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Chapter 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Never Caught, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Slavery and Paternalism
Narrative and Historical Erasure
The Creation of America
Freedom and Agency
Summary
Analysis
As weeks and months pass, Ona falls into the rhythm of her new life. Though marked, no doubt, by exhaustion, anxiety, and a fitful sense of fear, Ona is free and surviving in Portsmouth. She receives wages for her work, and she can move about her new city as she wishes. When not at work, Ona tries to be careful about where she goes and how she presents herself, fearful of being recognized for who she is and dragged back into slavery. Ona may or may not be aware that one of New Hampshire’s most prominent families—the Langdons—are a direct threat to her freedom.
Senator John Langdon, a ship captain turned Revolutionary War hero turned New Hampshire politician, is one of the most powerful men in the nation—and his daughter Elizabeth is friendly with Washington’s granddaughter Nelly. In the 1790s, Elizabeth even visited the High Street mansion in Philadelphia—and Ona no doubt looked out for them as chaperone. In the summer of 1796, Ona is walking through Portsmouth when she finds herself face-to-face with the now 18-year-old Elizabeth. Elizabeth recognizes Ona instantly, and though Ona avoids Elizabeth’s gaze, Elizabeth hurries home to alert her father as to what she’s seen.
While no historical record exists of the particulars of Ona and Elizabeth’s run-in, Dunbar uses her deep understanding of how tense and high-stakes the encounter must have been to reconstruct the painful moment in which Ona realizes that there is a direct threat to her freedom: someone from her old life has recognized her.
Themes
For slaveholding and non-slaveholding elites of the time—including the Langdons—paternalism creates an inability to recognize Black agency. The Langdons see themselves—and the Washingtons—as benevolent slave owners. Thus, the Langdons contact the Washingtons to tell them that Ona is hiding in Portsmouth. On August 21st, when the Washingtons return to Philadelphia, they know precisely where to look for Ona.
