Oney Judge ran away from the great cherry tree feller (actually his wife Martha) when girlfriend heard through the grapevine that she was gonna be presented, by Martha, to Martha's oldest granddaughter as a wedding gift!
Ain't that a bitch! Had these folks not heard of gifting china or silverware or...Never mind. I suppose gifting humans requird less wrapping paper.
Anyhoo.
Oney beat a hasty retreat when word came down. She'd been Martha's body servant and an expert needlecrafter. since the age of ten. She was about 17 when she'd been schlepped from Virginia to Philadelphia with her owners, the Washingtons.As i've stated she'd had enough of bondage, servitude and disrespect. She wanted out after being seen as an inanimate object all her life. So, with the help of free Blacks in philly, she left one evvening while the Washingtons were eating supper!
She made her way, through Underground Railroad stops, to New Hampshire by way of New York. There, she married a free Black sailor and had 2 daughters. She was hounded by America's 1st president until his and his wife's deaths . Ridiculously, they had kept insisting she return to them because how could she have done such a thing to them?
Say what? Now that's some nerve. Or as we'd say today, some privilege.
In any case, Oney ignored them. Sadly, her sister Delphy became the substitute wedding gift. Sorry, Delphy, but when you gotta escape, you gotta escape.
The story of the long-distance exchange bewteen Oney and the Washingtons is hilarious, if I do say so myself. The book lays it out in such a fashion that the whole interaction becomes a huge WTF moment.
Even though Oney's husband and children pre-deceased her, she outlived the 1st couple by almost 50 YEARS!
Go, Oney, with yo bad self!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HMXRZNM?ref=KC_GS_GB_US
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