Ona Judge Part 2
Banned Histories of Race in America
Ona Judge Part 1 covered how, contrary to popular belief, George Washington was a spoiled southern aristocrat with all the lying and sniveling that one expects from those types. He signed the Fugitive Slave Act into law and when that wasn’t brutal enough for his own personal desires, Washington would break not only that law but many others, keeping Black folks in his bondage.
Even though he thought of himself as one of the “good” enslavers, Black folks freed themselves from him all the time. Ona Judge Part 1 mentioned the seventeen Black folks who all escaped Washington’s plantation at once. There was also Harry, who joined the British Army. Washington’s chef, Hercules who escaped to New York. And then there was Ona Judge.
George gets elected president and the Washingtons move to Philadelphia, the US capital at the time. The law in Pennsylvania right then demanded that enslaved Black people new to the state be freed after six months. But George was an aristocrat descendant of King Edward III! He the richest man in the United States! He had personally owned at least ten people since he was eleven years old, and no one was gonna tell him who he could and couldn’t hold captive in this brand-new land of the free! So, the Washingtons’ enslaved would be brought out of town just before the six-month limit. Then, having hit some sort of legal reset button, they would be brought right back, which is, of course, the exact behavior one might expect from the “good” enslavers.
The Washingtons didn’t want the public or the Black people they enslaved to know they were doing this, but, again, contrary to popular belief, the Washingtons were very stupid. This is why one day, when the semi-annual reset trip was supposed to happen, Martha couldn’t figure out what was taking Ona so long. Maybe she thought Ona was packing too much or that she’d slept in. Martha truly had no idea that all the Black folks knew exactly what the Washingtons were up to or that Ona had already escaped the night before.
George Washington was furious. He placed ads in the local papers offering a $10 reward for her return. The ads stated that Ona had taken off with “no provocation.” Later, when asked by an interviewer her true reason for escaping, she replied that she, “wanted to be free,” probably adding “idiot,” under her breath.
George, being incapable of understanding such an idea because he was so very stupid, convinced himself that Ona had only departed because she’d been “seduced” away to New York by a “Frenchman.” In reality, she’d escaped to the abolitionist town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. And unfortunately, only a few months after arriving, Ona was spotted by a friend of the Washingtons.
Now, once George found out where Ona was, he couldn’t just send soldiers to go get her because optics mattered then, too. Instead, he contacted Oliver Wolcott, the secretary of the Treasury and according to Erica Armstrong Dunbar’s book Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge, “The president offered suggestions about recapturing the fugitive, and all of them were clear violations of the law.”
The law stated that a fugitive had to be brought in front of a judge before being returned, but Washington wanted Wolcott to just kidnap Ona. It was then explained to Washington that that kind of thing would cause riots in Portsmouth, so he contacted Joseph Whipple, Portsmouth’s customs officer with more illegal requests. Whipple found Ona and she presented him with a deal. Sure, she’d return but only if the Washingtons guaranteed her freedom after their deaths.
Washington was enraged at the very idea of a deal with an enslaved woman he referred to as “simple and inoffensive” and so he refused. He requested that Whipple try to reacquire Ona in ways that would not “excite a mob or riot,” but Whipple only continued to fail.
In August of 1799 George tried one final time to re-enslave Ona. He sent his nephew, Burwell Bassett, Jr. to Portsmouth, where he found Ona and attempted to convince her to return. She refused, saying, “Fuck that,” probably. Bassett wasn’t pleased and he left. He didn’t go home though. Instead, even though he wasn’t supposed to do anything “unpleasant” or “troublesome” Bassett started bragging around town that he was going to physically force Ona back to Philadelphia with him.
Bassett, being as aristocratically stupid as Washington, must’ve thought publicly patting himself on the back in advance would play a little different than it did. Word of his plans made it to Ona pretty quick and she was eight miles away in Greenland, New Hampshire before Bassett could find the last abolitionist in Portsmouth to brag to. Bassett went back to George empty-handed.
At that time, there were 317 Black people enslaved on Washington’s plantation. Of course, he wished there had been 318 and a few months later Washington died, that wish unfulfilled.
Ona Judge continued to live in Greenland for another 49 years, free.