INDIANAPOLIS — In 1796, a slave name Ona Judge took on the “most powerful man” in the nation, when she escaped from bondage and pursued her freedom “at any cost,” said Dr. Erica Armstrong Dunbar, the Charles and Mary Beard Professor of History at Rutgers University and the author of the award-winning book Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge.
Speaking at the 103rd annual meeting and conference of The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) on Saturday, Dunbar said that Ona Judge was “a new American hero” who defied the first president, George Washington, at all costs.
Born in 1773 or 1774, Ona was a small child when the Declaration of Independence was signed. When the Constitution was written, she entered her teenage years and became Martha Washington’s “chosen one.” As a slave, she tended to domestic duties and was among the seven slaves that Washington selected to travel with him to New York after he was elected president in 1789.
When the Washingtons’ granddaughter, Elizabeth Parke Custis Law announced that she was getting married, Martha Washington gifted her best slave, Ona Judge, to her, said Dunbar.
One day, the 22-year-old Judge ran away and she was never caught.
“The pursuit for Ona was intentional, involved and lasted for the lifespan of George and Martha,” Dunbar told the audience who gathered at a luncheon jointly sponsored by the Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH) and ASALH.
Even though Judge did not fight during the American Revolution, “she most certainly fought George Washington and she won,” Dunbar added.
