The house, then located at the intersection of 6th and Market streets in Philadelphia<\/a>, served as the first executive mansion<\/a>. It stood mere feet from Independence Hall<\/a>, where the nation adopted its lofty language regarding freedom.<\/p>\n Years later, Judge described her narrow escape<\/a> to Rev. Benjamin Chase in an interview for the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator<\/a>. Judge told Chase, \u201cI had friends among the colored people of Philadelphia, had my things carried there beforehand, and left Washington\u2019s house while they were eating dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n Prior to her escape, Judge served as a chambermaid in the President\u2019s House. She spent years tending to Martha Washington\u2019s every need<\/a>: bathing and dressing her, grooming her hair, laundering her clothes, organizing her personal belongings, and even periodically caring for her children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n Being a chambermaid also included grueling daily tasks<\/a> such as maintaining fires, emptying chamber pots and scrubbing floors.<\/p>\n Even though she engaged in this arduous labor as property of the Washingtons, living in Philadelphia provided Judge a glimpse of what freedom could eventually look like for her. Historians estimate that 5% to 9% of the city\u2019s population<\/a> at the time were free Black people. Prior to her escape, Judge befriended several of them.<\/p>\n In the spring of 1796, the Washingtons prepared to return to Virginia to resume private life. President Washington issued his farewell address<\/a> in the fall of 1796, but he told family and close confidants of his plans earlier in the year.<\/p>\n During that time, Martha Washington made arrangements for their pending return to Mount Vernon. Her plans included bequeathing Ona Judge to her granddaughter, Elizabeth Parke Custis, as a wedding gift. Upon learning this, Judge made plans of her own.<\/p>\n In her interview<\/a> with Chase she explained, \u201cWhilst they were packing up to go to Virginia, I was packing to go, I didn\u2019t know where; for I knew that if I went back to Virginia, I should never get my liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n As a civil rights lawyer and professor in the Africology and African American Studies department at Temple University in Philadelphia, I study the intersection of race, racism and the law<\/a> in the United States. I believe Judge\u2019s story is vital to the telling of America\u2019s history.<\/p>\n Dismantling history<\/p>\n Erica Armstrong Dunbar, a professor of African American Studies<\/a> at Emory University, tells Judge\u2019s fascinating story in her book \u201cNever Caught: The Washingtons\u2019 Relentless Pursuit of their Runaway Slave Ona Judge<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Before January 2026, those who wished to learn about Judge could literally stand on the same walkway in Philadelphia where Judge once stood when she chose to flee. Several footprints, shaped like a woman\u2019s shoes<\/a> and embedded into the pathway outside of where the President\u2019s House once stood, memorialize the beginning of Judge\u2019s journey. These footprints composed part of an exhibit examining the paradox between slavery, freedom and the nation\u2019s founding<\/a>.<\/p>\n The exhibit, \u201cFreedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation,\u201d also included 34 explanatory panels bolted onto brick walls along that sidewalk. They provided biographical details about the nine people the Washingtons owned while living in the presidential mansion. The exhibit presented the sobering reality that our nation\u2019s first president enslaved people while he held the nation\u2019s highest office.<\/p>\n This changed in late January when the National Park Service dismantled the slavery exhibit<\/a> at Philadelphia Independence National Historic Park. The removal sparked intense<\/a>, immediate outrage<\/a> from people across the country dismayed by the attempt to suppress unfavorable aspects of American history.<\/p>\n Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker responded swiftly<\/a>. \u201cLet me affirm, for the residents of the city of Philadelphia, that there is a cooperative agreement between the city and the federal government that dates back to 2006,\u201d she said in a public statement. \u201cThat agreement requires parties to meet and confer if there are to be any changes made to an exhibit.\u201d<\/p>\n The city of Philadelphia later sued<\/a> Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and National Park Service acting Director Jessica Bowron. Pennsylvania subsequently filed an amicus brief<\/a> in support of the city\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n After an inspection of the exhibit\u2019s panels, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe, who is overseeing the case, ruled that the government must mitigate any potential damage to them<\/a> while they are stored.<\/p>\n Civil rights activist and Philadelphia-based attorney Michael Coard recently had an opportunity to visit and examine the exhibits<\/a> in storage. Coard has led the fight to create and preserve the exhibit and now is at the center of the fight to restore it.<\/p>\n While the court deliberates the future of the exhibits, critics continue to raise key concerns regarding the exhibit\u2019s removal. Many argue the National Park Service\u2019s dismantling of the exhibit is an attempt to \u201cwhitewash history<\/a>\u201d and erase stories like Ona Judge\u2019s.<\/p>\n This is particularly the case considering the Trump administration has restored and reinstalled<\/a> two Confederate monuments of Albert Pike in Washington, D.C., and Arlington National Cemetery, while removing the slavery exhibit in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n Moreover, during the first week of his second term, Trump signed multiple executive orders<\/a> to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion<\/a> policies.<\/p>\n Similarly, during the first Trump administration, the federal government engaged in various efforts<\/a> to counterbalance the 1619 Project<\/a>, a project spearheaded by Pulitzer-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones that discussed the 400th anniversary of slavery\u2019s beginnings in America. The 1619 Project spawned yearslong backlash<\/a>. This included the 1776 Commission<\/a>, created during the first Trump administration, which tried to discredit the conclusions of the 1619 project.<\/p>\n It is all part of a broader pattern<\/a> across the country to limit how public institutions<\/a> broach topics pertaining to race and racism<\/a>.<\/p>\n This pattern has intensified as the United States prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the framers signing the Declaration of Independence. As the nation celebrates its history, it must decide how much of it to explore.<\/p>\n Read more of our stories about Philadelphia and Pennsylvania<\/a>, or sign up for our Philadelphia newsletter on Substack<\/a>.<\/p>\n This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a>, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Timothy Welbeck<\/a>, Temple University<\/a> <\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Timothy Welbeck has colleagues and affiliates who are members of Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, an organization which is mentioned in this article. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the evening of May 21, 1796, Ona Judge made the daring decision to free herself. Considering the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":582448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,252599,30815,252595,11686,252597,1448,2830,1311,5005,252598,252596,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-582447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-benjamin-chase","tag-independence-hall","tag-martha-washington","tag-national-park-service","tag-ona-judge","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-president-washington","tag-the-president39s-house","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116052563434058466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Panels](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5808e17f5c0907c60745f98bce87f731.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Dark,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/38458f1d4462e5bf5d23c8fb880b9f62.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Colorful](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4cd6f549e33290ddd63e9b305527d76f.jpeg\"\/)
These and other panels discussing the founders\u2019 owning of slaves were removed in late January 2026, after an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in March 2025 called to eliminate materials deemed disparaging to the Founding Fathers or the legacy of the United States. Matthew Hatcher\/Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/c1f1c4e108a38e88adc7e5d9f31c2380.jpeg\"\/)
Philadelphia-based attorney Michael Coard, who helped lead the effort to create the exhibition, visited the site after its removal. AP Photo\/Matt Rourke<\/a>Limiting discussion of race<\/p>\n