Clothing Symbol Analysis

Clothing symbolizes the unattainable wealth and freedom to which slaves like Ona Judge were constantly exposed but were hardly ever allowed to imagine for themselves. As Martha Custis Washington’s bondwoman, Ona dressed, readied, and pampered the first lady of the United States every day, brushing Martha’s hair and mending Martha’s muddied shoes and dresses. While this work wasn’t as laborious as the work of slaves who toiled in fields or kitchens, the material of Ona’s work—Martha’s finery—served as a constant reminder of the fact that she wasn’t (and might never be) free. Though Ona received considerably nice clothes of her own to wear while accompanying Martha on carriage rides, Dunbar demonstrates how Ona’s possession of material things associated with wealth, security, and freedom only reminded her of how distant she truly was from attaining those things.

Ona’s dresses—many of which she made herself—allowed her to adopt the trappings of luxury and freedom even as she remained enslaved. When Ona at last escaped to freedom from Philadelphia to New Hampshire, she brought along the fine dresses she’d made for herself—yet even as a woman living in a state where Black people could be free, she hardly ever wore them as she worked difficult jobs to support herself and her growing family. Ona knew that to seek work as a seamstress, she’d need to show off the things she’d made—but revealing her finery to the community could reveal her as the fugitive she was, destroying all the progress she’d made toward freedom. Clothing thus represents the ways in which Ona was limited as a Black woman, even after she escaped slavery.

Alongside Ona’s experiences, Dunbar also includes anecdotes about how the Washingtons’ other slaves attempted to elevate themselves by saving up rare gifts of money to purchase fine clothing and accessories such as hats and canes. Clothing, to these enslaved people, symbolizes the chance to change their circumstances. Yet because of cruel laws enforcing slavery (many of them enacted by George Washington himself) which held them in bondage, many surely knew that no matter how proximal they were to wealth and freedom, they’d never be able to fully enjoy such things. Clothing, then, symbolizes the painful, inescapable ways in which uncountable slaves in Ona’s position struggled toward freedom from bondage—and how, even once free, they continued to fight against the forces of racism and the danger of being dragged back into enslavement.