And Ona really becomes, and had already really become, Martha Washington’s top slave, for the lack of a better term or phrase. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. When he married the wealthy widow Martha Dandridge Custis in 1759, she brought more than 80 enslaved workers along with her, bringing the total number of enslaved men, women and children at Mount Vernon to more than 150 by the time the Revolutionary War began. In April 1774, one of Martha Washington’s enslaved housemaids, Betty, gave birth at Mount Vernon to a daughter named Ona Judge. George Washington to Joseph Whipple, 28 November 1796. Her mother, Betty, was a “dower slave,” part of the estate of Martha’s first husband; her father, Andrew Judge, was a white indentured servant who had recently arrived in America from Leeds, England. To help make ends meet, Ona continued her domestic work and they took in a boarder in one of their extra rooms.17, Washington made two concerted attempts to re-enslave Ona. When Law arrived in Philadelphia, he brought his two illegitimate children that he had fathered while in India and he was plagued by rumors about his character. At some point during the spring of 1796, Ona made contact with members of the free black community that would facilitate her escape. So, Ona Judge and six other enslaved people are taken to New York, where the nation’s first capital is. Washington’s term ended on March 4, and he returned to Mount Vernon without her. Many decades later, when all of her family members had died, Ona gave two interviews about her life and escape to freedom. Like her mother, she became a talented and highly valued seamstress, and was later promoted to become Martha Washington’s personal maid. Ona, on the other hand, said “she did not want to be a slave always, and she supposed if she went back to Virginia, she should never have a chance to escape.”13. Unlike Washington’s other enslaved servants in Philadelphia, Ona received new shoes several times per year while working in the President’s House.6 Perhaps Ona wore out her shoes while accompanying Martha on her visits. October 21, 2019, Next … There are no records of Andrew Judge’s departure from Mount Vernon, or whether his relationship with Betty was consensual. Jack’s.”27 This attempt was the last time Ona heard from her former owners, as Washington died shortly thereafter and “they never troubled me any more after he was gone.”28. Technically, Ona was owned by Martha Washington’s first husband so she would not have been qualified to receive liberation in George’s will, meaning her only hope was to take the risky running into her own hands. Judge was secretly placed aboard the Nancy, a ship piloted by Captain John Bowles and bound for Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Ona also accompanied Martha on her social visits and attended to the first lady’s needs at home. In 1845, Ona Judge was interviewed by an abolitionist newspaper. The History and Traditions of a Classic Dessert, Lindsay M. Chervinsky Built c. 1824-1826. When he was just 11 years old, George Washington inherited 10 slaves from his father’s estate. By then, Ona had an infant, and her husband [s2If !is_user_logged_in()] So said former slave Ona Judge during an interview in 1845, long after she had obtained her freedom, and long after her owners, George and Martha Washington, had tried to get her back. She quickly became suspicious, however, when Whipple began asking personal questions to verify her identity—the type of questions that would be unusual in a job interview. As the first lady’s bodyservant, Judge helped dress her mistress for special events, traveled with her on social calls and ran errands for her. For example, in June 1792, she attended the theater; in April 1793, she saw “tumbling feats” (probably acrobats); and in June 1793 she went to the traveling circus.5 Click here to learn more about the enslaved households of President George Washington. Watcher in the Woods is the next gripping installment of #1 bestselling Kelley Armstrong's riveting Casey Duncan series.. "Interview with A Slave of George Washington." South Church, Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1903. Ona’s father was an English indentured servant who had worked at Mount Vernon. Ona Judge (c.1773—February 25, 1848), known as Ona Judge Staines after marriage, was a light-skinned, heavily freckled and slight of build slave on George Washington’s plantation, Mount Vernon, in Virginia.. Given Ona’s enslaved status, any white man could sexually assault her without punishment and she may have feared for her safety in a new household with a disreputable owner.9. 1 Ona’s father was Andrew Judge, a white indentured servant who was employed on the estate. Later, Ona Judge claimed that after Washington’s death, the family never bothered her again. Oney had three children with Staines, all of whom predeceased her, as did her husband. She walked out of the house and quickly rushed to safety. Ona took the opportunity to share her thoughts on the institution of slavery, proclaiming, “that she never received the least mental or moral instruction, of any kind, while she remained in Washington’s family.”30 She also criticized the Washingtons’ piety, saying she never saw or heard any indication of “piety and prayers” while she was enslaved. This book is the story of her to run . Considered the last “Founding Father” president, James Monroe was born in 1758 into an affluent, slave owning family in Westmoreland County, Virg... Andrew Johnson’s close association with Abraham Lincoln, as both his vice president and his successor, often disguises Johnson’s own... Uncovering the lives of enslaved people poses many challenges. Far from a passive bystander in the perpetuation of slavery, Washington at this point was actively engaged in returning Judge to his (or his wife’s) possession. Upon her death, they were to be divided among the Custis heirs. Video courtesy of Making History Productions. Several years before her death in 1848, she granted two interviews to abolitionist newspapers recounting her journey from bondage. Shortly after George Washington‘s death, the London newspaper Bell’s Weekly Messenger praised the first U.S. president’s decision to free his slaves in his will. Betty was lucky to be able to keep her son Austin with her with the move to Mt. She continued in this role until 1789, when she traveled with Martha to the President’s House in New York City. However, Landgon’s family had freed their slaves and rehired them as paid workers, even if they didn’t consider themselves abolitionists.25 Langdon “entertained Bassett very handsomely, and in the meantime sent word to Mrs. [Ona] Staines to leave town before twelve o’clock at night.”26 Upon receiving the message, Ona hired a horse and carriage to take her to Greenland, New Hampshire, where she hid in safety at “Mr. So Ona Judge passed the disease of slavery through her lineage to her children, making Ona and her children the property of Martha Washington. An abolitionist newspaper Ona May have outgrown her earlier shoes 10 slaves from his father ’ s death 1848. On the estate, 1977 ), pp who had worked at Mount Vernon without her scholarship they believed had. Slavery several years before her death in 1848, in Greenland, ona judge husband Hampshire as slave. 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