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New $20 redesign?

Started by Nutmeg Coin,

7 posts in this topic

Nutmeg Coin

Nutmeg Coin

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/21/us/women-currency-treasury-harriet-tubman.html?_r=0

 

One concern I have here apart from the aesthetics are ideological connections Tubman had to John Brown, one of the first US domestic terrorists:

 

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In April 1858, Tubman was introduced to the abolitionist John Brown, an insurgent who advocated the use of violence to destroy slavery in the United States. Although she never advocated violence against whites, she agreed with his course of direct action and supported his goals.[77] Like Tubman, he spoke of being called by God, and trusted the divine to protect him from the wrath of slaveholders. She, meanwhile, claimed to have had a prophetic vision of meeting Brown before their encounter.[78]

 

 

Tubman helped John Brown (pictured) plan and recruit for the raid at Harpers Ferry.

Thus, as he began recruiting supporters for an attack on slaveholders, Brown was joined by "General Tubman," as he called her.[77] Her knowledge of support networks and resources in the border states of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware was invaluable to Brown and his planners. Although other abolitionists like Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison did not endorse his tactics, Brown dreamed of fighting to create a new state for freed slaves, and made preparations for military action. After he began the first battle, he believed, slaves would rise up and carry out a rebellion across the south.[79] He asked Tubman to gather former slaves then living in present-day Southern Ontario who might be willing to join his fighting force, which she did.[80]

 

On May 8, 1858, Brown held a meeting in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, where he unveiled his plan for a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia.[81] When word of the plan was leaked to the government, Brown put the scheme on hold and began raising funds for its eventual resumption. Tubman aided him in this effort, and with more detailed plans for the assault.[82]

 

Tubman was busy during this time, giving talks to abolitionist audiences and tending to her relatives. In the autumn of 1859, as Brown and his men prepared to launch the attack, Tubman could not be contacted.[83] When the raid on Harpers Ferry took place on October 16, Tubman was not present. Some historians believe she was in New York at the time, ill with fever related to her childhood head injury.[83] Others propose she may have been recruiting more escaped slaves in Ontario,[84] and Kate Clifford Larson suggests she may have been in Maryland, recruiting for Brown's raid or attempting to rescue more family members.[85] Larson also notes that Tubman may have begun sharing Frederick Douglass's doubts about the viability of the plan.[85]

 

The raid failed; Brown was convicted of treason and hanged in December. His actions were seen by abolitionists as a symbol of proud resistance, carried out by a noble martyr.[86] Tubman herself was effusive with praise. She later told a friend: "[H]e done more in dying, than 100 men would in living."[87]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman

 

Taking someone who was integral to the government and the money system in the US from the bill and putting someone who was not connected to it, makes no sense. If they were looking for someone who was African American and a civil rights leader, Frederick Douglass would have been a far better choice.

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Revenant

Revenant

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You can't use the linkage to the money system as a criterion IMO. We've had other people who weren't key to the financial system on the money for one and Jackson hated the idea of a central bank and government debt.

 

I also don't think it's fair to fault her for supporting Brown the way she did. Lots of people supported it and lots of people (reasonably) believed that slavery wouldn't end in the South without violence/war.

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Revenant

Revenant

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Yes, I saw that, but they can't dishonor him with this. Designs change. He's been on the note nearly 90 years. Not many others can have that said of them and this is a man that probably wouldn't have wanted the "honor" in the first place. I fail to see how any of this injures the legacy or memory of Jackson. Plenty of people don't like him as it is for some of the things he did. I don't think taking him off the 20 is going to change the relative numbers of his supporters, haters, and the ones who don't know enough history to have a valid opinion.

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