{"id":200452,"date":"2026-05-23T04:50:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T04:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/200452\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T04:50:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T04:50:22","slug":"ona-judge-enslaved-by-george-washington-celebrated-in-philadelphia-new-hampshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/200452\/","title":{"rendered":"Ona Judge, enslaved by George Washington, celebrated in Philadelphia, New Hampshire"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 From her footprints in Philadelphia to her face in New Hampshire, advocates for telling the whole truth of American history are celebrating Ona Judge and her daring escape from slavery<\/a> 230 years ago.<\/p>\n

Judge, who was born into slavery on George Washington\u2019s plantation, was 22 years old when she slipped away from the president\u2019s official residence in Philadelphia on May 21, 1796. She hid on a boat that carried her to New Hampshire, where she later married and had three children.<\/p>\n

May 21st has been officially declared Ona Judge Day in Philadelphia, where a rally took place Thursday at the President\u2019s House site, a target of the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to remove information it deems \u201cdisparaging\u201d to Americans from federal properties. Participants chanted \u201cTell the truth! Restore our history!\u201d after hearing from those involved in fighting to restore exhibits about Judge and other people enslaved at the site.<\/p>\n

The panels were abruptly removed in January<\/a> following an executive order from President Donald Trump. Some of the exhibits were restored following a judge\u2019s order, but the work has been halted while the administration appeals.<\/a><\/p>\n

A panel featuring Judge is among those that have been rehung, and she is further memorialized in a series of bronze footprints embedded in the sidewalk symbolizing how she escaped to freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remember her courage, her passion, her determination, that we make sure that in no way, shape or form she is ever forgotten,\u201d said Cindy Bass, a member of the Philadelphia City Council. \u201cEach one, teach one. Everyone, tell someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dawn Chavous, a volunteer for the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, said it\u2019s important to acknowledge the contributions of all people who shaped the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t love America without knowing the good, the bad and the ugly,\u201d she said. \u201cSlavery was part of our American story, and that is not something that we should hide or run away from.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a 13-by-25-foot mural depicting Judge is being unveiled Saturday on the side of a building owned by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire. The organization has featured her story for years with tours and other educational programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when stories of struggle and freedom are being erased, New Hampshire is choosing something different: to make the quest for freedom visible, permanent, and undeniable,\u201d the organization said in announcing the mural project.<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 From her footprints in Philadelphia to her face in New Hampshire, advocates for telling the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[29492,88781,34,38,14416,4220,88780,40,28,69,71,70,50,17220,34251,44,6914],"class_list":["post-200452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-cindy-bass","tag-dawn-chavous","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-george-washington","tag-new-hampshire","tag-nh-state-wire","tag-pa-state-wire","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-politics","tag-race-and-ethnicity","tag-slavery","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}