Tubman to replace Jackson on Twenty Dollar Note

[Gene C]

Why Jackson had been chosen at all regarding he has often been "voted" "Worst President"?

My guess is Jackson was chosen to represent the poor Presidents we seem to want to elect every few years.
Davey Crockett (also from Tennessee) vehemently opposed many of the policies of President Andrew Jackson

[Linda Anderson]

Here's another interesting article from The Daily Beast.

"Harriet Tubman is not the first African American to appear on currency in this land—Confederates were quick to feature slaves on their money during the Civil War."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20...money.html

[Thomas Kearney]

Why Jackson had been chosen at all regarding he has often been "voted" "Worst President"?

My guess is Jackson was chosen to represent the poor Presidents we seem to want to elect every few years.
Davey Crockett (also from Tennessee) vehemently opposed many of the policies of President Andrew Jackson

I went to the Hermitage and they said Jackson was not a fan of paper currency so that's why they put him on.

[LincolnMan]

Eva: really? I've never seen him voted as such.

[L Verge]

Jackson was an American hero when we were growing up and even into the 1960s and 70s, when I was teaching. Then came a new breed of liberal historians who decided that all Presidents had to have faults - and Jackson was an obvious one to make their poster child.

Andy was a Southern slaveholder, and he also played a significant role in the dispersal of Native Americans to a cruel, interior U.S. environment. Remember Trail of Tears? Right there you are playing a double racist role which is going to cost you dearly in 21st-century historical assessments.

He also got a bit loose with his dealings with banks. I've read that his executive orders would make our current leader look like a novice. And remember that one of the ways to defeat a nation is to destroy their heroic images from the past. We're getting really good at that.

[LincolnMan]

Quite correct Laurie!
On the other hand winning the Battle of New Orleans secured our country from any further threat from Great Britain.
I think Tubman is a great choice. But I also think in the big picture the action is part of the politically correct wave that has engulfed us.

[L Verge]

I agree with you 100% (as Herb would say).

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Does anybody here know, for sure, whether Tubman was a Republican or leaned Republican or supported Republicans? All things considered, I think that's far more likely than Democrat, but I'm wondering if there's any documentation or testimony.

I believe that I have read that she joined the Republican Party (which would be natural given her friendship with Seward), but I don't know how active in the political scene she really was since she had no right to vote.

[ELCore]

I agree with you 100% (as Herb would say).

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Does anybody here know, for sure, whether Tubman was a Republican or leaned Republican or supported Republicans? All things considered, I think that's far more likely than Democrat, but I'm wondering if there's any documentation or testimony.

I believe that I have read that she joined the Republican Party (which would be natural given her friendship with Seward), but I don't know how active in the political scene she really was since she had no right to vote.

Yes. That's why I worded my question so verbosely.

[LincolnMan]

She was also friends with Sojourner Truth-who as we know had met with Lincoln.

[maharba]

Here's another interesting article from The Daily Beast.

"Harriet Tubman is not the first African American to appear on currency in this land—Confederates were quick to feature slaves on their money during the Civil War."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20...money.html

Interesting. I'll have to check that. And in coins, was it Booker T. Washington was on a very attractive silver commemorative dollar coin, about 1948.

[LincolnMan]

I read where she knew William Seward. She lived on property connected to him?

[Linda Anderson]

I read where she knew William Seward. She lived on property connected to him?

Bill, here's an article by Peter Wisbey, the former Executive Director of the Seward House which is now included in the NY State Parks Underground Railroad Heritage Trail.

" According to secondary sources, there are two areas of Seward House that are associated with Underground Railroad use. An oral history from the Sewards' granddaughter, Frances Messenger, recalls that Mrs. Seward referred to the area over the woodshed as her "dormitory."6 Also, an 1891 newspaper article reports "it is said that the old kitchen was one of the most popular stations of the Underground Railroad, and that many a poor slave who fled by this route to Canada carried to his grave the remembrance of its warmth and cheer."7 On November 18, 1855, writing from Auburn, William Seward noted "the 'underground railroad' works wonderfully. Two passengers came here last night. Watch [the family dog] attacked one of them 8...

"Finally, the Seward's support and patronage of Harriet Tubman is well known and documented.14 In 1859, William Henry and Frances conveyed seven acres of land to Tubman as a home. The property, the nucleus of the present day Harriet Tubman Home museum, was not paid off until after William Seward's death in 1872, emphasizing what Sarah Bradford recorded as the Sewards' "very favorable terms" to Tubman. The Seward account books do record occasional payments on the debt and additional loans to Tubman over the next several decades.
"The striking roles played by both William and Frances Seward in abolition activism have been largely overshadowed by William Seward's career as Civil War Secretary of State and his purchase of the Alaska Territory in 1867. The inclusion of their home as part of the Underground Railroad Heritage Trail would be a welcome recognition of the cause for which they passionately worked."

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nycayu...eward.html

[LincolnMan]

Linda: that is awesome information- thank you!

[Linda Anderson]

Kate Clifford Larson wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post titled, "Five myths about Harriet Tubman."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/...andom_1_na

[Eva Elisabeth]

Very interesting article, Linda - thanks!