Betty (Dower slave), approximately 1738 – 1795

Betty (c. 1738 – 1795) was a biracial enslaved woman owned by Martha Washington.[1] She was owned by the Custis Estate and worked at Daniel Parke Custis' plantation, the White House, on the Pamunkey River in New Kent County, Virginia.[2] Custis married Martha Dandridge (later Martha Washington) in 1750 and, when he died in 1757, Betty became one of Martha's dower slaves whom she brought to George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon, after the Washington marriage in 1759.[3] Betty worked at Mount Vernon until she died.[1]

Betty was the mother of Ona Judge, who escaped from the Washingtons.[4] Betty worked as a seamstress both at the White House and Mount Vernon plantations. Her story exemplifies the sexual vulnerability that enslaved women faced.[5]

Andrew Judge, the father of Betty's daughter, Ona, came to the colonies in 1772 from England as an indentured servant.[4]

Her mother, Betty, died in January 1795. In 1802, her younger sister Delphy was inherited by Eliza Parke Custis Law, the fate that Ona had fled to avoid.18