(Newly Minted Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Coins: source: Coin Week)
I chose this article specifically to honor Black History Month. Hopefully, many of you are already familiar with the legacy of Harriet Tubman. If not, your schooling has done a ginormous disservice to your education. For those of us who do know, she was an incredibly brave individual who once upon a time was enslaved herself but later escaped to Philadelphia. Knowing the risks and insurmountable odds, she still chose to go back, putting herself at significant risk, and acted as a conductor on the Underground Railroad (“Harriet Tubman Biography”) to free 70 enslaved African Americans. It was an especially wicked world back in those days as headhunters, plantation owners, and slavecatchers were wise to the routes that enslaved people were using to escape to freedom.
(Harriet Tubman: source: Artnet News)
As a brief summation of the history, The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 treated enslaved people as “less than,” (though arguably this was occurring long before the Slave Act) in that they had no right to trial by jury, no ability to testify and be heard on their own behalf, and that slave owners could recapture the people who desperately sought to escape their tormentors (“Fugitive Slave Act of 1850”). Basically, it was about not even being treated as a human being. It was highly illegal to be complicit in helping these freedom-seekers in any way, shape or form but despite that, civil disobedience occurred and many Americans of all races, gender and classes assisted them. Harriet Tubman happens to be the notable example out of these ‘necessary trouble’-makers.
“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” - John Lewis
While President Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 in that “all enslaved people shall now be considered free” (“The Emancipation Proclamation”), it only applied to the states who were trying to secede from the United States. The loyal states that believed in the Union vs the Confederacy saw their slaves untouched by this new decree. Fair?
Absolutely not!
(Boundaries between the Union and the Confederacy: source: National Geographic)
After the Union won the Civil War, the 14th Amendment granted all African Americans the right to citizenship, but “did not always translate to the right to vote” (“Voting Rights for African Americans | the Right to Vote | Elections | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress”). It is from here that we dive deep into a long-winded tunnel of injustice concerning the 15th Amendment, the Jim Crow era, the Civil Rights Movement, the 24th Amendment, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. I am not going to go into all of this. These moments are important to illustrate because if you think the Emancipation Proclamation or the 14th Amendment gave full rights, they did not. African Americans were still facing insurmountable odds of prejudice, racism, and inequality, which to be quite honest is still going on nowadays, most recently with the death of George Floyd. There is so much more important history than the highlights I touched on, but this is why
BLACK LIVES MATTER!
(Black Lives Matter Peaceful Protest: Source: Washington Post)
Getting back to the minted coins of Harriet Tubman, this is the first time in United States history that a black person has been represented on our currency (Smith). We cannot consider ourselves a true cornucopia of cultures if we do not have equal representation within our society. Why should it always and only ever be white men that are represented? Individuals are rare in this world, and it is even rarer that they are celebrated while they are alive. It is often the case that many performed heroic deeds well before their time and generations afterwards, they are finally given their proper place in the commemorative annals of history. This is a fantastic way to honor her memory and if you watched the “they live” clip I posted in the class discussion forum providing satiric commentary that ‘money is god,’ how about we have a god for once that looks like a woman and is not a white person! Congrats to the memory of Harriet Tubman, the legend!
"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world." - Harriet Tubman
“Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.” Social Welfare History Project, 6 Jan. 2022, socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/federal/fugitive-slave-act-of-1850.
Lederle, Cheryl. “Voting Rights – the Full Enfranchisement of African Americans | Teaching With the Library.” The Library of Congress, 16 Oct. 2012, blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2012/10/voting-rights-the-full-enfranchisement-of-african-americans.
Smith, Toni Mooney. A Wealth of Black History in New U.S. Quarters Featuring Maya Angelou. stories.camden.rutgers.edu/a-wealth-of-black-history-in-new-u-s-quarters-featuring-maya-angelou/index.html#:~:text=No%20Black%20American%20has%20ever,expected%20to%20happen%20before%202030.
Boundary Between the United States and the Confederacy. education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/union-confederacy.
Cascone, Sarah. “A Newly Uncovered Photograph of a Young Harriet Tubman Offers a Different View of the Abolitionist Pioneer.” Artnet News, 27 Mar. 2019, news.artnet.com/art-world/unknown-harriet-tubman-photo-1498783.
CoinWeek. “U.S. Mint Announces Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Coin Designs.” CoinWeek: Rare Coin, Currency, and Bullion News for Collectors, 28 Nov. 2023, coinweek.com/u-s-mint-announces-harriet-tubman-bicentennial-coin-designs.
Having a former slave on US currency is a significant deal, a significant admission of this country’s gruesome origin. Despite seemingly ancient bills, proclamations, acts, and revised laws denouncing slavery, its generational effects are still present in contemporary times. This is why it is important and humanizing to both recognize and celebrate Black History Month. This same civil rights advocation persists today, exemplified by the mentioned modern Black Lives Matter movement. Harriet Tubman, an honorable figure embodies this perseverance and racial advocation, and indubitably deserves this commemoration.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed browsing through your blog that focuses on positivity in the political world, which seems so rare today. This news story specifically resonated with me because like you pointed out, it is so rare to have any representation on our currency other than the typical white man. It is crazy to me that in the year 2024 we have so many "firsts" like the first black person to be represented on our currency. Although this is a huge step forward we still have a long way to go.
ReplyDeleteThis writing is a nice change of pace actually, much of the blogging world is about negative things but having someone writing about positivity is refreshing. I totally agree with you about how having more diverse representation in different facets of the world makes it seem more natural and easy, I think it would be great to make more coins of different types that feature different people. I know some do that already, one of my friends is actually an avid coin collector and he's shown me some neat things, but we can always do with memorializing of the people who make our country great, but haven't always been properly displayed.
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