{"id":54934,"date":"2017-09-08T13:02:53","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T13:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=54934"},"modified":"2017-09-08T13:22:20","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T13:22:20","slug":"in-search-of-the-slave-who-defied-george-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=54934","title":{"rendered":"In Search of the Slave Who Defied George Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Search of the Slave Who Defied George Washington<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\n2017-02-06<\/p>\n

Jennifer Schuessler<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nErica Armstrong Dunbar<\/a>, the author of \u201cNever Caught: The Washingtons\u2019 Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge<\/a>,\u201d at George Washington\u2019s<\/a> estate in Mount Vernon, Va.<\/a>
\nCredit Justin T. Gellerson for The New York Times<\/em><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

MOUNT VERNON, Va.<\/a> \u2014 The costumed characters at George Washington\u2019s<\/a> gracious estate here are used to handling all manner of awkward queries, whether about 18th-century privies or the first president\u2019s teeth. So when a visitor recently asked an African-American re-enactor in a full skirt and head scarf if she knew Ona Judge<\/a>, the woman didn\u2019t miss a beat.<\/p>\n

Judge\u2019s escape from the presidential residence in Philadelphia<\/a> in 1796 had been \u201ca great embarrassment to General and Lady Washington<\/a>,\u201d the woman said, before offering her own view of the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cOna was born free, like everybody,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was this world that made her a slave.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always 1799 at Mount Vernon<\/a>, where more than a million visitors annually see the property as it was just before Washington\u2019s death, when his will famously freed all 123 of his slaves. That liberation did not apply to Ona Judge, one of 153 slaves held by Martha Washington<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Judge, it turned out, evaded the Washingtons\u2019 dogged (and sometimes illegal) efforts to recapture her, and would live quietly in New Hampshire<\/a> for another 50 years. Now her story \u2014 and the challenge it offers to the notion that Washington somehow transcended the seamy reality of slaveholding \u2014 is having its fullest airing yet…<\/p>\n

…Ms. Dunbar<\/a>, the author of \u201cNever Caught<\/a>,\u201d first came across Ona Judge in the late 1990s, when she was a graduate student at Columbia researching free black women in Philadelphia. One day in the archives, she noticed a 1796 newspaper ad offering $10 for the return of \u201ca light Mulatto<\/a> girl, much freckled, with very black eyes and bushy hair\u201d who had \u201cabsconded\u201d from the president\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to myself: \u2018Here I am, a scholar in this field. Why don\u2019t I know about her?\u2019\u201d Ms. Dunbar recalled…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOna was born free, like everybody,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was this world that made her a slave.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1245,459,8,23674,20],"tags":[26836,1712,16992,1714,5755,2640,26837,2327],"class_list":["post-54934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-biography","category-history","category-media-archive","category-social-justice","category-usa","tag-erica-armstrong-dunbar","tag-george-washington","tag-jennifer-schuessler","tag-martha-washington","tag-new-hampshire","tag-new-york-times","tag-ona-judge","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54934"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54938,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54934\/revisions\/54938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}