1.31 – Runaway

Year(s) Discussed: 1773-1848

On May 21st, 1796, Ona/Oney Judge slips out of the President’s House in Philadelphia, PA in a bid to obtain her freedom from enslavement. The story of her being born into slavery at Mount Vernon, her being brought to work in the Washingtons’ household, and the Washingtons’ attempts at bringing Ona back into captivity is a narrative that brings much insight into the institution of slavery in the United States in the mid-1790s as well as a more complete view of George Washington’s legacy.

Show Notes

Audio editing by Andrew Pfannkuche

Brady, Patricia. Martha Washington: An American Life. New York: Penguin Books, 2006 [2005].
Chernow, Ron. Washington: A Life. New York: Penguin Press, 2010.
Dunbar, Erica Armstrong. Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017.
Finkelman, Paul. “Fugitive Slaves.” The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Kermit L Hall, ed. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. p. 319-320.
Historical Currency Converter (test version 1.0). http://www.historicalstatistics.org/Currencyconverter.html. [Last Accessed: 19 Mar 2018)
Mount Vernon Official Guidebook. Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union, 2001 [1974].
Washington, George. “To Tobias Lear, 12 April 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified February 1, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0062. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 8, 22 March 1791 – 22 September 1791, ed. Mark A. Mastromarino. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999, pp. 84–86.] [Last Accessed: 12 Mar 2018]
Washington, George. “To Anthony Whitting, 20 January 1793,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified February 1, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-12-02-0013. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 12, 16 January 1793 – 31 May 1793, ed. Christine Sternberg Patrick and John C. Pinheiro. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005, pp. 31–36.] [Last Accessed: 14 Mar 2018]
Washington, George. “To William Pearce, 8 March 1795,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified February 1, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-17-02-0424. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 17, 1 October 1794–31 March 1795, ed. David R. Hoth and Carol S. Ebel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, pp. 632–634.] [Last Accessed: 18 Mar 2018]
Washington, George. “To Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 1 September 1796,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified February 1, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-00910. [Last Accessed: 19 Mar 2018]
Whitting, Anthony. “To George Washington, 16 January 1793,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified February 1, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-12-02-0005. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 12, 16 January 1793 – 31 May 1793, ed. Christine Sternberg Patrick and John C. Pinheiro. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005, pp. 5–14.] [Last Accessed: 14 Mar 2018]
Wiencek, Henry. An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.

Featured Image: Newspaper advertisement of the escape of Oney Judge with a reward for her return, 24 May 1796, Philadelphia Gazette, courtesy of Wikipedia

1.31 – Runaway

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