The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 567 - The First President's Slave: Ona Judge

Episode Date: January 17, 2023

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine one of George and Martha Washington's slaves, Ona Judge. Sources Tour Dates Redbubble Merch   Squarespace Hello Fresh  

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American history podcast where each week I Dave Anthony read a story from American history to my friend Benji Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is gonna be about I'm leaning in I'm in I'm into it you like it yeah it's better I was never gonna bring it up again it's better I was never going to bring it up again I doubt we're talking about is we did it like when I was a kid and I would was chubby and I would make fun of my tits before the others would this got really weird let's stop and start again well it got dark you know what I mean yeah it it started out fun and it went to

a place that now it's sad nobody's comfortable with it now it's sad people tune into the show for good-hearted laughs and turn in here anything bad and sad no and you they're like good times essentially you turned it into group therapy and everybody's uncomfortable especially me why don't you say a few words of apology to our listeners listeners I'm sorry I should have done that I had a perfect childhood and one time I didn't only eat gum for three days to lose weight what I said one time I didn't only eat gum for three days to lose weight why would you say that because I'm not turning this into group

therapy so I'm not going to reveal strange things I did when I had issues you ate gum for three days hey the Benji thing is in reference to we did a live virtual show with moment and with my mother as the guest and it's a polyd it's a reverse dollop that is still up if you would like to go watch that it is it was pretty my mother enjoyed it a lot we had a good time it was long it was revealed that I was almost called Benjamin there's a lot of other stupid shit that Dave was getting into but you can go to moment.co slash the dollop and you can still watch that like it's a live event that's a

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join that it's pretty cheap and you can get a lot of stuff we do a little chats we do a bunch of bullshit we do small up sometimes blah blah blah we serve sandwiches to people also if you would like to watch my new special England weed and the rest you can go to my website gareth Reynolds calm click the menu button and there's a special tab there it's on the all things comedy youtube channel we just hit a hundred thousand views which is more than you've ever gotten on anything you've done my my last album charted on billboard hey I was on a plane once and I charted and I had to throw my boxes in the trash

let's see one on the ice instructions oh yeah it was the 80s no one was doing comedy dick lick now moving on I will be doing some road dates you can go to gareth Reynolds calm for this I'll be in Detroit January 27 28th I'll be in Rhode Island the 29th I'll be in Hartford the new New Hampshire Connecticut I'm not sure January 30th January 31st West Nilek New York February 9th through the 11th Rooster Teeth Feathers Sunnyvale California March 13th Summit City Comedy four-win Indiana March 14th Indianapolis March 15th Louisville March 16th Columbus Ohio March 17th Dayton Ohio March 18th Perry's Berg Ohio where's

that March 18th at Perry's Berg Ohio again March 19th Cleveland Ohio March 21st Lexington, Kentucky March 22nd Richmond Heights, Missouri March 23rd Kansas City Missouri March 24th Des Moines, Iowa March 25th Des Moines, Iowa March 26th Omaha and that's it for now there's more coming Dave's that's good see Dave's just yeah I tried to go through that as quickly as possible for you because I don't want to be mocked it's never fast enough that's that's that's that's what I'm up against June 1773 year 73 1773 17 okay gotcha year our Lord GZ Christie you know if if there really is a you know Christian God you you've

really been playing games have I you're not yeah yeah the other Christians in America am I the one who's been playing games yeah you have been yeah you're not carrying out his message you're just mocking him but give him weird little names GZ Christie so I should shooting things and yeah you should be carrying yeah you should be carrying out the orders of the Bible Oh no Maria judge was born on George Washington's Mount Vernon estate in Virginia I know this one how I just started there's no way it's just that's gonna be my new thing is pretending that the more obscure I'm gonna be like her

exact date of birth is unknown okay her mother Betty was a slave owned by Martha Custis Martha had been the wealthiest widow in Virginia and brought over 80 slaves into her marriage with George Washington wait sorry I don't want to get bugged down in slave numbers cuz that's not where my sweet spot is but when what George Washington dies Martha brings over 80 slaves no George do I know George is a lie well he does die okay he dies later right now he's very much alive in the story he I know how this ends yeah you do you see how that part ends right so he had he he married her she she had her husband really rich

husband had died she had all the slaves right now these slaves the slaves that Martha brings into the marriage over 80 they're called Dower slaves so it's I don't know how they came with this great law of owning people but so the the slaves that she got from her ex-husband belong to her first husband's estate but she Martha gets to use the slaves as long as she's alive and then they would and then and then they get in then she passes them on so they're not technically George Washington slaves so they go again I think what you're saying is what I feel which is it's very disgusting but mm-hmm if when she dies the slaves go

back to the estate no the yeah well she she passes them on to her grandchildren and children and stuff when she dies right okay but for whatever reason I think it's because women can't own stuff so I think what a remarkable what a remarkable time all of the all of the the hoops we had to create so women all of our all of our awfulness just kind of like but hold on there what you're forgetting is that women are too stupid to own slaves like oh my god stop talking all right so we don't know we don't know the relationship between onus mom Betty and onus father Andrew judge he's a white indentured servant

and a tailor for George Washington he ends he made George's famous blue uniform that he wore in the Revolutionary War that everybody knows from the pictures so we don't know if the sex is George this is going to be unbelievable you're gonna look fantastic it's so good yeah we don't know if the sex is consensual or not consensual both she's right I don't know a lot right okay so George Washington's indentured servant sleeps with one of marshal Martha Washington's ex-husbands now dowered slaves that she has and Ona is the child of that couple and we don't know if it's consensual we know it's consensual and

George really liked slaves that were half black half white so they so progressive sensual he could have been like I want you to make a baby with this bird whatever so it's all bad right okay Andrew would eventually get freedom and buy a house nearby but we don't know what the relationship is at all so at 10 Ona starts training to be Martha's personal servant and seamstress okay which is a pretty good gig considering what it could be if you're the alternate right an alternative I mean this is you know they are being whipped and and on Mount Vernon like it it's not if you work out in the field it's just not a

great fucking life right if you work in the house things are better Ona is part of Martha's personal retinue of servants when Ona was 16 George's elected president okay and so Ona and six other slaves are picked to go with the washington's to the temporary capital which is New York City so New York City is the capital temporary capital and Ona so now they know it was the temporary capital then yeah they knew they were like put a pin in this okay and Ona knows not just to leave her family it's the only place she's ever known go to a faraway city Martha also doesn't want to go because she just doesn't like

New York so they end up going a month later I wonder if they ever like connected on that where Ona was like I'm gonna have to like leave my family and they're the only people I know and Martha's like I know it's horrible I just loathe the city yeah but like my like my my family connection and like I mean I need with what I go through on a day-to-day basis I need a support says the plus I need to know that they're okay like it's just there's so many pigeons I hate it we're going through the same thing Ona yeah that yeah we are it's this is the same pain that we're experiencing I hate the cold yeah so

she's like I said she's 16 and she goes with the Washington's and goes a month later with with Martha separation of the families and Mount Vernon was by one of Washington's family wrote quote generally greatly agitated much affected so that's how the slaves like they're obviously fucking crying and very strange they are I think they've picked up on emotion from us the slaves don't know if they're gonna see each other again so those taken by by the washington's were seen as the most loyal and skilled at household work stuff many were biracial which is what George preferred he said the quote yellow skin

slaves were more intelligent I'm like father of America once he Ona was once described as almost white that's quite a compliment they've paid you Ona say thank you so Ona does everything for Martha she picks out her clothes she ups her bathes she cares for when she's sick she brushes her hair she follows her everywhere trying to stay invisible also being ready to help at any moment she also helps attend to the two young live-in grandchildren that the washington's have now Martha has some kind of surface sort of level bond with her house slaves but she doesn't trust them quote yeah the blacks are so bad in their

nature that they have not the least gratitude for the kindness that might be showed to them so the slaves are not appreciating the awesomeness of I washington's I can't even even back then how do you not go like they don't like me because I like own them I treat them so good I give and I give and I like how do you get like I could be I could understand being like look we've created quite a weird little situation where you know I have these people who are forced to work for me so I don't fully trust them but to be like gosh you know sometimes I feel like they resent me like how I don't understand even I'm

not doing the thing where you go I'm not doing the thing where I'm like man how to I'm not like being like offended by slavery which is just a given but even from like a human standpoint how are you not like I'll get to that later that that's gonna come up I'm gonna okay but good question so the first stop on their trip up to New York is Philly which is an abolitionist city a lot of Quakers this would seem completely just crazy to own a there's tons of free black people five times as many free black people as there are slaves so there's almost 2000 free black people in this city this is not something she's ever seen and we like

when we go back and look at this time we like Quakers yeah we still like Quakers I think Quakers are still the only good one okay even Benjamin Franklin spoke out against slavery it's just that's just the vibe of the city but had slaves no no or he did I think he did and then sold them and completely became an abolitionist I could be wrong about that but he's definitely anti-slavery at this point and that was before he was president for sure this all happened before he was president if you really everything has happened we still he's everything up until 2023 has happened before he was president because he's

still not president so true you get okay so on us sees how freedom looks right in late spring 1789 they get to New York and New York's not as pro-slavery as Virginia but not as abolitionist as Philadelphia it's like a middle ground most black people in New York are slaves runaway slaves are caught and sent back it's that kind of vibe so on it takes care of Martha's every whim the washington's are entertaining tons of people at their giant house in New York they had to hire 14 more servants to deal with all the work all white they had all white indentured servants hmm or not shouldn't say indentured they

hired white servants so on it has no time to herself during the day she has to be on top of things ready to serve Martha to whim and had to listen to Martha's complaints because Martha hates New York so she's just bitching all the time about New York again it's just amazing to just be like lady I'm your fucking slay oh gosh you I mean the stuff that I am going through lately it's just you wouldn't understand I'm having such a hard time even sleeping here with some of the sounds that are coming up you oh no you wouldn't really understand but when you get to this level everyone you're so in demand she's just like bitch

what the fuck are you talking about gonna slap you Martha would later call her years in New York her quote lost years you wonder what lost years are when I was a slave if you know what quiet oh no I'm trying to be upset oh the weight of the world my back is sore from just carrying this emotion around all the time yeah you just wouldn't understand none of you would and they have to be like yeah it's so tough that's so hard that's exactly she has to sit there and listen to this rich I mean I think the richest I think at this point they're the richest people in America the Washington so she's just sitting there

listening to the richest person America complain while she's a slave yeah it's yeah it's mind-boggling like what I mean like in a like an anecdotal sense like you know I mean I have been around extremely wealthy people and heard them complain and you're like a dude can you not like you have no idea well try being around someone who's worth a couple hundred million and they're complaining about taxes that was the one that I almost it was agreed the nation's capital would now be Washington DC and the temporary capital Philadelphia into Washington was finished so now they go back to Philly okay so now she's like oh

shit now I'm gonna be back around yeah okay so George's slaves appearances are very important to him he wants them to look a certain way and his white cooks in Philadelphia are super dirty he's not into way his white cooks lick so he gets rid of them and he brings up his slave chef from Mount Vernon named Hercules who's a very good-looking very well-kept very clean dude and he was also very good at cooking food for George that he could eat with his terrible dental issues so I mean what are you like he had a Vitamix what like what you're just mushing everything's mushy why you know how to saw food it maybe he

cooked the maybe he cooked the the pork I just can't get over the fact that this dude like wasn't able to chew ever like you should never ever get past that we had it couldn't chew couldn't chew so he's everything is just I mean we're basically everything we're just mushing turning into a mash for him I mean essentially he's on a wire jaw diet yeah you know he's president baby he's present yeah I've oh a man oh god big Hercules just like and it's coming in for a landing what's coming in for a landing never mind so they actually moved into the ex-home of Benedict Arnold when he was in Philadelphia hmm now

in the house there's George Martha to grandchildren George's secretary Tobias Lear his wife their baby three other secretaries 15 white servants and eight slaves it's quite a party I mean now we have a sitcom yeah well Ona sleeps in a room with a grandchild because she's supposed to watch him at night and make sure everything's okay she's she's 24-7 on the clock there's a door connecting that bedroom to the Washington's bedroom so she's always under the gaze of Martha that sucks at her beck and call all the time while dealing with kids at night it's if it's like when she was back at Mount Vernon

you would leave the main house and go back to your family's house at least you'd have a respite from the yeah but now she's sleeping next door to gingivitis George who just probably in his sleep is just like oh oh the grinding I was grinding my gum nerves ago oh Martha Martha wake up I had a dream I had teeth again now George you know that that's not true oh it was amazing oh the blood I was I had a dream I was chewing steak again oh oh no Ona come in quick get the gauze so it's it's it's a like it's a difficult situation I mean you know the whatever it sucks it's like it always will suck it totally sucks but

to have to be like in in a joined room yeah with those people as well as to be in the city where you're like there's a lot of free black people here so it's like it sucks so now the Washington suddenly learned that in Pennsylvania visiting slave owners could keep their slaves for six months and then the slaves could claim their freedom so that's a that's a Pennsylvania law on the books you bring your slaves there in six months you lose them oh the Washington's have brought eight slaves and George's attorney general Edmund Randolph was just aghast when his slaves quote quoted the law of Pennsylvania

back to him and should tomorrow take advantage of a law of the state and claim their freedom so Randolph is just hanging out and here's the thing Randolph thinks well they're slaves how are they gonna know well how are they gonna know because they fucking talk to people and it's a city of free black people and the free black people like hey man great fucking law on the books so the slaves walking one day and they're like by the way tomorrow we out we're fucking walking we're gone cyan are a bitch that has to be like the most stressful countdown oh my god when you're like at five months and you're like is he gonna

see like he's just talking about like leaving it's not saying any time like he hasn't said a thing it's gotta be so he's got to be trapping us I'll bet look let's not get our hopes up because the two weeks left he's probably gonna be like let's get out of here and then like spend a week away and then we'll come back he's the attorney general yeah and then you're like and then it's like the two days before and you're like look I don't want to jinx anything but this is he's got like plans for next week here like I feel like he said nothing and then just for the final one to just be like absolutely yes so we'll just clean up

around here we'll get those papers and oh and just wanted to drop this real quick tomorrow we're done yeah so these are double barrels those are my middle fingers yeah just how did you who told you he's like well you see among the slaves it's kind of the one thing we really talk about a lot how if we make it to six months we can fucking leave what right but like he genuinely thought they'd never hear of the law but two things like we said free black people also abolitionists are like out there telling slaves every fucking chance they can hey six months six months so the AG as soon as this happens then he goes

straight to Martha George is away and Martha leaps into action the six month deadline is super close for the washington's and it would be super super humiliating if slaves just walked out of the presidential household I like that it's like that too it's not even like it's not there's not it's it's really the politics it would be good yeah it's a faux pas yeah it would be you'd be laughed at so Tobias Lear George's secretary letter sends a letter to George who like I said is away but George ponders on it and then he decides his situation is different from the AG's the AG chose to

live in Philadelphia and therefore had to abide by state laws but George had to live there for work so he decided that meant he didn't have to abide by the law now that is a absolutely garbage idiotic legal argument what what is he at this point is he the president he's a president and the richest man in America and apparently he's a toothless dumb shit but but so and honestly that's like lazy too that's like a laziness he's like I mean I've just decided that I should it's different because I have to be there right I'm the president but but we're so very used to the press like today people be like of course that's

allowed yeah um okay so what is that so like I said garbage deal and this the slaves remember their dower slaves if they walk George has to pay the Custis estate if he has to pay Martha's ex-husband's estate if they bail because he would now and if they bail they can just stay in Philly yeah they can just walk out the door and get a apartment across the fucking street there's no apartment scrubs oh my god how fucking great I mean to be the neighbor after all that oh hey Martin you stupid ass fuck excuse me hey what's up you stupid ass hey asshole hey George hey George I wanted to show you real quick these are

my balls do you want to suck them I think you could digest them easier than our grains oh we are moving the neighbors are terrible they used to live in the house hey George I heard I overheard you talking about moving real quick I just want to let you know I'm moving to my bowels okay torch hello my friend hey just being neighborly we used to have a lot of good times I agree and we'll have many more no so I yeah so he's decided he's just made up a presidential yeah it's just and so then he he gets freaked out and he orders all of his slaves adult slaves removed from the estate every six months which

you said thank you for that qualifier so so take them out take them out take the adult slaves out take them to another state for a brief time bring them back restart the freedom clock which is also so such bullshit to be able to restart the freedom clock yeah okay well now you've not lived in Philly for a while so now you need a new six months so he tells Martha take the slaves on a trip to Mount Vernon right now but he knew that people in Pennsylvania would be like well you're fucking working the edges of the the deal here you're you're fucking with the plan we set up like we don't like like you're clearly skirting

the law hey aren't you supposed to start making a country could you focus on that people in in Pennsylvania don't like white slave owners and he is like no one can know what we're doing full x-nay on the slave a and the other state a especially you know their slaves they're like our slaves really could not know what we're up to when we take them out of the state every six months and then bring them back so Martha just has to pretend like she's just like opening holidays every now and then where she's like guess what we're going to days yeah basically I mean that is that's the demand right so the slaves okay so wait so he so so he

might he also thinks they might if they find out what's going on like if they find out we're gonna take them out for a couple days and bring them back that his slaves might bail or in a letter quote I wish I wish to do this to deceive them and the public them in the slaves I can't it's like it's like emailing crazy shit now but in a letter to just be like my intent is to deceive them and the public don't show anyone this letter but the slaves as we said the slaves aren't fucking idiots they knew what he was doing right away as soon as he's like go a trip he's they're like yeah we know what you're fucking doing so Martha

Martha thinks she can trick them on his brother Austin was the one that was closest to the six-month date so Martha writes to her niece that she had actually made a promise to Austin to have Austin come for a visit to see his wife and kids in Mount Vernon and even Martha is keeping her own family in the dark about the six-month trip thing Austin was actually so trusted that he traveled alone so they were just like go to Mount Vernon he went to Mount Vernon and then while he's in Mount Vernon Lear learns it's not just adult slaves but also the child slaves who would be free after six months so the whole so now

that's owner right because on is not she's only 16 so all right now they're just like oh my god not our child slaves field trip field trip field trip not our child slaves yeah right so this is obviously more complicated George is nervous saying if three young slaves he had in Philly which is owner Richmond and Christopher hear about this they might become quote insolent in the state of slavery or not as obedient could you imagine a fate worse than having slaves be disobedient God this is I mean we've talked about this 800,000 times but it this is again the person who is on the $1 bill who everyone is

like they were so wise yes they were so smart we need listen I would love to change laws but the founding fathers meanwhile this guy is like trying to figure out loopholes to keep his slaves in Philly yeah and but and that's and people are there with excuses always will everybody did it no they didn't because the president here right now you're trying to find loopholes so I didn't fucking do it you're in a city where people like nah it's like yeah not cool buddy we're not into it was it was an option and he chose the alternative and was in state he was like gaming the slave system yes so they

put Richmond on a ship back to Virginia and Martha took on and Christopher on a quick trip to New Jersey to restart their freedom clocks oh can you imagine if you're like you're only you you're a days away and your freedom clock needs to get restarted and you just that you go to fucking Jersey like you like is this trekk yeah yes is this where what's comes come from what's yeah what's the smell that's sewage so now we talked about you brought this up before George and Marsha believe Marsha's a better name Martha I like Marsha was George and Martha believe slaves were better off with good owners like

themselves than free right benevolent slave owners they had food and they had beds and all which is a needed except this is a this is a psychological this is it's I mean they probably to subjects that had convinced themselves that they did believe this but this is so you cannot pop I mean it's just like it's impossible for you I mean you are I mean what you're brainwashing yourself whatever it is yeah tell yourself the things you convince yourself up to do horrible business right so you're doing a lot yeah I'm saving them from themselves they don't understand they'd get out there and that you know you're

doing that they get out there and they wouldn't have enough money to feed themselves sleep in the dirt like right so here this is so much better for them which is just obviously you know and they don't know and I'm the bad guy and I have to sit here and take that and be the bad guy yeah now around this time George signs the fugitive slave act of 1793 which states if a slave escapes even in a free state that slave could be seized forcibly and brought before a local judge who would then decide if the slave had run away or not if you run away and you get to the free state which was basically oh if you're in a free

state anywhere if you're in a free state but if you're in a free state and you're a slave this is because there's a bunch of legalese as far as how you become free no well I mean if you run it's basically to stop runaway slaves from getting to free states and touching the ground to go I'm safe now right right right so but that but it's but you know the one thing that they put in there is like you have to prove that that's your slave you can't just say that's my slave and take people right it's a really great it's what it's the kind of thing Matt Iglesias would come up with if he was that he would argue for

if he was back in that time so right George's plan to keep moving his slaves in and out of Philadelphia works and it works for a long time seven years oh my god oh can you fucking imagine being like dude you are set the other and I know I know these trips are getting a little tiresome but we have to do this for your own benefit you understand why you're like you're just like looking at objects you'd pierce his eyes with you're like yeah they had to you're right they had to fucking lie to him every time they did it and the slaves are like just fucking be honest yeah like look shithead you're the president and the

thing that he's the president yeah yeah so seven years so Ona becomes she's now a young woman she's gotten used to living in the city the Washington's now gave her money to go to shop she could go buy herself something once a mile they would let her go to a theater or a circus like they were you know they were very trusting of her at this point sure and again that's there they think they're being super benevolent by allowing the person that they fucking own to do stuff that you should just be able to do they've they will have convinced themselves that blips of freedom are better than freedom now what they would

have hated was that she was going out and becoming friends with free blacks and talking to Dave I think they're gonna be a bad influence on young Ona yes that is a very big no-no in the slave owner world but you know so she's hearing everything she needs to hear and it's just such it's just such a bizarre idea that there are people living right fucking next to each other who are slaves and free people well Dave we're transitioning out of our greatest sin I like I mean slow and steady white people so fucking lucky that every black person in this country did not pick up a rock and a fucking club and kill you all

like so fucking lucky so Ona is very scared she wants to escape she's scared of escaping because if she gets caught she could be sold to another owner who could be terrible in comparison it's called selling down the river is an actual is an actual phrase from the time right you get sold down the river and that means you go down to Mississippi to some dark fucking and this is the washington's pitch well they idle yeah I mean who knows what the washington's would have done I think at the end of the story you might think yeah that's what they might have done she knew that as slave owners went the washington's

are better than a lot of other people they're not too violent they're not too cruel George did not break up slave families right one bugger if he said quote such a low bar I know right it's such a low bar you know George didn't break up the slave family so he's pretty he's a decent dude one biographer said quote the slaves were well treated well fed and well cloth and that it was inconceivable that they'd be whipped now that's the the ones in the house and the fields about Vernon they were right so so so to her running away if it wasn't successful would mean everything gets that much darker and worse yeah also she

has family at Mount Vernon and she would never see them again if she runs away so yeah she doesn't run yeah I think Dave I think it would be safe to say that we've created a nightmare condition that's correct so and she's been during the seven years during these years she's watching slaves she knows get freedom right right in 1795 Ona is in her late and early 20s and so now all Martha's children have died all she has left is grandchildren Martha okay and she dotes on her grandchildren like she loves her grandchildren she has one granddaughter who's 19 Elizabeth Park Custis who's called Eliza and she does

not act as a young woman is expected to act she's stubborn she's temperamental she's not really feminine enough for the times quote she is more like a man than a woman and regret regrets that she can't wear pants oh man I mean so we know what kind of person this is what an animal you don't want to wear pants good I mean it's we are just it's just you let the the trash people run everything just like the idea that Martha Washington is bemoaning this situation about a daughter wanting to wear a granddaughter wanting to wear pants to her slave and you're like these are the best so Eliza writes and

asks for George's blood blessing to Mary Thomas law who is a British guy who's 20 years older now George and Martha are not are not pleased because he's fucking British mm-hmm law had already fathered two illegitimate half Indian children when he was living in India okay and he's British I mentioned that yeah yeah we get it bad it's really bad we get it we get it Martha also desperately wants Eliza to remain in the US she's scared if she marries a Brit she'll go off but George writes that he would support the marriage hmm think about Eliza is being the way she is she doesn't she's not gonna know how to run a house so my Martha

decides what she can she do but give her her number one sidekick slave she's going to give Ona as a wedding gift now remember Ona's a human right that's important to point out again yeah let's let's some of us are probably thinking that she might be a vacuum or something but she's a person yeah she's a human being and I'll bet you like when this idea is not pitched to Ona but told to Ona she's like Ona I have some interesting news and Ona's like please please God please yes back mom Vernon and I get my freedom we're going to let you go oh my god you are you're going to go with my granddaughter oh so you're

going to be hers now get over here while so I can wrap you so Ona's just totally fucking floored because this is where she these are the people she grew up with she has been the like what can I don't know what to say the second to Martha since she was 10 since she was 10 wait to my valet whatever the fuck it is to the granddaughter on that has been the valet to Martha since she was 10 oh oh wow fucking hey oh since she got you got you got you right and then but she's also sort of grown up with these grandchildren a little bit yeah she knows this she fucking hates Eliza oh my god she hates Eliza oh my god which is just

the perfect and now she's like she's like I've been yours your personal slave for whatever this is now 12 years or whatever and now you're just gonna give me away like a fucking piece of furniture when you put it like that sounds rude and then and now all the other stuff we worried about she wouldn't be able to live with her family Eliza's husband is clearly okay with having sex with non-white women so that's not a good sign and plus Eliza she hated and was quote determined to never be her slave her and big bold black letters so on it starts asking her free friends for advice and they say buy your time and

wait until you see an opportunity and take it so only just starts only just goes back works as normal keeping an eye on things and then one of the trips is coming up and she's packing up the family for the trip to Mount Vernon and she packs a bag for herself quote I knew if I that if I went back to Virginia I should I never should get my liberty one night in May 1796 during dinner service she fled the house hmm now the Washington to me to put out notices in the papers quote absconding you know now that we're doing the past times which is another podcast you can find on this feed I have seen so many

of these notices exactly like this there's like in the older papers especially the 1600s there's always like three or four of these quote absconded from the household of the president of the United States on Saturday afternoon a light mulatto girl much freckled with very black eyes and a bushy black hair she is of middle stature but slender and delicately made about 20 years of age she may attempt to escape by water they said she had enough money to pay for passage on a ship and she had changes of good clothes and they offered a ten dollar reward but you're the fucking richest dude in the country and you're

offering ten fucking dollars look I know I'm not on the money yet but this is a little absurd also the idea that you're like she might be amphibious watch out so I wanna has to get out of Philly because she's been at the side of the first lady for so long everybody knows who she is so she does this escape in Philly she packs a bag from them for mount but she packs her own bag to take off yeah I would so what is the deal so and the reason why you bring up the law the law that if you're a slave who escapes in a free state you're still allowed to be brought up on charges is because she couldn't just go lay low in

Philly for two months and then be like hey it's six months she has to like take off take off yeah correct right so she finds passage on a ship called the Nancy who was captained by John bowls who he ran a freight shipping business we don't know what bowls knew but a single black woman traveling alone was pretty much unheard of right so he knew right she she did not reveal who he had been for years okay he was deep boat he was deep boat double deep boat women in the 18th century did not make long journeys on their own when that suspicion like it was just not a thing so he doesn't alert authorities and she

slips out of Philadelphia and five days later on the lands in Portsmouth New Hampshire hmm not a lot of black people in Portsmouth but there are some and they've been tipped off by friends in Philadelphia and they're waiting for her when she gets there so they take her to a place to stay for free black people and she got a job as a domestic servant pretty quickly so they there's a system right mm-hmm set up to help people like this much harder work than she was used to she was doing super hard physical labor scrubbing floors hauling back breaking loads scrub scrubbing clothes and scalding water so it's a it's a it's

a step up as far as you know the harsh yeah for black women at the time their average lifespan was 40 years and a lot of that's because of the the brutality of the work so Portsmouth pretty anti-slavery one prominent family in town was the Langdon's senator John Langdon was friends with George oh boy his daughter Elizabeth was a friend of George's step-granddaughter Ona had a few times visited the Langdon's house while she was a slave oh boy so she wanted to avoid that house yeah stressful sportsman she's like that's the house I don't want to go near yeah and then one day she's going to the market

and Ona comes face-to-face with Elizabeth Langdon who's now I don't know George was in town hey Elizabeth tries to talk to her and say hi and only just puts her head down and just fucking walks away and she keeps walking and she keeps walking until it's nighttime because she didn't want to give up where she lived her work so she just walked forever she's walking were they fought they weren't even following her she's like I don't worry I mean the stress again you can't like it's yeah the stress level is yeah I don't believe you can actually possibly try to relate she walked forever what a goof and now

Elizabeth has no idea that Ona is a runaway and she tells her parents she saw her and the Langdon's are like you know they feel a duty to George because they're friends with George and legally they like we got to do this so they tell George and Martha you fucking pricks and Martha is just beside herself and George is furious he wants her back but he doesn't he's a politician he doesn't want to upset the people in New Hampshire who are pretty anti-slavery so it's a tough one for a politician who owns a person yeah he's walking a pretty fine line already the politics of owning people when everybody doesn't want you

to own people what a rough so Ona's been gone for over she's been she's been gone for about over six months legally she is the Washington's but it it's gonna be tricky to take her back and risk bad publicity he can't just he can't just roll into town and snatch her right this is which legally legally he can't legally he can grab her and take her to a court Jesus and have a judge decide but he can't do it because he's like again because they're people have morals out there and they don't want that obviously I'm allowed to go grab her but the optics yes my approval rating

I mean he could go grab her come with me now after she had escaped remember all the other slaves had been at Mount Vernon so he only brought two back after that because he was so worried that other ones would try to run and the rest of the household servants in Philadelphia were now white servants Jesus so Martha is insistent that George track Ona down and get her because she is still adamant that she will give Ona as a gift to Eliza fucking hey Gareth her presence ran away imagine imagine if you got your granddaughter and I'm war and the I'm war ran away to Arizona how would you feel it's very strange so she's so

the whole time she hasn't even given Eliza a different person I mean not to like no you would think that she would be like I think you know it's very much like Francis with Peewee's bike I never I don't remember it I didn't like it I wanted wanted wanted I want Ona yeah yeah I mean it look it's not even that this is rich people rich people cannot fucking handle right anyone under them or a poor person or whatever saying no that's not happening they lose their fucking shit now now is it just me or has Martha kind of turned up into a bit of a villain in this story Martha's a villain I just feel like suddenly I'm

like I don't know if she's a good person this is our face are this is the founding couple these are our first this is our first couple and we'll see where this goes but shouldn't this be one of the stories that has to be taught in school to kids it's just it's like dude the older the more we go through this it's just it's so easy to avoid the stuff and it's what the news does it just avoids the stuff it's taught like I get it this guy fucking killed people in Idaho there's okay we got it we got it as a fucking it's a tragedy let's go there's like a lot of other shit to talk about but it's just simple avoidance

they're just gonna go like he cut down a cherry tree no he didn't he fucking had sleeves that he was like taking he was like playing freeze tag with their freedom yeah so Ona also belongs to Martha's side of the family so it's another reason she wants her back so George is out furious he's embarrassed he thinks Ona is incredibly ungrateful for all he has done for her nothing nerve he's a benevolent owner Gareth I'm talking about my gums he didn't beat her he he he she had food and shelter and she nice close to her guess she took trips to the theater in

the circus I know how could you humiliate him I'll bet you those trips probably weren't a good call in the long run because she was like hey you know being free is great it's really great to go do what I want to do but she just got a taste for it and you can just imagine if Twitter was around now like if this is a Democratic president who had a slave run away all these people will be online who are Democrats like he actually treated her really well and he gave her money to go to the theater in the circus Trump never let his slaves go to the theater imagine imagine what Trump would do if one of his slaves ran

away are you fucking kidding me oh my god we get it so George writes an angry letter to the Secretary of Treasury Oliver Wolcott junior because he wants help he didn't believe George does not believe that owned a left on her own accord why would she's why would she she had the world at her feet she must have been enticed to leave probably by a male suitor I was gonna say this has man written all over it and George decided that man was an erratic Frenchman he'd seen around Philadelphia who had been missing who had been missing Gareth since Ona escaped he's just having dreams or he's just like that's right

George I took her with me you think I'll tell you what isn't it strange that we both left town around the same time nobody leaves town around the same time look who I got George he we're gonna kiss and get married also look at all my teas George started calling him the seducer look I'm after the seducer I mean this is the present this is that we put it on the $1 bill he's a slave his slave took off and because he thinks he's because he can't process or fathom the concept of freedom being something that someone would want versus having a good slave situation he refuses to believe it so he's invented a fake

relationship with a French man who he saw who just isn't around anymore and he's given him the nickname the seduce this is the seducer this is and he's no teeth yeah this is the for this is the guy this is the country's Jesus this is the guy George George cautioned Walcott that the Frenchman was either insane or acting like he was yeah and he heard the French he left Ona to live in squalor in New Hampshire so he thinks that she got seduced by a Frenchman who helped her escape and that took up to New Jersey and that bailed on her and now she was living in squalor again meaning she would want to come back to him George

to live in his slavehouse oh my god the seducer I could just picture them she's probably regrets everything let her know that she has another shot here so fucking great so George follows up on his bullshit made up bullshit by telling Walcott to forward a letter to a customs officer in Portsmouth so he's using the government he's using the president using the government for private business to get his slave back yeah and it's also like like aren't you trying to like set up a country right like that be a big party's like go find her the customs officer in Portsmouth is named Thomas Whipple now the fugitive slave

act is of 1793 that George signed and made law with his hand stated captured runaways she'd go in front of a judge and be proven to who they belong to right or if they're sure sure so George get that hearing let's get that hearing going George is not interested in that part of the law but Dave he literally just came up with it he wants her sent straight back to Virginia no trial it's no trial no time to prove he owned her every in other words the first president also believed he was above the law again I believe this is what we call an impetuous black and it's it's never changed every president's like yeah not me I'm the

president not me damn you're the president stupid he believed that the Langdon's had seen her and recognized her and that was enough no one needed to go to court so just break the law he just wants he's now telling a government official to break the law for on his behalf right and he warns Whipple to be discreet as her seducer would likely try to hide her quote if he is not tired of her and we believe he has smoke bombs he's French with smoke bombs George apologized for getting wall caught involved but said quote the ingratitude of the girl who was brought up more as a child than as a servant ought not to

escape with impunity if it can be avoided oh my god a child what a prick what a fucking what a just the gall of saying that fucking nerve let us rewrite history Washington well so while caught contacts Whipple and tells him everything and and Whipple's from a slave owning family who had freed most of the slaves Whipple is not pro-slavery he does not own slaves himself but he promises to do his best to to please the president but but he wanted to make sure the law was followed and wasn't gonna hand over no questions asked well bad news it's not being followed so he Whipple spends like

weeks in Portsmouth looking for Ona asking people if they've seen you know someone that described like her he never mentioned that it was the president slave he was looking for but he has no luck he can't he can't find her so he decides to trick her into coming to him and he puts word out that he is looking for a domestic servant now he's a really rich guy this is a nice house this is a good job word gets to Ona sounds like a good job she sets up an interview at the interview Whipple is very nice but a little too prying a little too too much asking personal questions and even asked her if she had a French boyfriend and so

she's like this is all fucking wrong whatever's going she knows she knows the French boyfriend angle at this point I don't know she does invented that I don't know if she does but she knows the questions being asked are not interview job questions I have a really sensitive teeth have you ever made a mush diet for a man are you familiar with any of those dishes that would be easy to suck down instead of chewing so Whipple thought he was being like super clever and that he would be able to talk to her and identify her without tipping her off and then she'd go back to her place and then he'd figure out what to do and say yes

this is definitely her and also he was wrong also stupid stupid like I mean again if you're gonna do that you're like all right it's her now I got her you don't go now that she's gone let's talk about plan B but look they're white guys and they think that black people aren't on even though he doesn't believe right that people should be slaves he still thinks he's better than a black person so he's like she there's no way her intellect can keep up with mine well she's fucking smart on all of them so right she stands up and waits to see what he's gonna do but he doesn't do anything he doesn't call for her to be

arrested doesn't try to detain her instead he's like okay tell me why you ran away and what your plans are tell me yeah well here's part of my problem I was a slave so I guess I I guess I guess what I'm saying you had part of you he fed you right and he gave you clothes and stuff yeah yeah no he fed me and gave me clothes but the one thing that he wouldn't give me was total freedom which um how do I put this I crave and deserve but didn't you guys have like pizza Fridays yeah no we deaf had pizza Fridays and by the way I loved pizza Fridays yeah so much so that I decided I want to have pizza every day

if I wanted I want to have pizza in the morning pizza in the evening pizza at supper time I'm gonna dev pizzas on a bagel that's weird it turned into a commercial sure I don't think you understand freedom that he's like I don't follow okay so she now she's now she senses that he he's not gonna try to capture her but just wants to talk to her so she tells him she's never going to be a slave again and refused to be not with that attitude and refused to be quote sold or given to any person especially Eliza and even the hard backbreaking work she was doing as a free woman was better than being a slave

Whipple now tries to negotiate and he's like if you go back to the Washington's voluntarily they'll they'll promise your freedom at a future point no one knows if this is right offer that was possible like I'm gonna guess it's bullshit but Ona agrees to it fucking hey fuck says she'll go back to the Washington's and Whipple's like okay we'll buy you a ticket back and then she agrees to meet the ship and go back come on I hope it's bullshit so the day of the you know ship leaving Whipple waits and onan ever shows up the seducer Whipple was actually surprised I said 325 and it's 320 he's obviously nervous

to tell Walcott that he'd blown it and that George was not getting Ona back he wrote he wrote of everything he learned from her it was not due to a French guy trying to lure her away but her quote thirst for complete freedom had been her only motive for absconding it's you you know it's just easier obviously for George Washington and for any fucking asshole to be like is she has to have been poisoned by someone it couldn't be the prospect of being a person yeah totally they cannot like it rubs it rubs too hard up against your reality of like you know I'm a benevolent owner yeah yeah it completely blows it

completely blows up their idea of how this our personal narrative that that makes because otherwise whoa you're kind of a fucking dick yeah you're yeah otherwise you're total piece of shit otherwise you own people who don't want to be owned so Whipple in the letter also tried to pay Ona in a in a good light saying she had many good things to say about the president's family and even expressed affection for George and Martha he said he thought she should be promised freedom the future if she came back and trying to get Ona back was not likely to be easy or welcome in the state of New

Hampshire where people were quote in favor of universal freedom and that there's no way she's coming back on her own Whipple Whipple felt awkward he's the point guy right and he wants it's the first president everyone fucking loves him right he's a reviewer figure what a great but he's also like this person shouldn't be forced to be a slave so you're breaking the law so in this letter that he writes to Walcott he says George needs to get a lawyer to work with the New Hampshire US attorney to deal with this and he also insinuated that George wanted that George wanting to avoid a judge was straight up illegal

and that he should actually follow the law which is what it was right now he sends us letter and he thinks that Walcott will take it and then write like a nicer version with all the facts to George but Walcott just forwards the letter to George he's like punch this email up what I know I called him a law breaking toothless fuck so George reads it and he fucking live it number one people don't talk to him like this right like yeah yeah so he sent Whipple George George sends Whipple back a letter and saying his ideas of freeing on our ridiculous quote to enter into such a compromise with her is totally

inadmissible he George is for gradual abolition for slaves but would not reward onus disloyalty with the gift of freedom it's it's just this remarkable I mean it's just what everyone in power has which is just this is the same argument for millions of like I want like Medicare for all sounds great but like it's all it's all this this this but yes I want all the slaves to be free but not this one like it's all it's the whole fucking the gamut of why nothing is done so he says why should be she why should she be given freedom before his loyal slaves who didn't run away and he blows off Whipple's request to be taken

out of this project and tells him to tell Ona she would be treated fairly if she returned and that he and Martha would not hold it against her or against her family in Mount Vernon under cuz so he just made a threat he just made a fucking threat he just threatened Ona yeah he's saying your family's gonna be trouble yes and if she would agree to come George told Whipple to forcibly take her and put her on a boat to Virginia which again we've said this 100% breaking the fucking law he is ordering a government employee to break the law in a way he's I would say he's chewing Whipple's ass out but he has no teeth and

Whipple's like hey I don't want to do this and he's like oh you're fucking doing just a guy yeah he's like aren't you the president he's like yeah I have the president and I'm also gonna make sure that I get this one slave back you son of a bitch look look listen to me I didn't know you wanted to get local sir don't are you supposed to be setting up the infrastructure of a new land yeah and I'm doing that most of the day but also I've devoted a lot of time to get an owner back because this is pissing me off it's such a it is this is just the ultimate like it doesn't happen to me not me he's a petulant child 100% he is

walking on storming around his house going this does not happen to George fucking Washington yeah he wants to win he wants to win he wants to win so Whipple doesn't want to do it he tells her to forcibly take her he specifically wanted her sent to Virginia instead of Philly because he was still he still believed she had run away with the Frenchman that he'd made up look I know you haven't seen him I know you haven't heard from him but a Frenchman is behind this his name's the seducer and George is now convinced that Ona is pregnant by the Frenchman and by the way by the way by the way looked into my

little crystal ball she's also having his baby that's the little pitter-patter of baby seducer juniors okay my friend not only is she with the Frenchman she's having a baby like he's out of his mind she's having a baby not only are you wrong about the Frenchman but she's pregnant okay there you go now you're super wrong okay so Whipple gets his letter and he's like he doesn't write back for a month so honey so honey so George Washington brought me back and hey great the president it's honey it's fucking crazy he he made up a guy and got a lady pregnant he got her pregnant with a

fake guy so there's a fake baby in the runaway so we think the seducer gave her a baby he yeah she the guy the fake guy that George made up she's the president well honey he is the president so he probably has a lot he probably has access to a lot of documents and intelligence that you probably won't let me quit he won't let me not do the illegal job the thing I don't I said I didn't want to be a part of because it's illegal he's telling me to do it you know what I think I think you should stop looking for Ona it's driving you crazy I can't he won't let me start looking for the seducer he's the one

who's honey action point honey the seducer is not real well he's only not real because you haven't found him okay neither is the look baby baby listen to me there's a lot of stuff that we haven't found yet that we know is real Jesus Christ God the alligator the elephant alligator there's tons of stuff we know they're to be real and I think the seducer is just on that list did you just need to find the seducer yeah the alligator yeah the alligator with the elephant tube so now why don't you come over here and let me give you an above the pant hand job you look really stressed out above the pant yeah outside

the pant hand job okay yeah it's all I guess yeah just rub it a bunch do a little friction in the kitchen there you go and then I'll go wash your little undies on the washboard get those little get those little ghost stains out of there you little man just call me a little man yeah me little man look at you look at you raising the sail over here with your little thing look how important you think you are you're just a guy he's the president look at just your little you don't think it's a little bit bigger when mama plays this game all right okay honey I'm leaving I'm going out for a walk okay you're out there keep

your eyes open for a friend all right lurks in the shadows so look like a mushroom whippled is not right back for a month and then he reluctantly says yeah he'll keep trying as long as there isn't a great public outcry against what's happening well so yeah just keep a lid on it yeah he's like if this doesn't get out I'm fine I'll I'll help you he also said the best way to stop the legal confusion of fugitive slaves in the north was the abolition of slavery in the south and George never wrote back to Whipple again judge like okay this guy's just alright this guy's out of his fucking mind I don't know what this means

but he's cuckoo for cocoa puffs okay but let's just say besides oh no we have another hero in the story like this guy's fucking great he just played basically hey mr. president how about fucking this I'm tired of your shit free the fucking slaves asshole yeah and then he's like I'm not writing back on a honest terrified that a slave hunters just gonna show up on her doorstep in January 1797 she gets married to a free black man named Jack Stains you mean jock stone jock stall she became onus stains Jack's a seaman he's regularly gone on long journeys on the boats so there is a chance that he

could be called seaman stains that's right not great Mary getting married wasn't easy Whipple heard of the wedding and got the clerk to refuse to give them the paperwork they needed and we don't have a hero as much yeah I know because if they got married and then Jack died on one of the sea voyages ono would get his money and property which would make it way harder to get her to come back crazy she's not coming back anyway but yeah whatever yeah but ono and Jack just went to the next town and got married and announced it in the paper so good work good work they live a married life Jack Jack is going off on his little

sea journeys ono works as a domestic servant and they save enough money to move into a home could be seaman Jack Stains that's correct this is just I'm trying to get over it but you're not you're having a hard time don't say it stop all right so anyway she's Mrs. Seaman Jack Stains that's right what an honor they move into a home they live with two other two other adults and then 24 year old ono gets pregnant she is still working when she's very pregnant scrubbing and lifting and doing all the shit in 1798 she has a baby girl named Eliza oh my god which I find fascinating I find she's doing I don't know what went on

there but that feels like a haggle fuck yourself that really feels like I think you could do better she'd be like that'll show her there's no way that Martha didn't hear that and lose her fucking mind there's no way Martha when she heard that name she was throwing shit around the fucking house plates little ceramic dogs the whole works sure ceramic stuff all the classic stuff uh-huh yep the big two historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar ono had quote passed the disease of slavery to her daughter Jack was free but ono was a slave which made Eliza the Washington's property too I I just Dave this is like genetic slavery

is it's it's all problematic so fucked so ono is now not only worried about herself but her daughter of you know going to a life of slavery Washington retires in 1797 and goes back into his efforts of recapturing ono what is his deal he's just an old like sea captain like looking for this white whale what are you gonna do with all your time off sir the president I'm going in well I think I'm gonna do is I'm gonna burn that one slave that left and no matter what anyone says it was a Frenchman who convinced me I don't think he would be shocked but he was a seducer he was a seducer oh shit and I'm going to find him

okay I'm going to find him yeah yeah yeah yeah for sure okay I'll be eating more carrots no more questions and then you gotta get up pretty early in the morning to beat all George hmm okay hmm now someone make this burger juice so George enlists his nephew Burwell Bassett Jr. I'm sorry Dave the country club just threw up hello we found the widest man Burwitt Bassett in a letter to Bassett just going to any country club and be like put this on the Burwitt Bassett account so in a letter to Bassett about Ona George didn't use her married name because George insisted she was still

with the imaginary Frenchman oh my god let it go bro let it bro let it go dude I it's like crazy that you're still trying to get her but let's let like that's at least like playing in reality to some extent that this is no French guy if if he's putting this in letters pregnant if he is putting this in letters imagine how much he was blathering about it around the fucking house oh my god you were just like Jesus Christ oh god dude enough with I'm not I'm not I know everyone's a little sick of it but I'm just trying to tell you that you've never seen a Frenchman take a woman I've seen it

I understand but I'm telling you that he's probably he probably okay just he's doing an American accident okay thank you thank you yes thank you thank you so much he said Martha wanted her old sermon back so what Martha wants her old sermon back Martha my sweet Martha wants her owned person back so Bassett goes to Portsmouth and he stays with the Langdon's very quickly after he gets there he goes to see Ona knocks on her door and she is shocked to open the door and see the man she knew from Mount Vernon there on her doorstep and he was clearly there to recapture her and her daughter jacks at sea she's alone oh my

god so Bassett tries to sweet talk her and assure her if she comes back she'll face no consequences I mean how long has it been this is like two or three years in now okay I thought it was maybe even longer it's not that I I mean it's definitely yeah I think it's like three two or three years in okay but on is like no yeah she's not she's not gonna break up her family she's not gonna bring her daughter into life of slavery and she's not gonna leave Jack behind but Bassett persists he promises George would likely grant her her freedom if she returned so now he's like gone from like they're gonna treat you great to like yeah just

come back and we'll let you go you just gotta touch that you gotta touch the wood and then you go you got touch it and you go imagine a life where you're free yeah no I have that yeah that's what we're offering yeah yeah I'm living that so are you in well no I'm good here I'm free okay what if you came back and you were extra free so Anna cuts them off in the middle of his stuff and says quote I am free now and choose to remain so no Bassett cannot believe what he's hearing because a black woman a slave is talking to him a southern white man like this he was owed deference from people like her but she stands firm

she's not backing down and eventually Bassett leaves nice that night the language-raving dinner and Bassett's there and he starts complaining about Ona and then he swears he's gonna take her and the baby back to Virginia and he said he had orders to quote bring her and her infant child by force if need be though in a letter George specifically said do not use force because it would upset people in New Hampshire but that's what he's saying so maybe Martha told him that or whatever but he's just drinking and he's like I can do what I want but he's getting mad and Langdon is like no he doesn't want Ona and her baby

forcibly taken and brought into slavery again so he sends a secret messenger to warn Ona and Bassett returns later that night Ona Ona hello it is me this is I the seducer I've come to give you a very special message the Bassett boy from the Washington camp he's coming to take you and your daughter you must be very aware until your husband Seaman Jack Stains comes home I like your eyes yes they are fully glossed over in black because I am a seducer smoke bomb smoke bomb so Bassett goes back I think that night his plan is to tie her up throw her on a ship to Virginia with her baby oh so he knocks

but he knocks on the door and he knocks amazing part of it amazing hello please come to the door eventually there's no answer so he breaks in no one's there Ona had run to a neighboring town Greenland and she was now hiding with a free family the Jacks sorry they're also named just keep going I apologize Bassett angrily goes back to Virginia without Ona that was easy by the way yeah I mean just left the house and he's like well guess that's that I mean no one's gonna help him not in yeah no one's gonna help him yeah so she stays with the Jacks for all she's doing odd jobs she's helping them anyway she

can waiting for her husband in return in 1799 George dies after being bled to death covered yeah he was trying after being drained yeah but his death does not free Ona from her fear of recapture because she's still technically part of the widow or the the widow to stay he stipulates that his slaves should be freed after Martha dies but Ona not his slave so like you said belongs to Martha's family now all of Georgia's slaves now know they're gonna be free when Martha dies and Martha knows they know that she's very very unsettled when she heard the slaves speak of the very good times coming to them once she was dead I have

a long life ahead of me would you like some pie Mrs. Washington no no pie you gotta eat something no no eating you want to sit by the fire no no fire is bad what about a bath no you need a bed yeah yeah look I was born on a day but it wasn't yesterday I'm not getting anywhere near that water right let's go downstairs and downstairs absolutely not down the stairs I know how you'll get me down the stairs no I'm staying up here I'm not eating and I'm never bathing how's that for your silly little plan I love this I love this is the best ending for a woman like this she tells a friend she is worried the slaves knew it was

their best interest to get rid of her so she's literally living in her house surrounded by people she owns servants servants the servants that she owns that she's unable to ask to do anything really could you like that candle this one no wait don't I'll do it could you fix me some porridge some porridge no wait I'll do it right after so right after she told her friend that she releases all of George's slaves yeah so she can't take it she can't take it now she still has 200 slaves that are hers well there we go including onus family now Martha dies in 1802 doesn't seem like she wrestled with the morality of

slavery George did in his later life but she does not all her slaves go to her grandkids and she very specifically stipulates that onus sister get onus fate the one she ran from onus sister is given to Eliza as a gift onus has a another daughter and a son unfortunately Jack dies in 1903 on a now she has to care for the kids alone which is obviously extremely hard for a black woman at this time she worked extremely hard but she at some point realized she couldn't provide for all the kids and she had to place her daughters in indentured servitude in 1816 so the kids are like you know teens late teens

not slaves not free but they at least had food and shelter which she couldn't provide form at that point and their service has an end date less than a year so it wasn't that long like it's right her son leaves and goes to see onus daughters die before she does Eliza die Eliza in 1832 Nancy in 1833 onus son never moved back home so she lived alone in old age she got more into Christianity she became a pious woman and she loudly dismissed the Washington supposed religious fervor saying she never once heard George pray and even though she saw Martha reading prayers she did not call that praying she found

a close community church who helped teacher had a read which she pointed out the really benevolent washington's never did in 1845 onus stains was interviewed by an abolitionist abolitionist paper the granite Freeman in the interview of a former slave who had escaped the very first president was widely read and celebrated by abolitionists onus said she quote never received the least mental or moral instruction while washington's slave her soul and mind were not seen by her masters as worthy of enrichment she had not been introduced to Christianity or taught to read on a died in 1848 at 74

wow and it seems after George washington's death the family stopped pursuing her but she was always at risk of capture for the rest of her life she was free over 50 years at 74 they're like all right on what it's time you're going back oh no wow that's crazy I mean it's like it's so it is so horrible and what we were saying before it's like why the fuck are you not like like you know we have this ability to be like because we are because we had nothing to do with slavery we don't need to really learn from it however we also need to hold the founding fathers up as the peak human politician architect of

our world and political system now and we can't really divert or deviate from what they wanted so remember the founding fathers and hold everything that they said as law and gospel and slavery let's not talk about too much it was like old ancestors of ours who were involved in it and we're able to find that ability to be like yeah that makes sense yeah the founding fathers did everything right okay slavery but we don't talk about that because it was so long ago yeah like that's basically the American current American policy on what you learned from that time yeah and then just the general belief that like well

that's what everybody was doing it no yeah no just not not what everybody was doing not at all and also the idea that like you know you get this a lot like and it is a real mind fuck is like a white person to be like what would if I were to be if I were to be you know if I went back to that time right now what would I be like because would I be like this is fucking fucked up because like in my head I'm like I'd be like this was fucking fucked up but I think most like when you think about when you watch the two parties we have now you'd have the one that would be like we love slaves we want slaves there need to be more

slaves and then you'd have the ones who'd be like yes but slaves shouldn't work so long and we shouldn't they just be like we shouldn't call them slaves we should call them active service members of a forcible cuss you know to be like would you fucking yeah yeah so and the fact that it's George Washington makes it it's an it's an it's it's amazing it's just amazing in every way the pettiness he's such a rich guy to how much he needed it it was just then it was a vendetta it was vindictive he's just such a rich guy he's supposed to be the president and it's that he's some fucking toothless shit bag who's just

like get me my one slave and this is the guy who we're like man so lucky we got him yeah he's a piece of shit I mean look he he led the army to defeat the British and get the colonies away from Britain so that then they could then implement the same horrific class system here we just have we just we just don't call it a king anymore by the way it's worse than a king now yeah it's yeah it's not great the king the king's just like I can't do much I'm just sitting over here now the president's like yeah drone him drone him drone him research was done by Brittany Cohen Brown sources never caught the Washington the

Washington's relentless pursuit of their runaway slave on a judge by Eric Armstrong Dunbar and a perfect God Washington slaves in the creation of America by Henry Winesick the only unavoidable subject of regret George Washington slavery and the enslaved community at Mount Vernon by Mary V Thompson and then different articles on Mount Vernon's website man oh man yeah yeah I mean until and till we actually come to terms with our history we have no future that's right I think we got a new tag all right good night everybody bye everybody