New Mural of Ona Judge, the woman who escaped slavery at the hands of George and Martha Washington!

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:17]I mean, listen, I I'll just simply say that today exceeded expectations.

[00:00:38]Hey, good morning. This is your host, Juggernaut. Hopefully this comes through. Okay, I'm using my meta glasses just for this because it's raining and I'm running a little bit behind. And I wanted to get out at 5:00 a.m., but it's a little after 5:30. And I'm pulling up on the president's house, George Washington's executive mansion during his presidency here in Philadelphia on Sixth Street.

[00:01:05]But we're right here because on this weekend, it was a Saturday very much like this rainy. They kind of just like was crappy. On a judge, a 22year-old enslaved woman of George and Martha Washington escaped from this place right here. This was the president's house. And if you've been following the news, this is the subject of a great deal of controversy as the current president uh issued an executive order to quote unquote restore sanity. I think that's the words he used.

[00:01:42]uh to teaching history and apparently it's insane to talk about what really happened in this house right here. Uh you can check out one of my early early videos of Michael Cord, attorney Michael Cord, who it leads a group named attack avenging the ancestors coalition where it breaks all of this down. But the reason I'm here today is because I'm about to ride to Portsmith, New Hampshire right now through this crappy weather. I mean, it's raining throughout the entire eastern part of the country, man. is like wrecking everybody's Memorial Day, but it's not going to wreck mine because today I'm going to get a chance to go and retrace Ona judge's footsteps and witness the unveiling of a mural in her honor.

[00:02:32]But uh on the way up, I'm going to be listening to Never Caught. I'm already at chapter 4. I'm going to listen to the entire book up there. Erica Armstrong Dunar has done an incredible job at retelling the story of Ona Judge and her life and the complexity and the Washingtons and all of that. If you love history, oh my god, you got to get the book.

[00:02:56]You can read it. You can have it read to you like I'm doing right now with uh Audible.

[00:03:03]But how cool is that to like listen to the book on my way as I'm riding the motorcycle up because when I get up there, Erica Armstrong Dunar will give words at the unveiling of the mural along with Michael Court.

[00:03:18]I mean, shout out to the folk there in Portsouth, New Hampshire at the Black Heritage Trail.

[00:03:27]They are putting a huge mural apparently on the side of their building in honor of owner judge. Ona judge found her way right down here where I am now and it's all been filled in with the freeway and all of that. It's been dredged. Things look a lot different today.

[00:03:43]This is I 95 as you can see. You can also see the Delaware River right there.

[00:03:49]So somewhere along the Delaware River on the judge jumped on that ship and she headed to Portsmith, New Hampshire. That took her a lot longer cuz I'm going to be on the interstate. So, no matter how I feel about a six five to six hour ride today, it is nothing like the journey that she took. So, uh here we go. You know, we're riding.

[00:04:15]It's already smoking with that rain coming off of it, but I think she's up to the task here. This is relative comfort compared to her travel in uh the 18th century.

[00:04:29]She did this on May 21st, 1796, 230 years ago, this week. It was on a Saturday. So, it was like actually though the date is not the same, it was this day that she took off, fed the Washingtons, and then hit the road. So, that's what we're going to do. We're about to hit the road.

[00:04:57]I wasn't ready. I mean, I just was not ready.

[00:05:02]Not today. I I was not ready for that today.

[00:05:08]And I haven't even gotten to the mural unveiling. Do you understand? I mean, this is just from from riding and retracing from where she's where she lived, where she escaped from, and now landing here in Portsouth, the place where she ended up.

[00:05:28]when she got off that boat and tasted freedom for the first time.

[00:05:38]I'm less than a mile away from the historical center, but this little community that only had about 5,000 people.

[00:05:47]Look at this. These waterways, imagine that it was something like this when she came in.

[00:05:58]had no idea. I mean, shout out to the white captain of the boat that took her out of Philadelphia.

[00:06:05]Shout out to Bishop Richard Allen and the free black community at Mother Bethl and Abselon Jones and the free community at St. Thomas African Episcopal Church because you know they helped her get away. They helped set the whole thing up and they were in contact with abolitionist folk and people who love freedom.

[00:06:28]And she was able to get free because of the goodwill of free black people who risked a lot. I mean, they could have shut Mother Bethl down if George Washington ever suspected that this was related to Richard Allen. Richard Allen, if you'll recall, had the chimney sweep business. He was there. The receipts show that he was there in March of 1796 in the house picking up payment.

[00:06:56]Came in contact with free black folk. We surmised that she went to Richard Allens because he was also a shoe cobbler to buy shoes in May. She was she received a little pittance from the Washingtons to go buy some shoes.

[00:07:19]And few days later she got away.

[00:07:25]They risked a lot. Mother Bethl was in a brand new building. The building was less than 2 years old. The blacksmith shop was dedic was consecrated in July of 1794.

[00:07:37]And then here you are in uh 17 in 1796 in May, not even two years later, using that free space to help people get away.

[00:07:54]Maybe they took her clothes cuz they said they took her clothes ahead of the time that she escaped. Maybe they hid her clothes there. I don't know.

[00:08:03]And then this white guy who risked his business, his license, it was a federal law. The Fugitive Slave Act, if you helped a slave get away after 1793, you were breaking a federal law. You do you understand how serious this is? The Fugitive Slave Act was serious business.

[00:08:23]And these folk risked all of that trouble for Ona Judge. One woman, you should be so inspired by Ona Judge's story. She told George Washington, "No, first of all, she escaped absconded." He said she she had the nerve to steal herself. She stole from me. What did she steal, Mr. President? Was it the fine china?

[00:08:53]What was it? Did she take a gold watch?

[00:08:56]Did she steal money from you, sir?

[00:09:00]No, she stole herself.

[00:09:03]Huh?

[00:09:05]I'm sorry, Mr. President. How does one steal oneself?

[00:09:10]Well, she left and she stole my property. She's my property. She stole herself, which is my property.

[00:09:25]So, not only did she steal herself, but then when he found her, she had the audacity to tell him no repeatedly. He didn't try just one time.

[00:09:38]He tried to get her back for three years. Kept sending all kind of representatives and letters and threats.

[00:09:47]And he was so pissed off and angry. It was so unbecoming of a president. I've never seen that before.

[00:09:58]Okay, so listen. I was just out here a few minutes ago and there was nobody out here. Went in for a second and look at the crowd.

[00:10:17]This thing is getting packed.

[00:10:20]People are out here big time.

[00:10:24]This must be like really something for uh New Hampshire.

[00:10:32]>> What's that?

[00:10:34]>> Pretty big for New Hampshire.

[00:10:36]>> My wife Sarah.

[00:10:40]>> How's it going?

[00:10:45]I'm going to give you different Heat.

[00:11:20]Heat.

[00:11:38]I mean, listen, I I'll just simply say that today exceeded expectations.

[00:11:45]And on the ride all the way up, I listened to the book Never Caught.

[00:11:51]listening to that book as I'm crossing the George Washington Bridge, for example, in New York while the book is talking about George Washington. um trying to force her to come back and to I mean just talking about all of the the the issues around him and slavery as I'm crossing that bridge was uh something going up through the New England uh states as they're talking about her time here and uh even how here the issue of slavery was not settled uh in the 1790s or early 1800s and that she was not even safe here. Then there's another descendant here who's related to uh Christopher Shields, one of the people that was there at the president's house, another enslaved person. And I thought he said Maul, but it sound like he said doll, but anyway, his other ancestor who he's directly descended from, uh she was also there and was apparently the matriarch of all the enslaved people at Mount Vernon. Um man, shout out to the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire. I mean, they really did something with this. Shout out to this community that came out that kept talking about how important it was for this to happen here. And I mean, just I I I could go on and on and on, but yeah, man. just and then the mural itself, the muralist, man, he just it it felt like just having just heard that audio book for the last 5 hours and just kind of feeling like you were walking with Ona Judge from her being a you know a small girl of 10 to being a teenager in the Washington's home in Philadelphia to her escape till she became an older woman in her 70s uh when she passed away here in this area where I'm sitting right now to just see the image that he put up. I mean, it just felt like it just captured uh everything. So, it is definitely pretty emotional uh when you think about where we've come from and the fact that as uh Erica said the other day, I ran I saw her speak recently and she made the point that the title is never caught. Not simply because she just got away, but because until George Washington died, the same year he died, he was still trying to get her back into bondage. He refused to let it go. and only death stopped his relentless search of her. Um, yeah. So, in any event, um, I'm glad to be here.

[00:14:40]Heat.

[00:14:51]Heat.