In the Shadow of Liberty: Chapters 4–5

On May 23, 1796, Washington’s steward placed a notice in a Philadelphia newspaper offering a ten-dollar reward (about 180 dollars in today’s money) for the return of the runaway known as Oney Judge.

The prominent advertisement began with the words “Absconded from the household of the President.”

“There was no suspicion of her going off, nor no provocation to do so,” the ad said.

The president also guessed, correctly, that Ona might book passage on a ship and had the funds—the “wherewithal”—to do so.

...any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct or hinder such claimant, his agent, or attorney, in so seizing or arresting such fugitive from labor, or shall rescue such fugitive from such claimant, his agent or attorney, when so arrested pursuant to the authority herein given and declared; or shall harbor or conceal such person after notice that he or she was a fugitive from labor, as aforesaid, shall, for either of the said offences, forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars.

Washington wrote to a government official whose help he sought, “There is no doubt in this family of her having been seduced and enticed off by a Frenchman.”

The stream of prominent guests included foreign dignitaries and members of the new government, such as New Yorker Alexander Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury, and fellow Virginians Thomas Jefferson, Washington’s secretary of state; and James Madison, then a member of Congress and one of Washington’s closest political advisers.

As lady’s maid to the president’s wife, her tasks included caring for the expensive silk and woolen clothing and the linens worn closest to the body, as well as delicate lace and handkerchiefs.

Plumper as she got older, Mrs. Washington also wore a corset—an undergarment to cinch in a woman’s waist—and Ona would be the one who laced it tight.

Not only did she tend to Martha’s clothing, but Ona was responsible for Martha Washington’s makeup—powders and rouge were popular at the time.

“I wish to have it accomplished under pretext that may deceive both them and the Public,” wrote the president.

His elaborate ruse worked, even though Washington was certainly breaking the letter of the law. But who was going to challenge the most admired man in America over a handful of house servants?

It is hard to contemplate that a person like Ona Judge was seen by her mistress as an appropriate gift—no different from expensive china, a parcel of land, or a fine horse—to be passed along to a family member.

Ona defiantly tells her that she has run away.

Wasting no time, Washington contacted Joseph Whipple, Portsmouth’s collector of customs, to seek his help in the matter.

The family’s prominence had led to Joseph’s appointment to the lucrative post as collector of customs.

Washington promised to reimburse the man for his efforts.

Financial incentives aside, it would have been difficult for anyone to say no to America’s greatest man.

She now resides with a colored woman by the name of Nancy Jack...and is maintained as a pauper by the county of Rockingham.

More than sixty of the rebels are killed, their heads displayed on pikes alongside roads outside New Orleans as a warning against future revolts.

While Dunmore’s liberated black fighters had not won any battles, they left behind angry slaveholders.

But a larger exodus of runaways was to come. In 1779, Henry Clinton, the British commander in chief in America, again issued an offer of freedom.

Yorktown’s wretched scene grew grimmer. The nearby woods and roads were littered with the dead and dying.

“Jefferson sold several young men with a propensity for running away,” Monticello historian Lucia Stanton explains, “in accordance with his policy of ridding his domain of disruptive elements.”

About six when he was returned to Monticello, he later provided a fascinating testimonial of surviving bombardments, starvation, and disease at Yorktown, then going on to see a great deal of Monticello’s history long after the Revolution ended.

Later, Campbell took Isaac to a shop to have a daguerreotype—a kind of early photograph—made in 1847.

Historians try to separate tall tales and fanciful recollections from actual events.

Other documents and sources have vouched for much of what he recalled.

Now master and slave instead of boyhood friends, Jupiter rode beside Jefferson, buying his books and fiddle strings, paying his bills, and even lending him money, “to provide tips to other slaves, the domestic servants of his Williamsburg friends.”

The man had escaped from Monticello, taking a white horse with him. Describing Sandy, Jefferson noted, “He is greatly addicted to drink, and when drunk is insolent and disorderly, in his conversation he swears much, and in his behavior is artful and knavish.”

The man had escaped from Monticello, taking a white horse with him. Describing Sandy, Jefferson noted, “He is greatly addicted to drink, and when drunk is insolent and disorderly, in his conversation he swears much, and in his behavior is artful and knavish.”

Jefferson wrote about the ideals and principles of equality and even proposed some small steps toward ending American slavery. But he also owned people and was completely dependent on them for his livelihood and personal comfort until the day he died.

Is this simply hypocrisy—saying one thing but doing another?

Isaac Granger offered vivid pictures of the ties between servant and master, the intimate daily contacts they had with each other.

The privy—the presidential outhouse—was outdoors, pretty much in full view of the public.

After watching a dozen enslaved men laboring outside the future White House, Abigail Adams complained to her uncle in a letter, “Two of our hardy New England men would do as much work in a day as the whole 12.”

She added that the twelve men and the other enslaved people she saw each day were often “half fed, and destitute of clothing,” while the owners who hired out these men did nothing but keep their wages.

Three years earlier, Isaac, along with his wife, Iris, and two sons, Squire and Joyce, had been given to Jefferson’s daughter Polly and her husband. They were among thirty enslaved people given to the couple as part of Polly’s dowry.

The existing slave states wanted any new territories to be admitted into the Union with slavery allowed. That would mean more land to be worked with slave labor. It would also add considerable political power to the slave states—each new state would get seats in Congress and electoral votes based on their enslaved population because of the three-fifths rule in the Constitution.

During his life, Thomas Jefferson had written angry words denouncing the slave trade. He called it a “cruel war against human nature,” though the drafting committee removed those words from his version of the Declaration of Independence.