Ona Judge

Ona Judge Staines wasn't a name whispered in the halls of Congress, but her daring escape from the clutches of President George Washington himself etched her into the fabric of the American Founding. A young enslaved woman in the Washington household, Ona's audacious flight to freedom in 1796, just months after Martha Washington's death, exposed the contradiction at the heart of the new nation's ideals of liberty and equality. Her courageous act challenged the institution of slavery directly, forcing a confrontation with the uncomfortable reality that those who championed freedom held others in bondage. Though she lived a life of quiet dignity in the North, her story, slowly uncovered over time, continues to resonate as a powerful testament to the enduring spirit of resistance against injustice and a crucial counterpoint to the often sanitized narratives of the American Revolution.