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Ona Judge

Biography

United States

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Biography

Ona Judge Staines (c. 1773 – February 25, 1848), also known as Oney Maria Judge Staines, was a biracial enslaved woman who escaped from George Washington's presidential household, and eluded capture by him and by Martha Washington's relatives. She was born to Betty, an enslaved seamstress, and Andrew Judge, a white English tailor, on the Washingtons' Mount Vernon Plantation in Virginia, and fled to freedom from the President's House in Philadelphia in 1796.

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Biography text · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

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