good stuff! flame-free! MDDM hist. refs re non-Intervention, W & G & Martha

[Doug Millison]

http://www.seacoastnh.com/blackhistory/ona.html
ONA JUDGE STAINES
A Thirst for Complete Freedom & Her Escape from President Washington
By Evelyn Gerson

During the fall of 1796, George Washington's final months in office, Ona
Judge Staines, a slave belonging to the First Family, escaped the Executive
Mansion in Philadelphia (equivalent to today's White House) and made her
way to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The President, upon learning of her
whereabouts, penned several correspondences and solicited help from friends
and family in order to retrieve her. Despite these attempts, Ona eluded
Washington and eventually settled in Greenland, NH. [...]

Her father, Andrew Judge, was a white indentured servant from Leeds,
England who arrived in America in 1772. Judge gained his freedom after
fulfilling his four-year contract at Mount Vernon and eventually moved off
the plantation to start his own luck at farming. Ona's mother, a slave
named Betty, was an expert at textiles and spent much of her time spinning
thread, weaving cloth, and tailoring clothes for both the Washingtons and
her fellow bondspeople. Betty was a "Dower Negro," that is she belonged to
the estate of Martha's first husband Daniel Parke Custis, and after the
Washington nuptials in 1759, moved to Mount Vernon with her mistress.
According to Virginia law, children born to slave mothers were considered
property of the slaveholder, so even though Judge obtained his freedom
after his contract expired, his daughter no such legal claim.

Assigned to the Mansion House, Ona spent her days on arduous domestic tasks
[...]  George Washington once described her as being a "perfect Mistress of
her needle."

After Washington's election in 1789, he and Martha left for the
inauguration in New York City with seven slaves from Mount Vernon. The
15-year-old Ona had no choice but to leave the plantation-abandoning all
her family and friends-and accompany her owners to their new residence.
[...] Soon Ona's circle of friends greatly expanded and many of these new
acquaintances were free-blacks who answered the slave's questions about
liberty, self-sovereignty, and how to escape. [...]


When the seat of government shifted from New York to Pennsylvania a year
and a half later, the entire household; slaves included, moved again to
Philadelphia. Towards the end of Washington's second term, the President
decided to spend his summer recess back on Mount Vernon. Ona realized that
she if she were to go back south to the plantation she might never gain her
liberty and thus decided to escape from the Executive Mansion. Since
Washington mentioned in a letter to his nephew Bartholomew Dandridge in
June of 1796 how on "Monday the 13th I expect to leave this city for Mount
Vernon," Ona probably escaped from her owners around this date or perhaps a
few weeks earlier. While the Washingtons began packing in anticipation for
their departure, Ona too packed up her things, but with different
intentions. Retelling her story to for the New Hampshire abolitionist
paper, "Granite Freeman" many years later in 1845, Ona confided "I had
friends among the colored people of Philadelphia, had my things carried
there before hand, and left while [the Washingtons] were eating dinner."
Once in hiding, the fugitive's friends walked the docks looking for the
first ship sailing north with a captain who would ask no questions about
his passengers. [...]

While strolling through the streets of Portsmouth, Ona passed by Elizabeth
Langdon, daughter of Senator John Langdon. As a frequent caller to Martha
Washington and her granddaughter, Nelly Custis, Betsy Langdon had seen Ona
numerous times. Miss Langdon tried to engage Ona in conversation but the
bondswoman evaded her. It is probably from this interlude that news of
Ona's whereabouts made it back to Washington, because by September, when
the President returned to Philadelphia, he already knew where to search for
his escaped slave.


"Thirst for Complete Freedom"
Since Ona had been illegally delivered to New Hampshire, Washington
immediately contacted Joseph Whipple, Portsmouth's Collector of Customs
(and brother to William Whipple) to seek his help in the matter. In a
letter dated September 1, 1796, the President requested that Whipple "seize
her and put her on board a Vessel bound immediately to this place, or to
Alexandria" with a promise to reimburse him of any costs. Honored to have
his services called upon by the President, Whipple set out to locate the
fugitive slave. However, during an interview with Ona, the Collector became
so impressed with her character, so convinced of her "thirst for complete
freedom," that he decided against returning her to involuntary servitude.
Whipple wrote back to the President that he could not arrest her and force
her to sail back because "popular opinion here is in favor of universal
freedom" and such an action might spawn a demonstration among anti-slavery
residents. He suggested that Washington use the courts rather than the
Customs House to retrieve his fugitive slave.

On November 28th, 1796, Washington wrote to Whipple a second time with the
hopes that more could be done to catch his escaped slave. He outlined a
possible course of action for her apprehension, but cautioned the Collector
not to take any action which might "excite a mob or riot...or even uneasy
Sensations in the Minds of well disposed Citizens." Paying lip service to
the President, Whipple assured Washington that he would try to execute his
request, but doubted that it could be done without stirring anti-slavery
sentiments. He also reminded the slave owner that a servant returning
voluntarily is of "infinitely more value in the estimation of her employer
than one taken forcibly like a felon to punishment."


Free But Not Safe
Whipple's non-intervention allowed Judge to grow roots in Portsmouth. She
adjusted quickly to her new life as an independent woman, took up residence
with a free black family, and found work as a seamstress to support
herself. In January of 1797, Ona met and married a Black Jack by the name
of Jack Staines. Although Ona assumed the life of a free-black woman, she
was in constant fear that slave hunters would send her back to bondage -
and rightfully so - for Washington certainly did not forget where she was
hiding. Two years after Ona's escape, the retired President asked his
nephew, Burwell Bassett, Jr., who was planning a business trip to New
Hampshire, to try and seize the woman along with any children she may have
had, and send them all back to the Virginia plantation. When Bassett
revealed these intentions during his dinner with Langdon, the Senator
quickly sent word about the impending kidnapping to Ona by way of his
servant. The fugitive hired a wagon and fled to the neighboring town of
Greenland where she and her baby went into hiding with a free black family
named Jacks. Here she stayed until Bassett left and her husband returned
from sea. Although she successfully eluded another apprehension, it wasn't
until the Death of Washington three months after this incident, that Ona
felt her freedom was finally secured. [...]  "


portrait:
http://www.seacoastnh.com/tobiaslear/ph12.html
Mrs. Martha Custis (Martha Washington)

http://www.seacoastnh.com/blackhistory/jacks.html