The U.S. $20 dollar bill will soon be getting a facelift. In a surprise move by the Department of the Treasury, Andrew Jackson will share the $20 with Harriet Tubman, the first woman to appear on paper money since the 19th century and the first African American to grace American currency. Alexander Hamilton will keep his position on the $10 bill.
The first time a woman was featured on U.S. paper currency was in the 1860s, when Native American Pocahontas appeared on the backside of a $20 bill. Next came Martha Washington —wife of George — who appeared on a $1 silver certificate during a stretch of years in the 1880s and 1890s. The bill was issued in 1886 and was discontinued by the turn of the century.
Women have also been featured on U.S. coins: the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, the Sacagawea dollar coin, and Helen Keller's appearance on an Alabama special-issue quarter.
Abolitionist Tubman
Harriet Tubman was an abolitionist who helped hundreds of slaves find freedom before and during the Civil War which was fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the survival of the Union or independence for the Confederacy. As conductor of the Underground Railroad, Tubman took great risks traveling at night from the South to the free North via a network of secret routes and safe houses. When the Civil War began, Tubman became a spy for the Union.
The proposal to place women on U.S. paper money has been building support since last summer and several plans have been discussed. The Treasury Department’s first suggestion was to have a woman replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10.
Instead of removing Hamilton, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, in an unexpected move, bumped Andrew Jackson to the back of the $20 bill and placed Harriet Tubman center stage on the front. According to Lew, the decision was taken in response to thousands of reactions he received from both young and old Americans. As it turns out Tubman is not just an historical figure but a role model for leadership and participation in American democracy.
Different Views
Talk about strange bedfellows. For all Tubman’s efforts in saving slaves, Jackson holds a vastly different position in American history.
Besides being a slave owner and trader, Jackson threw thousands of Native Americans off their land through the Indian Removal Act and marched them westward from Georgia in the middle of the winter. This came to be known as the Trail of tears. In addition, Jackson was also an opponent of paper money so it seems strange he was on the $20 bill in the first place.
That said, there are some advocates for Jackson who point out that despite his being orphaned at 14, he rose to become a war hero as the general who defeated the British in the battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. He is also widely considered a forefather of modern democracy as, according to Treasury Secretary Lew, he "opened the White House to the American people ...and expanded democracy beyond white male property owners.”
The new $20 bill is scheduled to be released in 2020 but according to Susan Ades Stone, Executive Director of the Women on 20’s movement, Secretary Lew has received a commitment from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to get the bill into circulation as quickly as possible. The design and the production of the bill are being worked on concurrently with the reissuance of the $10 and the $5 dollar bills.
Stone believes that women’s role in American history has taken a back bench to that of men and that women must be shown alongside great male figures and should be honored as such. Seeing a woman on the $20 which is popularly circulated internationally informs the world about “who we are and what we value.”
The $20 is only one of the seven paper bills in the U.S. currency arsenal. The decision to replace a man with woman on one side of the bill may be only the beginning of the process towards depicting the important role played by many worthy women throughout American history.
