Weekly Reflection: Fleeing From a Founding Father

May 25, 2023

During this week in 1796, a young enslaved woman named Ona Judge escaped from her enslavers. Their names were Martha and George Washington. He was serving as the first President of the United States. At the time, the capital of the new country was in Philadelphia, PA. Due to the large Quaker and abolitionist influence in that state, there was a law that any enslaved person who resided in Pennsylvania for more than six months could be free. To avoid freeing the enslaved persons, including Ona Judge, who traveled from Washington’s home in Mount Vernon, VA to serve the first family in Philadelphia, the President made sure that their stay in Pennsylvania was less than six months at a time so they would remain enslaved. Ona Judge was officially owned by Martha Washington and hoped to be freed upon Martha’s death. In 1796 Ona found out that instead of freeing her, Martha planned to “give” her to her granddaughter. That would mean life long enslavement for Ona. So on May 21, 1796 Ona escaped from the executive mansion with help from members of the free Black community in Philadelphia. On May 23, President Washington took out an ad in the Philadelphia Gazette hoping someone would help to capture her for a $10 reward. The first image posted above is the text of that ad.

Despite Washington’s efforts, Ona made her way to New Hampshire where she married a free Black man named Jack Staines and had three children. President Washington made several attempts to take Ona back to Virginia. She evaded those attempts and lived free as a fugitive in New Hampshire for over 50 years until her death in 1848. Her life in freedom was not easy especially after her husband and two of her three children died years before. She was considered a “pauper” in her later years and lived with a free Black woman named Nancy Jack. When asked in a May 1845 interview whether or not she regretted the hardships of her life in freedom compared to her former life at Mount Vernon, Ona responded,

‘No, I am free, and have, I trust been made a child of God by the means.’”

Several of the founding fathers who were enslavers including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson knew that slavery was morally wrong and realized that it needed to be abolished eventually. Yet they could not give up the economic gains and privileges that came with maintaining the unjust system. They lived with this unresolved tension until their deaths. The legacy of centuries of enslavement is still with us today in the form of systemic racial inequities in education, housing, policing, employment, and medical treatment. How are we to respond in our time? Three options come to my mind. 1) Some deny that these forms of systemic racism exist and even legislate against teaching about them. 2) Others recognize them and hope they will eventually resolve on their own with the passing of time. 3) Still others are committed to facing these realities and working to address them now. For those of us who believe that all people are created in the image of God, anything short of the third option is inconsistent with our faith and harmful to our sisters and brothers and our nation.

The short video posted below provides more information about the story of Ona Judge.