Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.
Concept
Oney Judge
Summary
Ona "Oney" Judge Staines ( 1773 – February 25, 1848) was a white slave who was owned by the Washington family, first at the family's plantation at Mount Vernon and later, after George Washington became president, at the President's House in Philadelphia, then the nation's capital city. In her early twenties, she absconded, becoming a fugitive slave, after learning that Martha Washington had intended to transfer ownership of her to her granddaughter, known to have a horrible temper. She fled to New Hampshire, where she married, had children, and converted to Christianity. Though she was never formally freed, the Washington family ultimately stopped pressing her to return to Virginia after George Washington's death.
Judge was born about 1773 at Mount Vernon, the estate of George Washington and his family. Her mother, Betty, was a slave, and her father, Andrew Judge, was a white English tailor working as an indentured servant at Mount Vernon. Though Judge was predominantly of European heritage, she was born into slavery under the premise of partus sequitur ventrem. She had a half-brother, Austin, born before 1757 (father unknown); a half-brother Tom Davis and a half-sister Betty Davis (fathered by white indentured weaver Thomas Davis); and a half-sister Delphy (father unknown). Delphy, born to Betty about 1779, lived until December 13, 1831.
Betty had been among the 285 African slaves owned by Martha Washington's first husband, Daniel Parke Custis (1711–1757). Custis died without a will and so, his widow, Martha Dandridge Custis, received what was called a dower share of the estate, which meant, until her death, she was entitled to use of a third of her deceased husband's wealth, which included at least 85 slaves. Though Martha had some control over these dower slaves, she did not own them outright, the estate did, and so, she could neither free nor sell them. After Martha wed George Washington in 1759, Betty traveled with her to Mount Vernon, along with then-infant Austin.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.