Enslaved by President George Washington and Martha Washington, in 1796 Ona “Oney” Judge secretly booked passage on a boat and left the then capital, Philadelphia, as the Washingtons ate, determined to be free. Despite numerous efforts by the President to get her back, Judge remained "never caught" and lived free the rest of her days.
To learn more about Judge, read the 2018 book Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar or the 2020 children’s book Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge: George and Martha Washington’s Courageous Slave Who Dared to Run Away; Young Readers Edition, also by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, you can watch the Museum of the American Revolution’s Ona Judge Virtual Tour on YouTube.
More sources:
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/ona-judge-escapes/
https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/ona-judge/
https://www.nps.gov/articles/independence-oneyjudge.htm
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-remarkable-story-of-ona-judge
https://youtu.be/O9qf6WWc6QU (Mount Vernon video on Judge)
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