The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire is celebrating the national parks service recognition of Ona Marie Judge Staines NH burial site as a part of their Underground Railroad network to freedom sites. 

Special thanks for Trail volunteer Jody Fernald for her expertise and extraordinary persistence in submitting the nomination for this site. 

Greenland, NH – The National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom accepted Ona Judge Staines Burial Site, a privately owned property, as one of 17 new listings from the 44^th round of applications, representing sites and programs in 13 states across the U.S. These new listings, alongside more than 700 sites, facilities, and programs already in the Network, provide insight into the diverse experiences of freedom seekers who bravely escaped slavery and allies who assisted them.

“Each Underground Railroad story documented by the Network to Freedom Program explains the harrowing risks people took to liberate themselves from an unjust system of oppression,” says Diane Miller, National Program Manager. “The resilience and bravery of freedom seekers and their allies continue to inspire the Network to Freedom’s work. Alongside our members, new and old, we will continue to ensure that their stories are not lost to history.”

Ona Judge escaped enslavement by President George and Martha Washington in Philadelphia on May 21, 1796. With the assistance of the free Black community in Philadelphia, she traveled by ship to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. When she arrived in New Hampshire, she found a supportive Black community, but she also discovered several of Washington’s associates. After several attempts to re-enslave her, Judge fled Portsmouth with her husband, a free Black sailor named Jack Staines. After she died in February 1848, she was buried in the town to which she fled.

To protect the historical integrity of this site, location information related to this site is restricted.