A review by hollymbryan
Ona Judge Outwits the Washingtons: An Enslaved Woman Fights for Freedom by Gwendolyn Hooks

4.0

This was a good introduction for young readers to the reality that our nation's first president was a slaveholder, and one who was determined to recapture Ona Judge, one of his slaves who had escaped. We must help children understand that humans are complicated and that even those we consider heroes are not 100% good. It is important to recognize that George Washington enslaved people, even as we recognize the amazing things he and the other founding fathers (and mothers) did in creating this country. At the same time, the book really keeps the focus on the rather amazing woman that Ona Judge was, how strong and brave she was to escape and to maintain that she was now a free woman and would not go back to Virginia, even if it meant never seeing her family again. I cannot imagine how agonizing that must have been for her. This is a wonderful book to help children understand what it meant to be enslaved and what one had to go through to obtain the freedom that was their natural right. Well done.