The unknown secret about the first woman is printed on the $ 20 bill

The fact that Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on $ 20 bills is a very important event for many reasons.

Jackson owner was pushed back to the back of the bill by a former slave; Tubman , who had freed more than 300 slaves on the underground railway, would replace a president who left 16,000 Cherokee people (and thousands of other indigenous tribes) to leave their homeland. Their on the Tears Road (Trail of Tears).

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross; around 1820 or 1821 - March 10, 1913) is an African-American, humanitarian activist against African-American slavery, an internal Federal agent. American war. After escaping her slavery, where she was born, she conducted 13 missions to rescue more than 70 slaves using a network of anti-slavery activists and safe houses called Underground railway. She later helped John Brown recruit people for his attack on the Harpers ferry, during the post-war period, she was a women's rights champion.

Portrait of Harriet Tubman

But even if Tubman doesn't replace Jackson, the $ 20 bill is still the most suitable money to honor her, because $ 20 has played an important role in her life in two situations. different situations.

Firstly, $ 20 is the amount she receives under the monthly allowance regime after the American Civil War, in which she assists the Northern Confederation with scouts and spies.

This amount is still less than the amount of 25 USD per month paid to soldiers, but this is the result of a long legal battle to receive her benefits.

Phil Edwards of Vox wrote about this last year, when the social media campaign aimed at bringing Tubman or another woman to a $ 20 bill is at a climax.

But from before, according to Atlantic's Yoni Appelbaum, on Twitter, $ 20 has played a big role in Tubman's efforts to free his father from slavery.

Portrait of Mrs. Harriet Tubman on the front of the $ 20 bill

According to MSN.com, in Tubman's first biography, the book " Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman" published in 1869, author Sarah Hopkins Bradford. told the story of Tubman's attempt to free his parents, as an example of how Mrs. Tubman rarely asks anything from others.

"Though I think very modestly about myself, " Bradford wrote, "but she was bold enough in her ethnicity's desires" - and was not afraid to lose face to powerful people, if necessary.

"I will not go if I don't get my 20 USD."

In this story, Bradford wrote, Tubman believed that she was " directed " by the Lord to seek funding to rescue her parents from " a New York gentleman, " identified by Appelbaum as Oliver Johnson, a member. Highlights of abolition movement.

When I left the house of a friend to go there, she said, " I will go to your office, and I will not leave, I will not eat or drink until I receive enough money to help my father. . "

She went to this gentleman's office.

" What do you want, Harriet?" is the first greeting she received.

" I want some money, sir."

"Is that so? How much do you want?"

"I want $ 20, sir"

"20 USD? Who told you to come here to get 20 USD?"

"God told me, sir."

"So I think God was wrong this time."

"I think he's not mistaken, sir. I'll still sit here anyway until I get the money."

So she sat down and slept. She was still sitting there all morning and afternoon, sleeping and awake again, sometimes seeing the office full of people, sometimes there was no one but her.

During that time there were many refugees going through New York, and those who came to the office thought that she was one of them, feeling tired and wanting to rest. Sometimes she woke up, "Come on, Mrs. Harriet, you should go. There's no money for you here." "No, sir." I will not go if I don't get my $ 20. "

Finally, Tubman also got $ 20 - but even more. Bradford wrote that in the end, after getting up in the office, Mrs. Tubman found 60 dollars in her pocket. But this money is not from Johnson; It is because the "refugees " who used to be slaves went through the office to donate to her. They have earned a great amount of money to help Mrs. Tubman free another person from slavery.

Tubman used this money to save his father - who was on trial for helping the slave escape - and took him to Canada, where he could not be captured again in slavery.

Admittedly, now the $ 20 dollar cannot do as many things as the time of Mrs. Tubman. But when her face was printed on a new $ 20 bill, she would be part of every deal with the money that even a core member of the slave movement would not let her let her win. launch for his father. And for those who know this story, it is also a reminder of the value of 20 USD for those who are more difficult than you.