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Philadelphia will officially recognize May 21 as “Ona Judge Day,” honoring the woman who escaped enslavement after fleeing President George Washington’s household in the city on that day in 1796.
Judge, an enslaved woman who worked as a seamstress and personal attendant to Martha Washington, was among the nine enslaved people Washington rotated between his Philadelphia residence and Virginia plantation to evade Pennsylvania’s gradual abolition law.
Judge is recognized in one of the many placards on display at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia’s Independence National Historic Park. President Donald Trump’s administration sought to remove her history, along with that of eight other people enslaved by Washington during his time in Philadelphia.