William Costin Character Analysis in Never Caught

Believed by many scholars to be the son of one of Martha Washington’s interracial half-sisters, William Costin was a free Black activist who married Ona Judge Staines’s younger sister Philadelphia. Costin used his social capital and comparatively sizable finances to purchase and immediately emancipate enslaved Black men and women throughout the District of Columbia, fighting all the while against the stringent slave codes in the fledgling city.

William Costin Character Timeline in Never Caught

The timeline below shows where the character William Costin appears in Never Caught. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Philadelphia, like her sister, eventually married a free Black man. Philadelphia’s husband William Costin is believed by many scholars to have been the son of Ann Dandridge—an interracial half-sister... (full context)

...slaves—on June 13th of 1807, Philadelphia was freed. She was nearly 28 and married to Costin—together, they already had two young daughters. Law emancipated several other members of Costin’s family, and... (full context)

...had to understand, Dunbar writes, just how tenuous her grasp on freedom truly was. As Costin became a “one of the pillars of early black society in Washington,” Costin continued to... (full context)

...daughter, Oney Fortune, after Ona herself—and that Oney was later purchased and emancipated by William Costin. Even with the unmitigated uncertainty and regret of leaving family members behind, Dunbar writes, Ona... (full context)