Anti-slavery crusader, Harriet Tubman, becomes first woman on US currency,Harriet Tubman, the African-American escaped slave who became a mainstay of the Underground Railroad and a national inspiration, was announced today as the new face of the $20 bill. Tubman escaped slavery only to risk her life by returning to the South to lead others to freedom
Tubman, a slave and later prominent abolitionist who has been chosen as the face of the new $20 bill, had escaped a plantation and was partway through a near-90 mile journey from Maryland to Philadelphia, and from bondage to freedom.
She left the plantation, in Dorchester County, Maryland, in September and travelled by night. Her exact route is unknown, but she probably walked along the Choptank river and journeyed through Delaware, guided by the North Star.
Years later, she recalled the moment she entered Pennsylvania: “When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven.”
In the years that followed, Tubman returned again and again to Maryland to rescue others, conducting them along the so-called “underground railroad”, a network of safe houses used to spirit slaves from the South to the free states in the North.
Hilary clinton took to her twitter page to share the positive and optimistic mind of Tubman.
She died, aged 91, surrounded by her family.
Tubman’s efforts were well documented in her lifetime.She remained mostly a folkloric figure until after the civil rights movement in the 1960s, when the story of her contribution slowly resurfaced and was set down in school textbooks for generations to come.
When the new $20 note comes into circulation – in 2020 at the earliest – Tubman will be the first woman on a US banknote since Martha Washington briefly graced the $1 bill in the 1890s. It is a “triumph for the public recognition of African-Americans who struggled for freedom,” says Mr Bordewich
Tubman will replace former President Andrew Jackson, a slave owner, on the front of the bill. Jackson will be moved to the back.
