Free author conversation in which historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar talks with Dr. Ashley Jordan about Ona Judge, the enslaved person who escaped George Washington.
Dr. Erica Armstrong Dunbar will be at Parkway Central Library on Thursday, October 22, for a conversation with Dr. Ashley Jordan, moderated by Tamala Edwards. The whole evening centers on the story of Ona Judge, who in 1796 walked out of the President's House—just steps from Independence Hall—and never went back.
When George Washington moved to Philadelphia, he brought nine enslaved people with him. To get around the Pennsylvania law that freed enslaved people after six months of residency, he sent them south every half year. At twenty-two, Judge escaped to New England and became the subject of an intense manhunt led by Washington himself. Historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar's book Never Caught reconstructs her life, and the conversation draws on that research.
The event is presented by the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation and The Ona Judge Coalition, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, ecumenical, multi-racial alliance of Philadelphians committed to ensuring the true and accurate history of slavery at the President's House is told and preserved. They're working in partnership with The African American Museum in Philadelphia and The School District of Philadelphia, and the night is part of the library's Community Impact Week.
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It starts at 7 PM at Parkway Central Library, 1901 Vine Street, between 19th and 20th Streets on the Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103-1189. Admission is free.
