Oney and Hercules were two of George Washington's enslaved Africans who lived in the President's House in the 1790s. During their stay in the capital city of Philadelphia, they both made the decision to escape from slavery.

The Free African Society was founded in 1787 in Philadelphia as a mutual aid society for Free Africans and also had a mission of helping fugitive slaves escape to freedom and establish new lives. Philadelphia had the largest population of Free Africans in the country, and many anti-slavery activists (known as abolitionists) began their protests in this city and were aided by the city's large Quaker population. Both Hercules and Oney would have been very much aware of these forces of change in the capital city.

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