Captain John Bowles

Ona's Escape to Greenland, NH

When the seat of government shifted from New York to Pennsylvania a year and a half later, the entire household; slaves included, moved again to Philadelphia. Towards the end of Washington's second term, the President decided to spend his summer recess back on Mount Vernon. Ona realized that she if she were to go back south to the plantation she might never gain her liberty and thus decided to escape from the Executive Mansion. Since Washington mentioned in a letter to his nephew Bartholomew Dandridge in June of 1796 how on "Monday the 13th I expect to leave this city for Mount Vernon," Ona probably escaped from her owners around this date or perhaps a few weeks earlier. While the Washingtons began packing in anticipation for their departure, Ona too packed up her things, but with different intentions. Retelling her story to for the New Hampshire abolitionist paper, "Granite Freeman" many years later in 1845, Ona confided "I had friends among the colored people of Philadelphia, had my things carried there before hand, and left while [the Washingtons] were eating dinner." Once in hiding, the fugitive's friends walked the docks looking for the first ship sailing north with a captain who would ask no questions about his passengers.

Captain John Bowles Ona gained passage upon a sloop named the Nancy, piloted by Portsmouth's Captain John Bowles. The sea captain navigated back and forth between Portsmouth and the Federal City about once a month. Together with his landside partner and manager, Thomas Leigh, of Berwick, Maine, Bowles ran a profitable freight business carrying harnesses, bridles, saddles, and other leather products to be sold in the New Hampshire. By the third day of June, the mariner was back in New Hampshire advertising his cargo of new wares and announcing his intentions to said again on the 25th of the month. However, it is not known if Ona sailed on this late May tour or if she remained in hiding until the Washingtons left town and sailed with him on either his late June or July journeys.

Did Captain Bowles realize he carried a fugitive slave on board, and that this human property belonged to the America's Commander-in-Chief, George Washington? Most likely he did know that she was a runaway, but kept her voyage-and his participation in her escape-a secret in order to keep Ona safe and protect his own neck. Many slave states equated the harboring and abetting of runaways to an illegal confiscation of property and those found guilty of could be sentenced to death.

Notes

1. New Hampshire Fire and Marine Insurance Company Papers – MS002 Folder 2 James (Sloop), 1818 Cargo sold at auction in New Orleans. Vessel dragged anchor in a gale. Robert Blunt. John Bowles, Jr. Jacob Green. Folder 18 Magnet (Ship), 1807-1810. Seized by Danish pirates near Copenhagen on passage from Cadiz to St. Petersburg with cargo of sugar and wine. Captain Joseph Swett. David B. Nones. Thomas Hussey. Thomas Sheafe. Also incurred losses in a gale off Scotland. Jacob Barney. John Bowles, Jr. Martin Ackers. Edward J. Long.

Sources

1. http://www.seacoastnh.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&i...
2. New Hampshire, Marriage and Divorce Records, 1659-1947 MARRIAGE & DIVORCE NAME:  Capt John Bowles SPOUSE:  Sarah Roberts MARRIAGE:  5 May 1808

Links: http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2017/feb/16/ona-judge-president-washi...