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WANTED: ESCAPED NEGRO WENCH!

RETURN TO PRESIDENT WASHINGTON

Fortunately, the constitutional masterpiece produced by the Founders is so ingenious that it transcends their individual human frailties and ultimately redounds to the good of all humanity. Here is one of those little vignettes that were lost in the apotheosis of George Washington. Unlike the fable of the hatchet and the cherry tree, this actually occurred. Even up to this very day, there are elements still attempting to whitewash our history books in order to have them conform to the oft-repeated Myth of America.

Ona (usually, “Oney”) Judge was born to Betty, an enslaved seamstress at Mount Vernon. She had a last name because her father was a White, indentured tailor, Andrew Judge. According to laws long-established in the American colonies, one assumed the race and status of the mother. Around the age of ten, Oney was added to the household staff. She eventually became a personal assistant to Mrs. Martha Washington. She traveled with her and conformed to that circle in manners, language and attire.

When General George Washington ascended to the presidency of the world’s first democratic republic -- a showcase of humanity, established upon the proposition that each and every individual is his own person and owes fealty to no one -- the now-president’s property, Oney Judge was around twenty years of age. He moved his household staff from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia. There was a Pennsylvania state law allowing gradual emancipation for lifetime bondsfolk, after six consecutive months of residence. Washington attempted to exempt himself from those requirements, citing temporary residency on his part, but failed in the process. He then enlisted Mrs. Washington in a scheme to circumvent that law. Without informing his people, he set about getting them out of the state for a short period, before the expiration of that time, and bringing them back – which in itself was a violation of the law. Here we have the executive law enforcement officer of the land, flouting the laws of one of the states of the United States, an entity whose laws he has solemnly sworn to uphold!

On one such scofflaw-occasion, Mrs. Washington took Oney with her on a visit to New Jersey. While the mistress gathered with others in the parlor, Oney was entertained by the hosts’ household staff in the kitchen. The servants consisted of free and freedfolk, as well as abolitionists. It is here that Oney learns what it is to be free. She is offered assistance, should she choose to escape.

Back in Philadelphia, the Washingtons are preparing to travel to Mount Vernon. Oney has heard that she is to be given as a present to a family member. It is her best chance to make a break. With her clothes sent along ahead, when the family sits down to supper, she makes her move. She heads to the dock, onto a ship and off to New Hampshire.

Martha Washington is distraught. How could this girl, upon whom she had lavished so much affection, be so ungrateful as to abandon her – without even a, “By your leave?!” Of course, now it is up to the president to pull out the stops and employ the might of the United States government to retrieve their loss treasure – and he does! (The above title is a bit snarky; here is Washington’s more genteel version.):

Advertisement. Absconded from the household of the Presi- dent of the United States, ONEY JUDGE, a light mulatto girl, much freckled, with very black eyes and bushy hair. She is of middle stature, slender, and delicately formed, about 20 years of age. She has many changes of good clothes, of all sorts, but they are not sufficiently recollected to be descri- bed—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; but as she may attempt to escape by water, all mas- ters of vessels are cautioned against admitting her into them, although it is probable she will attempt to pass for a free woman, and has, it is said, where- withal to pay her passage. Ten dollars will be paid to any person who will bring her home, if taken in the city, or on board any vessel in the harbour;—and a reasonable additional sum if apprehended at, and brought from a greater distance, and in proportion to the distance. FREDERICK KITT, Steward. May 23…

Oney was located in New Hampshire. Over the next several years – even after Washington left the presidency she was pursued! Envoys were sent to coax her, then even to kidnap her, but she shrewdly avoided all attempts. Oney eventually married John (Jack) Staines, a freedman sailor, with whom she had three children. She never returned to the Washingtons.

George Washington could have pursued Oney in the courts, since he subsequently sought and signed a federal fugitive slave law! (Yes, I, perhaps like you, knew only of the 19^th century, antebellum retrieval law.) Of course “court” meant documentation (and that would be an official stain upon his oh-so-carefully-guarded reputation.

How odd. The pursuit of Jean Valjean seems almost quaint in comparison.