Harriet Tubman Is The Perfect Choice To Replace Andrew Jackson

Harriet Tubman is the perfect choice to replace the racist, genocidalist and all round awful Andrew Jackson on the twenty dollar bill.  I hope someday that the choice will be seen as a signal that the country has turned a corner away from white supremacy as well as male supremacy.    Tubman is one of the most courageous, intelligent and entirely admirable people who this country has ever produced, you can't say the same about most of the white male presidents and politicians who we have glumly staring out or askance from our ugly green money.  I hope they use realistic colors to render her as she really looked.  I can't think of anything better than children of color to see her image and for racists to have to see it as they spend money.  I'd urge replacing more of the guys with more women.

Here's a piece I've posted before.  It tells the story of how she rescued her brothers from slavery.

be always watching unto prayer, and when the good old ship of Zion comes along, to be ready to step aboard

Escape of Harriet's Three Brothers

In 1854, Harriet Tubman received news that Eliza Brodess planned to sell her brothers over the Christmas holiday. Harriet, who could not read or write, had a friend in Philadelphia write a letter to Jacob Jackson, a free black man who lived near her brothers in Dorchester County. Fearing authorities might read her letter, Harriet included a carefully coded message to Jackson to alert her brothers of her pending arrival: “tell my brothers to be always watching unto prayer, and when the good old ship of Zion comes along, to be ready to step aboard.” 

She arrived Christmas Eve at her parents’ cabin on Dr. Thompson’s plantation at Poplar Neck in Caroline County. Robert, Ben and Henry, and several other friends joined her during that night and the following morning. They hid in a nearby corncrib, where they could wait until dark and begin their journey north. Only their father knew of their presence, because they were afraid their mother, distraught that she might never see them again, might detain them. At nightfall on Christmas Day, Harriet safely led them on their journey towards freedom, traveling through Delaware, Philadelphia and across upstate New York to St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.