Learn about Harriet Tubman on the $20.
Happy Friday and welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily. This week we've written frequently about issues related to the economy. I feel that the conversation about Harriet Tubman being featured on the $20 bill is an interesting lens to the role of money in our lives.
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TAKE ACTION
Learn more about the legacy of Harriet Tubman through books and documentaries (Smithsonian).
Get educated about how slavery helped build a world economy (National Geographic).
Get involved in the conversation and state your opinion about the redesign of the twenty dollar bill that is set to be released as soon as 2028.
GET EDUCATED
By Kashea McCowan (she/her)
From wading in the water to following the drinking gourd towards the North Star, Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist, scout and spy for union soldiers in South Carolina, and conductor of the Underground Railroad, was “Bound for the Promised Land.” She fought for her own emancipation and led many enslaved people to freedom. More than a century later, Tubman still is making her mark and is set to grace the face of the twenty dollar bill, an Obama-era initiative, as soon as 2028. But fans of the renowned political activist have differing views about the banknote’s new design. While some people are excited to see this freedom fighter acknowledged on the front of the bill, others say that it goes against the very thing she fought for—liberation from the capitalistic system that slavery was built on. The fact that Andrew Jackson, an oppressor of enslaved people, still will be placed on the back of the $20 bill—some say—is utterly disrespectful (Time). But, what would Tubman think?
We will never know Tubman’s thoughts on the matter, but those stemming from her family tree—her descendants—are looking forward to seeing their Aunt Harriet printed on the front of the bill. As efforts for the release of the banknote accelerates, Rita Daniels, Tubman’s great-great-great niece and her ninety-three-year-old aunt, Pauline Copes Johnson, Tubman’s oldest surviving relative, are proposing to build a learning center in her name in Bridgeport. The Connecticut city is significant because it was one of the main stopping points for Tubman on the Underground Railroad (Cheddar). Family members like Ernestine “Tina” Martin Wyatt, Tubman’s great-great-great grandniece and her daughter, Lauren Jillian Wyatt, honor their Aunt Harriet’s past and retell stories told to them about the great warrior and steadfast, freedom fighter. The Wyatts believe that new efforts to remember Tubman’s legacy are vital.
“She was a leader who has earned the right to be on the bill,” says Tina. “We have to remember when this country was formed, it was done so within a racially segregated, male-dominated society. Women were not allowed any titled or lead roles or consideration; black women were not even thought of.” (Glamour)
Though Tubman’s family is grateful for the recognition of their beloved relative, many historians are diving deeper into the history of Tubman’s past, what she fought for, and the irony of it all.
Harriet Tubman, also known as Araminta Ross, was born in Dorchester, Maryland around the early 1820s in a capitalistic system that profited off of free human labor. It is this same system that prompted her rebellion in 1849, as she was beaten, whipped, and abused to the point that caused her to suffer from a traumatic brain injury that resulted in dizzying spells, seizures, severe headaches, and unconscious episodes.
Like grain and wheat or gold and silver, enslaved people were seen as a commodity and were bought and sold like home goods. Their price tags were determined by their age, strength, ability to work, and health. If there were any injuries or handicaps determined to lower their value, they immediately were sold or traded to the highest bidder. Tubman’s injuries—although caused by her kidnapper—put her at a major risk of being sold off away from her family, and the thought of someone having that much power over her life sparked a rebellion in her.
Along with her two brothers, Ben and Henry, Tubman ran away on September 17, 1849. Their overseer at the time issued a runaway notice in the Cambridge Democrat, a Maryland newspaper, offering a reward of a mere hundred dollars for each returned enslaved person. After being a part of the population revered as a common good, Tubman decided to have faith in her hunches, and she built up the courage to escape from the slave auction blocks that constantly traded its currency for her liberty.
“Harriet Tubman did not fight for capitalism, free trade, or competitive markets. She repeatedly put herself in the line of fire to free people who were treated as currency themselves. She risked her life to ensure that enslaved Black people would know they were worth more than the blood money that exchanged hands to buy and sell them. I do not believe Tubman, who died impoverished in 1913, would accept the “honor,” writer Feminista Jones wrote in the essay “Keep Harriet Tubman—and all women—off the $20 bill.”
Zoe Samudzi, a feminist writer in Oakland, told The Post that she is mulling over the irony that a Black woman who was bought and sold is being commemorated on the $20 bill without [The Treasury] also taking steps for economic recompense for Black folks who are descendants of enslaved peoples. Though there are many others who anger at the blatant irony of the new design idea, there also are people like Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, a professor of history and African American studies at Harvard University, and Clara Small, a retired history professor at Salisbury University, who are in full support of the $20 bill initiative (The Washington Post). Small says she hopes the addition of Tubman to the $20 bill is a sign of progress, something the freedom fighter likely would approve. This gives hope that maybe women will be accepted as equals; as a president she says.
“Money is a powerful means of communication. It is a part of our national identity and can help to remind us of our common purpose. Our money should not only reflect our country’s origins, but also who we have become over the past 250 years—as well as who we aspire to be,” says Ellen Fiengold, writer of the article “A Harriet Tubman $20? That’s just the Beginning.”
If the legacy of people such as George Washington, who enslaved more than a hundred people when he died, and Andrew Jackson deserve a place on our currency, then surely activists such as Harriet Tubman who represents freedom, fearlessness, and heart deserve the same honor and much more.
The United States is supposed to be the land of the free. And today, we still see the restlessness of the differences in race creep up in our daily lives. Some may see it as disrespectful to paint Tubman’s face on the twenty dollar bill, but it is more disrespectful not to acknowledge her efforts at all—a woman who fought so hard for the liberty of enslaved Black people. And though capitalism is a foul system, her face will be a daily reminder of where we came from and where we are going. Her legacy, literally, will be passed along hand to hand for generations to come. And it is in honoring and looking up to revolutionaries and risk-takers like her that perhaps will help us paint the world in vivid color rather than the blacks and whites of old.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Harriet Tubman fought for her own emancipation and led more than seventy people to freedom.
Fans of the renowned political activist have differing views about the banknote’s new design. Some people are excited to see this freedom fighter acknowledged on the front of the bill while others say that it is utterly disrespectful.
Our money should not only reflect our country’s origins, but also who we have become over the past 250 years—as well as who we aspire to be.
Her face will be a daily reminder of where we came from and where we are going.
RELATED ISSUES
10/9/2020 | Learn about slavery and the White House.
9/21/2020 | Support the 1619 Project.
6/18/2020 | Take down Confederate symbols.
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