President George Washington to Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Walcott (September 1, 1796)
Washington secretly asked the Secretary of Treasury to help him recover Ona Judge, an enslaved woman who had escaped from Washington’s home in Philadelphia while he was serving there as president.
After Ona Judge –who was Martha Washington’s enslaved maid– made her escape in May 1796, Washington took out an advertisement offering a ten dollar reward.
In September 1796, he wrote to a member of his Cabinet:
To seize, and put her on Board a Vessel bound immediately to this place [Philadelphia], or to Alexandria which I should like better, seems at first view, to be the safest and least[t] expensive. But if she is discovered, the Collector, I am persuaded, will pursue such measures as to him shall appear best, to effect those ends;
President George Washington to Secy. of Treasury Oliver Walcott (September 1, 1796)
Source: Writings of George Washington, cited in An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America by Henry Wiencek (p. 324)
Washington requested the assistance of Joseph Whipple, the Collector of the Port in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where Ona Judge had escaped by boat and was later identified on the street.
Washington wrote this letter just weeks before his more famous “Farewell Address” was published on September 19, 1796. The complete story of Ona Judge and Washington’s relationships with the people enslaved at Mount Vernon is detailed in
In The Shadow of Liberty: The Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives.
In the Shadow of Liberty (Available for pre-order and in stores on 9/20)
