"I am free now"

Oney Judge's strong desire for freedom drove the 22-year-old enslaved seamstress to flee the President's House on May 21, 1796. With the help of friends of African descent, she found passage to New Hampshire, where she married, raised a family, and lived to old age. As she recalled, while others were packing to go to Virginia, she was packing to go without knowing where, because she knew that if she went back to Virginia, she would never get her liberty; she had friends among the colored people of Philadelphia, had her things carried there beforehand, and left Washington's house while they were eating dinner.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States