FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. There are seven enslaved people that go, only two women, and Ona’s one of them. Tobias Lear Account Books, Philadelphia Household Accounts, 1789-1797. Her mother, Betty, was recognized as the finest seamstress on the plantation and was a “dower slave,” technically still owned by the estate of Martha Washington’s first husband, Daniel Peake Custis. In 1803, Jack Staines died and Ona moved in with the Jack family to share household expenses. In her interviews fifty years later, Ona referred to John Langdon as Governor. Benjamin Chase. © 2020 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Andrew Judge, Ona’s father, was also an expert at sewing. Ona probably lived with Betty in a small cabin near the mansion house, completing simple chores, helping her mother with easy tasks in their cabin, or playing unsupervised with other enslaved children.2 When Ona was twelve, Martha brought her into the mansion house to begin her official training as a housemaid. On May 21, 1796, she slipped out of the mansion while the president and first lady were eating their supper. Many decades later, when all of her family members had died, Ona gave two interviews about her life and escape to freedom. October 21, 2019, Next There are no records of Andrew Judge’s departure from Mount Vernon, or whether his relationship with Betty was consensual. The gunman arrived at the home of Judge Esther Salas in North Brunswick, New Jersey, around 5 p.m., NBC New York reported. (Credit: Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images). When Washington headed to New York City in 1789 for his inauguration as president, Oney was one of only a handful of enslaved people the couple took with them. by the Rev. Ona likely made her way out of Philadelphia immediately to avoid being recognized by Washington’s contemporaries.14 In one of her later interviews, she revealed that she had escaped on a vessel commanded by Captain John Bowles, who left Philadelphia and eventually made his way to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Oney had three children with Staines, all of whom predeceased her, as did her husband. After Judge passed by without acknowledging her, Betsy likely told her father of the sighting, and her father felt obligated to notify Washington of his fugitive slave’s whereabouts. Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices. It tells about a very determined Ona Judge and very sneaky Washingtons. Though Ona Judge lived a life of relative comfort, the few pleasantries she was afforded were nothing compared to freedom, a glimpse of which she encountered first-hand in Philadelphia. At sixteen, Ona may have been growing still and she may have outgrown her earlier shoes. Ona Judge was born around 1773. Washington’s term ended on March 4, and he returned to Mount Vernon without her. PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) — Stepping off a boat in a New Hampshire port in 1796, 22-year-old Ona Judge was on the run from the family of President George Washington. South Church, Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1903. After she became too old for physical labor, Ona herself lived in poverty, relying on donations from the community. It must have been incredibly scary for sixteen-year-old Ona to travel to New York City, a place she had never visited before. She also secured work as a domestic servant. Ona Judge was born as a slave into George and Martha Washington's household. Ona Maria Judge was born around 1774 at Mount Vernon. He told his friends that he was looking for a good maidservant to help his wife. Ona Judge Plots Her Escape. Judge was secretly placed aboard the Nancy, a ship piloted by Captain John Bowles and bound for Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Sharing the news with her Instagram followers on … The South Church is pictured, where Ona Judge was married in 1797 to Jack Staines. Moll, the enslaved nanny for Martha’s grandchildren, did not usually join them out of the house, so she likely needed fewer pairs of new shoes. While the records of her son’s life are inconclusive, it’s possible his name was William and he followed in his father’s footsteps and became a sailor. In the end, Washington and his fellow founders would push the hard decisions about slavery off onto future generations of Americans–with explosive consequences. In August 1799, Washington made one more attempt to find and recapture Ona Judge. “A Slave of George Washington,” Benjamin Chase, Auburn, NH, December 1846. Taking the surrounding historical events and known details concerning the Washington's life, this book paints the picture of how Ona Judge's life might have been while growing up to the time of her escape and beyond. Letter to the editor, The Liberator, January 1, 1847..As quoted in Slave Testimony, Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies, John W. Blassingame, ed. Tobias Lear Account Books, June 6, 1792; April 1, 1793; June 24, 1793. She has many changes of good clothes, of all sorts, but they are not sufficiently recollected to be described.11, The advertisement also listed a $10 reward for her capture and return, and conveyed the Washingtons’ shock and outrage that Ona would escape: “As there was no suspicion of her going off nor no provocation to do so, it is not easy to conjecture whither she has gone, or fully, what her design is.”12 Of course, it never occurred to the Washingtons that enslavement served as plenty of provocation for Ona to escape. Few enslaved workers left written records, let alone participated in interviews with reporters. Six years after Ona was born, Betty gave birth to another daughter, Delphy.3. The shoe purchases are especially telling. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and sons. Betty was lucky to be able to keep her son Austin with her with the move to Mt. Paul Jennings was born in 1799 at Montpelier, the Virginia estate of James and Dolley Madison. Video courtesy of Making History Productions. In the 1830s, both of Ona’s daughters also passed away and she became increasingly involved in her church community and perhaps the abolitionist movement.29 In late 1845 and early 1846, Ona gave two interviews to abolitionist newspapers in New Hampshire. First, while still in office, he sent a letter through Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Jr. to Joseph Whipple, Portsmouth’s collector of customs. 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