Enslaved Africans in the Household of George and Martha Washington

During George and Martha Washington's stay in Philadelphia, nine enslaved Africans were known to have lived and worked at the President's House as active participants in the daily life of the presidential household and the surrounding city. Research offers glimpses into their lives while also representing the thousands of free and enslaved people of African descent who lived and labored in Philadelphia and helped build a new nation. Austin, Ona Judge's half brother, died on December 20, 1794, after falling from a horse while returning to Mount Vernon, leaving a wife and five children. Christopher Sheets attempted to escape from Mount Vernon in 1799 but was unsuccessful, and his fate after Martha Washington's death in 1802 is unknown. Giles worked as a driver, postillion, and stable hand, returned to Mount Vernon in 1791 after being injured during Washington's tour of the southern states, and died before 1799. Hercules served for many years as cook at both Mount Vernon and in Philadelphia, was renowned for his skill and exacting standards, seized his freedom in 1797 just before the family retired to Mount Vernon, and was later legally freed in Washington's will. Joe Richardson was mentioned in 1795 as Postillion Joe, though his time in Philadelphia is uncertain, and he was married to a woman freed with their children after Washington's death, when the family took the name Richardson. Moll served as nursemaid to Martha Washington's two grandchildren and earlier to Martha's children from her first marriage and later at Mount Vernon. Ona Judge, a talented seamstress like her mother, became Martha Washington's personal maid as a teenager, escaped to New Hampshire in 1796, lived there until her death in 1848, married the free black sailor Jack Staines, and had three children who all died before she did. Paris was a young stable hand returned to Mount Vernon in 1791 for unsatisfactory behavior and died in 1794. Richmond came to Philadelphia at age 11 with his father Hercules, worked briefly in the kitchen, returned to Mount Vernon in 1791, and his later fate is unknown. After Ona escaped from Philadelphia, Washington repeatedly tried to recapture her after learning she was in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but the Collector of Customs there refused to seize her; two years later Burwell Bassett, Jr., acting at Washington's request, planned to capture Ona and her child, but Governor John Langdon warned her, and she escaped again. Near the end of her life, after outliving all her family, Ona impressed those who spoke with her by her dignity, her faith in God, and her enduring love of freedom.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States