Ona Maria Staines PDF

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Professor: Michael Dickinson...

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Anna Chen HIST 361 August 31, 2020

In this primary source, Ona Maria Staines recounts her life as a slave to Mrs. Washington. In an interview Staines talks a little about her life as a slave, how she escaped, and remained free for the remainder of her life. The stresses of being a slave and escape are detailed in her personal interview. Ona Maria Judge, her name at the time of being a slave, was a runaway slave that escaped during the end of President George Washington’s second term of presidency. During Judge’s enslavement, the Washington family was planning on moving to Virginia. Judge knew after her original master, Mrs. Washington were to die, she would be handed down to Mrs. Washington’s granddaughter, whom she never wanted to be a slave to. With that thought in mind, as Judge packed her things for the move, she planned her escape route to Philadelphia. As the Washington family had dinner, Judge slipped out and escaped her masters. She boarded a ship commanded by Captain John Bolles that was headed towards Portsmouth. Judge said that she kept his identity a secret long until he passed, for the fear that he would have been punished for helping a slave escape. After settling into her new life of freedom, she was later tracked down by Basset, a messenger sent by the Washington family to bring her back to slavery. After refusing to return to slavery, Basset was then told to bring Judge and her infant child back by any means neccessary. When Basset arrived once again to take her, he informed Governor John Langdon about his mission and the Governor tipped her off, allowing Judge to escape in time. She travelled to Greenland with the help of a stable boy and remained there until Basset could no

longer find her. After the passing of Washington, the family never troubled her again. In her new life of freedom, Judge remarried a man by the name of Staines and had three children. In the interview with Ona Judge Staines, she says to have been the chambermaid for Mrs. Washington. During the move to Virginia, what prompted her to escape was the thought of never having the chance to again if she were to move back. Staines had no education prior to gaining her freedom or any religious ties, but since then Staines learned how to read and converted to Christianity. I find this primary source significant to our understanding of African American history because we are able to follow along with the experience of how one slave carved their way to freedom. In class we follow along with the lectures, we’re taught how the slaves escaped but we do not get the details like from this interview. We hear the basics of slaves escaping but this interview with a former slave gives us details that we otherwise do not receive in lecture. Staines lives to tell the details of her escape, how she escaped, and why she escaped. Staines lives to tell her story of how she survived the horrors of slavery, overcame it, and how she thrived in her new freedom. It is significant because without interviews like these with slave survivors, we would not be able to understand or know how it was truly like for them....