![]() She is of middle stature, slender and delicately formed, about 20 years of age. “Absconded from the household of the president of the United States, ONEY JUDGE, a light, mulatto girl, much freckled, with very black eyes and bushy hair. Here’s one that was published in The Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser, May 24, 1796: I had friends among the colored people of Philadelphia, had my things carried there beforehand, and left Washington’s house while they were eating dinner.”Īlmost immediately after her escape on May 21, 1796, advertisements began appearing in the city’s newspaper. She was aware that if she returned to Virginia, “I would never get my liberty. ![]() “Whilst they were packing to go to Virginia I was packing to go, I didn’t know where,” Judge told a reporter years later. The Washingtons’ were preparing to return to Virginia and Judge was told that upon arrival there she was to be gift to Martha Washington’s granddaughter. It was during time that Judge began plotting her escape. This rotation of his house slaves continued throughout his presidency, and he was careful not to spend more than six months in Pennsylvania, thereby avoiding the residency classification. From one of his associates, Attorney General Edmund Randolph, Washington learned of a way to keep his slaves by sending them out of the state to interrupt their residency. To avoid the enactment, Washington claimed that his presence in Philadelphia was because it was the temporary seat of the federal government, and that as a permanent resident of Virginia, he was not bound by laws regarding slavery. It was during this period that Washington began the manipulation of the Gradual Abolition Act that made Pennsylvania the first state to establish a process to emancipate slaves. A year later, when Philadelphia was designated the nation’s capital, Ona was again among the slaves relocated with Washington. In 1789, Judge was among seven slaves President Washington took with him to New York City as part of his household. She received neither education nor religious instruction while at Mount Vernon. Much of what we know about Judge’s early years was disclosed during interviews she gave to abolitionist newspapers when she lived in New Hampshire after her escape. Judge was around 10 years old when she arrived at the Mansion House at Mount Vernon, possibly as a playmate for Martha Washington’s granddaughter, Nelly Custis. After her marriage to George Washington in 1759, the dower slaves came with her to Mount Vernon, including Betty. ![]() ![]() ![]() Judge’s mother was among the 285 slaves held by Martha Washington’s first husband, Daniel Parke Custis, who died intestate, leaving her a “dower share” and lifetime use of his estate, although without the right to sell or free her slaves. Her mother, Betty, was an enslaved seamstress and Martha Washington’s personal slave. Judge’s father, Andrew, was an indentured English tailor working at Mount Vernon. There is no exact date for Judge’s birth, but Dunbar and others place it somewhere in the early 1770s at Mount Vernon, Va. We are given fresh details about Judge from Erica Armstrong Dunbar’s “Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge.” Not only does Judge’s feat indict the president as a slaveholder, but also, according to Dunbar’s book, his wife Martha was one as well, with her own separate slaves outnumbering her husband’s. But her condition and escape shines an inglorious light on one of America’s so-called founding fathers, a light that becomes more revealing as we endure another president with less than charitable regard for the nation’s people.Īs usual, it was a recent news story about a biography of Judge that alerted me to her life and legacy. Other than being a runaway slave from George Washington’s plantation, there isn’t much known about Ona or Oney Judge.
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