This past week it was announced that Harriet Tubman is to be the replacement for Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. Many people have found various issues with this decision, and while they are entitled to those opinions, I would like to offer a look at why Harriet Tubman is a perfect choice to grace our currency.

To begin with I would like to give you the following biographies of Tubman so you are aware of where I'm gaining my knowledge of her life:

Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero

From PBS: Harriet Tubman

From Bio. : Harriet Tubman: Civil Rights Activist

Harriet Tubman is easily the most well-known conductor on the Underground Railroad. This "railroad" if you are unfamiliar with it, was a secret pathway of designated safe houses escaped slaves would use to flee from the south to either Northern states or - ideally - to Canada. Conductors were the only ones who knew the route and were those who would guide the escapees to safety. After Tubman escaped her enslavement she returned on the railroad about 19 times to free around 300 slaves. She never lost a single person on any of her trips, and each time she set out she risked her own life and freedom to save others.

One of the arguments I have been hearing is that the money of the United States should only feature our leaders, well I ask you this: what would you call Harriet Tubman given the information I just shared? What is a leader if not someone capable of leading hundreds through God-knows-what while risking your own safety when it is quite possible for you to stay happy and cozy away from danger? We are talking about a woman who risked literally everything to save people she likely didn't know, she lead the same people for hundreds of miles until she knew they were safe and then she went back and did it all over again. How is that not being a leader?

Okay, so people want to qualify "leader" as President. Fine, look at the $10 and $100 bills. Neither Hamilton nor Franklin ever served in the Presidential office. But neither one has ever been challenged for being on our money. Yes, Hamilton was almost taken off the $10, but at least partly thanks to Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda he's here to stay. Which is fitting as he was our first Secretary of the Treasury, issued a report that resulted in the Constitutional Convention, authored well over half of the Federalist Papers, and was influential in politics up until his death in 1804. He was a leader of his time even if he did not serve as President.

The same is true for Franklin, he never held political office although he was a diplomat for the country and helped organize the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. He was an inventor, writer, mapmaker, and is considered one of Americas greatest minds. He may not have directly been in leadership positions, but he was a leader in his fields and his time. His place on the American dollar has never been challenged.

If these men have stood uncontested for this long and were not presidents, then why should a woman who was undoubtedly a leader be treated any differently? Is it because she is replacing the President whose Indian Removal Act paved the way for one of the biggest genocides in American history? The presented issue on whether or not Tubman was a leader if only one of the issues I have seen brought up in the past week. But I hope this has helped to shed light on an incredibly brave woman and everything she did for her people in the name of freedom.