Ona Judge

Ona Judge was born ca. 1773 to Betty, one of Martha Washington’s enslaved seamstresses, and Andrew Judge, a white indentured servant at Mount Vernon.¹ When she was about twelve, she began working in the house as a lady’s maid for Martha Washington. ² As Martha’s maid, she traveled with her and attended to her needs. 

When George Washington became president in 1789, the family moved to the first of two President’s Houses in New York City, and then to Philadelphia in 1790. Ona traveled with them to all of these locations. ³ Ona spent more than six years with the Washingtons in Philadelphia, where she was given money for some small luxuries such as new clothes and admission to the circus.⁴ Philadelphia had a significant population of abolitionists and free African Americans at that time, so Ona may have enjoyed more freedom there than at Mount Vernon or in New York. Still, she was not paid any wages for her labor. 

On May 21, 1796, Ona self-emancipated from the Washington household in Philadelphia.⁵ Ona later explained that she felt compelled to leave when she did because she did not want to work for Eliza Custis, Martha’s granddaughter who was about to get married. Ona worried that Martha would pass her on to Eliza’s new household.⁶ Once she escaped, Ona settled in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, married a free Black sailor named Jack Staines, and together they had three children.⁷

 President George Washington tried twice to capture and re-enslave her.⁸ In a letter to New Hampshire Governor Oliver Wolcott, Washington claimed that Ona “was brought up and treated more like a child than a Servant.”⁹ Ona had allies in New Hampshire who warned her and helped her hide. So much is known about Ona because she gave interviews to abolitionist newspapers in 1845 and 1846 detailing her life and her escape from enslavement.¹⁰ She died a free woman in New Hampshire on February 25, 1848. She was buried in Staines-Jack Cemetery in Greenland, New Hampshire.¹¹