October 5, 2023
October 5, 2023
Newburyport
Morning Show featured Sonya Martino, Black Heritage Trail Guide on “The Washingtons and Ona Judge”
Sonya Martino, Sankofa Tour Guide for the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, visited the show and talked about the tour she leads, “Bound Together: The Washingtons & Ona Marie Judge in New Hampshire.”
During the Spring of 1796, George Washington’s final months in office, Ona Judge, an enslaved woman owned by the First Family, escaped the Executive Mansion in Philadelphia with the aid of that city’s free Black community and made her way to Portsmouth, NH.
On Sonya’s tour, participants learn the story of Ona’s quest for freedom and the President’s relentless efforts to get her back.
Sonya discussed why Ona Judge’s pursuit of freedom deserves remembering and recognition, and how the Washingtons’ efforts to capture and coerce her back into slavery provide us with a fuller, flawed, and more human understanding of the often idealized figures of the first President and the first First Lady.
For more information about Martino’s and other Sankofa Tours, visit https://blackheritagetrailnh.org/sankofa-guided-walking-tours.
