavery and she's still a slave. She is Lady Washington's closest confidante and for all intents and purposes, a member of the family - or so she thinks. When she rises to the position of personal servant to Martha Washington, her status among the household staff - black or white - is second to none. She is referred to as a servant, and a house servant at that - a position of influence and respect. But on the plantation of Mount Vernon, the beautiful home of George and Martha Washington, she is not called a slave. “A crisp and compulsively readable feat of research and storytelling” ( USA TODAY ), historian and National Book Award finalist Erica Armstrong Dunbar weaves a powerful tale and offers fascinating new scholarship on how one young woman risked everything to gain freedom from the famous founding father and most powerful man in the United States at the time.When I was four and my daddy left, I cried, but I understood. At just twenty-two-years-old, Ona became the subject of an intense manhunt led by George Washington, who used his political and personal contacts to recapture his property. Yet freedom would not come without its costs. So, when the opportunity presented itself one clear and pleasant spring day in Philadelphia, Judge left everything she knew to escape to New England. Though Ona Judge lived a life of relative comfort, she was denied freedom. Every six months he sent the slaves back down south just as the clock was about to expire. Rather than comply, Washington decided to circumvent the law. As the President grew accustomed to Northern ways, there was one change he couldn’t abide: Pennsylvania law required enslaved people be set free after six months of residency in the state. In setting up his household he brought along nine slaves, including Ona Judge. When George Washington was elected president, he reluctantly left behind his beloved Mount Vernon to serve in Philadelphia, the temporary seat of the nation’s capital. A startling and eye-opening look into America’s First Family, Never Caught is the powerful story about a daring woman of “extraordinary grit” ( The Philadelphia Inquirer ).
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