Oney "Ona" Judge Staines was an African American woman enslaved to the Washington family, first at the family's plantation at Mount Vernon and later, after George Washington became president, at the President's House in Philadelphia, then the nation's capital city. At the age of 20, she absconded, becoming a fugitive slave, after learning that Martha Washington had intended to transfer ownership of her to her niece, known to have a horrible temper, and fled to New Hampshire, where she married, had children, and converted to Christianity. Though she was never manumitted, the Washington family did not want to risk public backlash in forcing her to return to Virginia and after so many years of failing to persuade her to return quietly, the family let her be.
