Religion and Ethics and Health BBS

Religion and Ethics and Health BBS
[ Religion and Ethics and Health BBS ]

22-year-old enslaved woman named Ona Judge slipped out of the President's House in Philadelphia.

Posted by Christoher Blackwell on June 18, 2026, 3:30 pm

https://www.facebook.com/groups/581521791672003/user/61590549511997/

In May 1796, a 22-year-old enslaved woman named Ona Judge slipped out of the President's House in Philadelphia while the Washingtons ate dinner. She had learned that Martha Washington planned to give her as a wedding gift to her granddaughter — a notoriously cruel mistress. Ona walked to the docks, boarded the sloop Nancy bound for New Hampshire, and disappeared.

For the next 50 years, President George Washington — and after his death, his estate — relentlessly tried to capture her. He sent federal agents, customs collectors, and his own nephew to track her down in Portsmouth, NH, where locals quietly hid her. Twice the agents found her; twice the local Black community got her out before they could grab her. Washington personally signed papers ordering her seizure, in violation of the Fugitive Slave Act's spirit if not its letter.

Ona married a free Black sailor, had three children, and outlived George Washington by 49 years. She lived in poverty her entire life — she could never come out of hiding to claim charity — but in 1845, the abolitionist newspaper The Granite Freeman found her in a tiny shack in Greenland, New Hampshire, age 71.

The interviewer asked if she regretted leaving the comfort of the Washington household. Her answer: "No. I am free, and have, I trust, been made a child of God by the means."
She is buried in an unmarked grave. The President of the United States hunted her until his own death and never caught her

I find it hard to believe that the GROSS IMMORALITY of chattel slavery was not obvious to all.

Posted by DFM on June 19, 2026, 3:09 pm, in reply to " 22-year-old enslaved woman named Ona Judge slipped out of the President's House in Philadelphia."

Chattel Slavery is EVIL. It is that simple. It is absolutely immoral for people to be bought, sold, traded, inherited, or abused, etc.

Slavery IS MORAL in certain specific situations:
Punishment for a crime after due process.
Prisoners of war, until peace and repatriation.

But, even so, they are not to be bought, sold, traded, or abused.

Indeed...

Posted by 7:77 on June 20, 2026, 2:14 pm, in reply to "I find it hard to believe that the GROSS IMMORALITY of chattel slavery was not obvious to all."

And I'm definitely in the "they knew it was morally repugnant at the time" camp.

I agree. EVERYBODY knew it was evil, but it was CONVENIENT for the privileged.

Posted by DFM on June 20, 2026, 7:07 pm, in reply to "Indeed..."

Maybe we can compare it to how we keep some animals caged all their lives.

Posted by Ken C on June 19, 2026, 10:51 pm, in reply to "I find it hard to believe that the GROSS IMMORALITY of chattel slavery was not obvious to all."

It's not an exact comparison, but maybe we can think about how we treat all the animals that live in cages all their lives, then we kill and eat them. Many people think that's OK. Many people used to think slavery was OK.

Re: I find it hard to believe that the GROSS IMMORALITY of chattel slavery was not obvious to all.

Posted by Christopher Blackwell on June 19, 2026, 8:00 pm, in reply to "I find it hard to believe that the GROSS IMMORALITY of chattel slavery was not obvious to all."

I would say all slavery was evil.

The Constitution EXPLICITLY excludes punishment for a crime.

Posted by DFM on June 20, 2026, 7:09 pm, in reply to "Re: I find it hard to believe that the GROSS IMMORALITY of chattel slavery was not obvious to all."

We need to do SOMETHING with convicts.

You are beating a dead horse. 175 approx years and still

Posted by GOG on June 19, 2026, 9:42 pm, in reply to "Re: I find it hard to believe that the GROSS IMMORALITY of chattel slavery was not obvious to all."

the efforts to create racial division. Get over it. I am.

Racial division has never ended.

Posted by Christopher Blackwell on June 20, 2026, 2:55 pm, in reply to "You are beating a dead horse. 175 approx years and still "

GOG, I was lucky not to be raised with it and just being human. I give anyone a basic level of respect in how I treat them.

as much as you might wish you cannot rewrite history

Posted by trish on June 20, 2026, 5:02 am, in reply to "You are beating a dead horse. 175 approx years and still "

the way you want. Would you like someone to write about hitler as a nice guy? Come on GOG

Wow! Really? Comparing George to Adolf!!?? Wow again!

Posted by GOG on June 20, 2026, 6:40 am, in reply to "as much as you might wish you cannot rewrite history"

It was the economic system. Were you there? Had you been, I bet you would have had a personal slave. Probably. Likely. Lincoln was a racist. Admit it.

Miss the point much

Posted by Trish on June 20, 2026, 10:05 am, in reply to "Wow! Really? Comparing George to Adolf!!?? Wow again!"

the reality is that some of our leaders had seedy habits. They are, after all, human. To try and erase the whole picture is unequivically wrong

Okay, he died at 67.

Posted by GOG on June 20, 2026, 10:43 am, in reply to "Miss the point much"

I don’t see where you disdain the medical profession of his day. Now there is a case for woke complaining. Bled him to death. Time marches on. So do circumstances and mores. Like the same profession pushing Covid mass murder. I complained. Rightly so. But that is the present era. And now slavery is considered repugnant.

He died at 67 due to DOCTORS. Without their "HELP", he might have lived till 90.

Posted by DFM on June 20, 2026, 7:11 pm, in reply to "Okay, he died at 67."

Well, at least you admit they are of human foibles.

Posted by GoG on June 20, 2026, 10:36 am, in reply to "Miss the point much"

I seriously doubt the highly respected President Washington hunted for her the rest of his life. Certainly not her life. George died in his fifties. And as I recall, that family freed their chatter at Martha’s death.

Have you even read the documentation?

Posted by Trish on June 21, 2026, 5:08 am, in reply to "Well, at least you admit they are of human foibles. "

Now here's the thing GOG. It may have been an EGO thing. Or maybe someone said he had to do it to save face.

Ego? Save face? Hahaha.

Posted by GOG on June 24, 2026, 9:19 pm, in reply to "Have you even read the documentation?"

It's disgusting how immoral some people were back then.

Posted by Ken C on June 19, 2026, 10:59 am, in reply to " 22-year-old enslaved woman named Ona Judge slipped out of the President's House in Philadelphia."

Re: It's disgusting how immoral some people were back then.

Posted by Christopher Blackwell on June 20, 2026, 1:26 pm, in reply to "It's disgusting how immoral some people were back then. "

Ken, I agree and not just about slavery, but how they treated others, such as natives, immigrants, the poor, and almost any others they saw as different from themselves. Yet they often claimed to Christians, though almost never acting like they were. Nor are they all that much different today.

I think that all people are a mixture of good and bad, wisdom and foolishness. No group much better or worse than any other group of humans.

Rear view mirrors can cause rear enders.

Posted by GOG on June 19, 2026, 12:50 pm, in reply to "It's disgusting how immoral some people were back then. "

Strange how such “disgusting” ancestors gave us our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Give them some credit. African Americans achieved their equality in the eyes of that framework, via the judicial system. Those early settlers, and the elite had a different ethos. Imagine what future generations will say about us. It won’t be pretty.

There is good and bad in almost everyone. I agree our founding fathers gave us a good start.

Posted by Ken C on June 20, 2026, 12:51 pm, in reply to "Rear view mirrors can cause rear enders."

The constitution and bill of rights are good for our country.

Slavery was bad, and left us with a painful legacy we are still trying to overcome.

I don’t believe one iota of this. More racist fiction.

Posted by GOG on June 19, 2026, 9:13 am, in reply to " 22-year-old enslaved woman named Ona Judge slipped out of the President's House in Philadelphia."

Well, maybe she did run. I would not blame her. My question is where did she get the money for the ship’s passage?

Re: I don’t believe one iota of this. More racist fiction.

Posted by Christopher Blackwell on June 19, 2026, 7:45 pm, in reply to "I don’t believe one iota of this. More racist fiction. "

Ah such as White Supremest propaganda. The bs that any group is better than any other. All groups are a mixture of good and bad people, wise and foolish and all of us are a mix of those features. Anyone who thinks they are superior is a fool.

I’m tired of our Founders being savaged. Especially Southerners.

Posted by GOG on June 19, 2026, 9:38 pm, in reply to "Re: I don’t believe one iota of this. More racist fiction. "

Destroy a nation’s mythology and you destroy the nation. is that your goal, what you want? They had more morals, more integrity than the current crop of low life’s.

Re: I’m tired of our Founders being savaged. Especially Southerners.

Posted by Christopher Blackwell on June 20, 2026, 2:50 pm, in reply to "I’m tired of our Founders being savaged. Especially Southerners. "

Destroy a nation’s mythology and you destroy the nation. is that your goal, what you want? They had more morals, more integrity than the current crop of low life’s.

GOG, true history is far more valuable than mere myth, We hide what our other people contributed to our Country's development just to keep the White superiority myth.

Only inferior person needs to pretend to be superior. If you don't need to feel superior, you also won't need to feel inferior either.

Our history shows that our ancestors had no more great level of morality than we have today, especially with how people treat others, Natives, minorities, immigrants, poor people and so forth, and it does not matter what part of the country you look at, or when.

Shame on George

Posted by Mondo Fuego™ on June 18, 2026, 6:46 pm, in reply to " 22-year-old enslaved woman named Ona Judge slipped out of the President's House in Philadelphia."

Jefferson was called "Peeping Tom". Do you know why?

Yes, shame on George Floyd.

Posted by GOG on June 20, 2026, 5:09 pm, in reply to "Shame on George"

I don’t believe that, either. Just like it’s not true he screwed Sally Hemings.

Posted by GOG on June 19, 2026, 9:15 am, in reply to "Shame on George"

Re: Shame on George

Posted by Christopher Blackwell on June 18, 2026, 8:06 pm, in reply to "Shame on George"

Just getting the view from the side rarely mentioned in our school history texts. As for Jefferson, it is only recently, in the last few years that his Black Descendants have been officially recognized through DNA tests, though it was used against him politically. It just something slave owner often did, but it was not polite to talk about. It was something their wives often knew about and hated.

As I have some slave owning ancestors before the Civil War, I think likely that I have some Black cousins who are just as much Blackwell descendants as I am.

Never been DNA proven Thomas has Black descendants.

Posted by GOG on June 19, 2026, 9:29 am, in reply to "Re: Shame on George"

Another urban myth. Because this is true, undisputed, my guess is most of these racist troublemaking fiction writers enslave reality to towards bias and bigotry against Whites.

As far as the Jefferson Cemetery burial rights, the White descendants were magnanimous in allowing Black Jefferson’s to be interred there at Montecello. This kindness extended even though only direct Thomas Jefferson descendants was the rule. And the current crop of Black ‘Jefferson’s’ are not directly DNA related. However, the magnanimity was coached in fear (what’s new) of being called racists had the rule not been broken to accommodate the Hemmings’ hysteria. In a court of law, Thomas was not found guilty.

Re: Never been DNA proven Thomas has Black descendants.

Posted by Christopher Blackwell on June 19, 2026, 7:55 pm, in reply to "Never been DNA proven Thomas has Black descendants."

BS on your claim. Slave owners raped both female and sometimes males as well to break them.

False.

Posted by 7:77 on June 19, 2026, 11:08 am, in reply to "Never been DNA proven Thomas has Black descendants."

There's a pretty complete examination of this available at Monticello.org.

It’s all a “best guess”. I’ve seen zero that is proof positive.

Posted by GOG on June 19, 2026, 2:16 pm, in reply to "False."

I’m giving the great man the benefit of the doubt. If he did have a tryst with the very pretty Sally, I’ll not judge. That’s for his wife to do if she actually cared. But methinks the Hemings overreached. Typical of those who suffer from false pride.

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