Mount Vernon, Virginia (c 1773-February 25, 1848) age ~75yrs

Oney ‘Ona’ Judge, known as Ona Judge Staines after marriage, was an enslaved woman owned by Martha Washington. She worked on George Washington’s plantation, Mt. Vernon, in Virginia. Beginning in 1789, she started working as a lady’s maid to First Lady Martha Washington. She served in the presidential households in New York City and Philadelphia. With the aid of Philadelphia’s free Black community, Judge liberated herself in 1792. She lived as a fugitive slave in New Hampshire for the rest of her life. We know more about her than any other enslaved person on the Mount Vernon plantation. She was interviewed by the abolitionist newspapers in the mid 1840’s. Oney Judge (ca. 1773–1848) – Encyclopedia Virginia