Tubman to replace Jackson on Twenty Dollar Note

[Linda Anderson]

(04-23-2016 12:40 PM)LincolnMan Wrote:  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