In a big move for US currency, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew announced recently that former slave, abolitionist, Union spy and freedom fighter Harriet Tubman will be replacing the slaveholding Andrew Jackson on the 20 dollar bill, a hugely symbolic step.
Some people will whine about this, saying that only presidents should be on our money (despite the fact that neither Alexander Hamilton nor Benjamin Franklin were presidents), even though Harriet Tubman led one of, if not the greatest, lives in America's history.
Born Araminta Ross, Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland in 1822 before escaping in 1849, leaving behind her husband and brothers and escaping to Philadelphia. Immediately, she began returning to free more of her family from slavery, and then began to free more and more slaves. This lead to some 13 trips in and out of slave territory to free as many as 11 slaves at a time.
Harriet Tubman was nowhere in the vicinity of messing around. When she tried to free her husband, only to find that he had remarried and didn't want to escape, she vented her fury by freeing other slaves instead. She reportedly carried a revolver on her missions, and when one of her charges wanted to turn back, she would level the gun at them and say, "You go on or die."
She didn't lose a single person she attempted to free.
When the Civil War reared its ugly head, Tubman worked on the Union side as a nurse, cook, and then an armed scout and spy. In the latter position, she became the first woman to lead an armed expedition to war at the Combahee Ferry raid, which freed approximately 700 slaves. And when the war was over, she spent the rest of her life fighting for women's suffrage.
Andrew Jackson, on the other hand, was a racist who partook in and began a national policy of removing Native Americans from their land and forcing them west (about 45,000), such as his famous eviction of the Cherokee people during the Georgia crisis. About 4,000 people died on what is now known as "The Trail of Tears."
Harriet Tubman is an American heroine who fought for liberty, justice and freedom in a land and time where it was denied to her and millions of others.
Some complain that replacing Jackson on the bill won't actually change anything, but if it makes racists angry and allows more people learn about Harriet Tubman, I think it's a pretty stand-up thing for the Treasury Department to do.
