ONEY, MY ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY
by Diana Rubino and Piper
Huguley
Oney’s Story…
Teenaged Oney Judge was
Martha Washington’s ‘favorite servant.’ Oney and Martha both longed for
freedom, but in very different ways. Martha hated being confined to the
president’s house, forced to entertain politicians and foreign diplomats. Oney
hated being someone else’s property, forced to do labor and wait on her owners
day and night.
After President Washington
served one term as president, he wrote his farewell speech. He and Martha
started packing for their retirement at Mount Vernon, but it was not meant to
be. He was elected again—unanimously. He did not want to serve another term,
but gave in under pressure.
Martha had no say in it
whatsoever. But as she hosted her tea parties and levees, she became close
friends with several forward-thinking women, such as Abigail Adams and Judith
Murray, feminists of the time. Their radical ideas rubbed off on
Martha—education and job training for women to be self-supporting instead of
depending on husbands. By the end of George’s term, she experienced a steep
character arc. She even changed her attitude toward slavery. When Oney escaped
at age 20, at the end of George’s final term, Martha was very resentful: “She
was more like a child to me than a servant.” The Washingtons knew that she’d
escaped to Portsmouth, New Hampshire and made several attempts to recapture
her. But in a sudden act of lenience, Martha gave up on Oney and let her remain
free. During her husband’s presidency, Martha complained, “I am more like a
state prisoner”, so perhaps she put herself in Oney’s place and realized she
deserved liberty, too.
As our first First Lady,
Martha Washington evolved from a
grandmotherly wife and homebody to an outspoken champion of women’s
rights. She provided freedom for her slaves at her death.
While living in Portsmouth,
Oney married a sailor, Jack Staines, and had three children. She outlived her
husband and children, and lived her remaining free life in Greenland, New
Hampshire. Somewhat of a local celebrity, she lived in poverty, but the locals
supported her and she took in sewing to supplement her meager income. She
declared in an 1847 interview, “I am free now and choose to remain so.”
An Excerpt from ONEY, MY ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY
The hour finally came—while
they ate dinner.
Nothing heavied my heart—not
remorse, not guilt, not sadness upon fleeing my master and mistress. Raw thirst
for freedom overcame all that. I walked straight past the Washingtons and out
that door. When I shut it, I left them—and my forced bondage— behind me.
I tore through the muddy
streets in pouring rain. Gasping for breath, soaked to the skin, my heart
slamming in terror, I glanced behind me, again and again. No one pursued
me—yet. I dreaded and expected pounding footsteps, a clap on my shoulder. But, I asked myself, who would chase me through the driving rain?
No, it is not possible, I affirmed—they didn’t even know I’d left the
kitchen.
At the Jones house I slowed
and caught my breath. When Absalom opened the door, I staggered inside,
laughing, sobbing, gulping for dear life.
I spent the night pacing the
attic room, hands clasped. “I beg of you, dear God, walk beside me on this
journey. See me through this safe. Don’t let them capture me. I only want to be
your servant, no one else’s.”
As daybreak nudged away the
darkness, I fell to my knees, weary with fatigue. “Thank you, dear God, for
ending my final night of bondage.”
Serendipity at Work
In May 2014, popular romance
author Brenda Novak had her annual auction for diabetes—authors donate books,
critiques, etc., and people bid on them, similar to Ebay. I donated one of my
other books, and I also donated a free manuscript critique. An author named
Piper Huguley won the critique auction, but the auction ended and I never heard
from her. I thought oh, well, she doesn't want it after all. About 3 months
later, she wrote me and sent me her story, A CHAMPION’S HEART, to critique.
It's a romance about an African American girl, set in rural Georgia in the
1910s. Very moving and powerful story. I loved it. It was published in 2016 by
Liliaceae Publishers.
I'd been wanting to find an
African American author to go over my Oney novel, but never looked for anyone.
I thought of asking one of my grade school classmates, but just didn't get to
it...well, one day I decided to ask Piper.
Right after I asked her, she
wrote back and said she'd be happy to help. Then I went on Facebook and saw
that Piper just posted that her mother passed away that morning. So I sent her
a message of condolence. Then she wrote this back to me:
And I appreciate your kind comments about my mother. You see, I see your request as "heaven sent" for I think I told you about how my mother told me about Oney. I know that she would want me to work on anything, do anything to forward that story. So, even in the midst of a difficult time, I look forward to helping you--something I really didn't expect after you had helped me so much. Thank you for that.
I don't remember her telling me that her mother told her about Oney. I've heard so many stories about people who pass away, and send 'signs' etc. to their loved ones, this was just too strange to be coincidence. Piper helped me a great deal with Oney’s story and became my co-author. We dedicated the book to her mother.
Purchase ONEY:
About Diana and Piper:
Diana writes about folks who
shook things up. Her passion for history and travel has taken her to every
locale of her stories, set in Medieval and Renaissance England, Egypt, the
Mediterranean, colonial Virginia, New England, and New York. Her urban fantasy
romance FAKIN’ IT won a Top Pick award from Romantic Times. She is a member of
Romance Writers of America, the Richard III Society and the Aaron Burr
Association. When not writing, she runs CostPro, Inc., an engineering business,
with her husband Chris. In her spare time, Diana bicycles, golfs, plays her
piano and devours books of any genre. She spends as much time as possible just
livin' the dream on her beloved Cape Cod.
Piper Huguley is a two-time
Golden Heart ®finalist and is the author of the “Home to Milford College”
series. The series follows the building of a college from its founding in 1866.
Book #1 in the series, The Preacher’s
Promise was named a top ten Historical Romance in Publisher’s Weekly by the
esteemed historical romance author, Beverly Jenkins and received Honorable
Mention in the Writer’s Digest Contest of Self-Published e-books in 2015.
Her
new series “Born to Win Men” starts with A
Champion’s Heart as Book #1. A
Champion’s Heart was named by Sarah MacLean of The Washington Post as a best romance novel selection for December
2016.
She blogs about the history
behind her novels at http://piperhuguley.com.
She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and son.
Connect with Diana and Piper:
Twitter: @DianaLRubino
Twitter: @PiperHuguley
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