She Wanted to Be Free: Black Women’s Revolutionary Resistance

She Wanted to Be Free: Black Women’s Revolutionary Resistance

Ona Judge was one of at least nine enslaved people owned by George and Martha Washington. At the end of Washington's presidency, the first family prepared to return to Mount Vernon, their Virginia plantation. Ona Judge prepared to flee and live free.   She was not alone. Black women made clear, daily, that remaining in bondage was not their preferred state. And enslavers knew and acknowledged this readily apparent fact. Enslavers throughout Brit…