G Please address all issues in paper prompt
1. Introduce the book and explain why the author wrote the book?
2. What are the challenges writing a history of African American women slaves during this period?
3. Why was it unusual that a slave had a last name and how was Judge able to acquire a last name?
4. On page 10 Dunbar states that planters often complained about white indentured servants
as being unreliable, lazy and likely to try and escape, and relied mostly on slave labor.
How does this impact your impression of the planter’s preference for enslavement?
5. How did Judge’s father escape a life of slavery and servitude and how did race factor into this privilege?
6. At the bottom of page 53, the book describes the skills of the enslaved cook, Hercules. How was Hercules able to use his skills too afford himself and his family privileges that other slaves did not have? What were the tradeoffs of these privileges? Did his skills ultimately impact how his humanity was valued? Pages 56-58 talks about the need for privacy. Why was privacy not only desired but utilized for safety? Compare and contrast what privacy meant to both the Washington’s and the slaves.
7. What do you know about the states of New York and Pennsylvania and their relationship to slavery? Why do the laws about slavery differ in these states considering these are both northern states? How does this change your view of what it means to be a northern versus southern state?
8. How does this book challenge the general narrative of slavery and how it operated?
9. Describe and discuss life for the slaves of the wealthy and politically connected in the U.S
10. What were the circumstances for Ona Judge, how was her situation and other slaves of the Washington’s radically different from most slaves in the fields? How was it similar?
11. How did President Washington “go around” the law regarding slaves in Philadelphia?
12. Washington led Americans as the Commander in the Revolutionary War because he believed that Americans should be free from British rule. As a former president, he was aware of the growing sentiment that human bondage was immoral, particularly given the recent legal changes in some northern cities that made slavery illegal. Given his
dedication to making America a free nation and his awareness of the growing anti bondage sentiment, what do you imagine that he continued to hold other people in bondage?
13. Provide a detailed discussion explaining the trajectory of Judge’s road to freedom
14. Describe life for Judge on the run and what were some of the harrowing events she experienced and discuss the occasions when she was almost captured and why did the Washington’s continue to pursue Judge for so long.
15. President Washington would not be the first president to hold slaves. He also near the end of his life freed some slaves. However, he was the first American president. Do you think had he been a vocal abolitionist that it may have set an example for future presidents that slavery was wrong. In short, address how his slaveholding set a pattern for other presidents and politicians to continue enslavement.
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