Monuments Harriet Tubman on Currency

Both the Susan B. Anthony and the Sacagawea dollar coins were pretty much flops and a big disappointments. The two depicted on those coins didn't have much of a following. There seems to be a faction of our population that is desperate for heros and another part that of our population that is more than willing supply them. Tubman has a following and it just may succeed this time. Why not the one dollar coins?
It probably has more to do with the size of the coin rather than its subject. Those new quarters--easily confused with nickels--aren't especially popular either.
 
Harriet Tubman at best had a peripheral role in John Brown's plans. From the end of February 1858 until May 1858 when Brown travelled to Canada to establish his "rebel" state in exile and issue his provisional constitution, he met with Tubman at her home in St. Catherines on April 4th to discuss his planned invasion of Virginia although according to Brown's son John Jr., the plan to specifically attack Harper's Ferry was not made until the summer of 1859.

Tubman provided Brown with safe routes used by her and the underground railroad and she told him that she would try to recruit escaped slaves living in Canada to join his liberation army.

William S. McFeely in his book Frederick Douglass, notes that prominent blacks that Brown had been claiming were allies of his plan such as Douglass, Tubman, Henry Garnet and Jermain Loguen, as well as members of the Secret Six, failed to appear at the May 8th inauguration of his rebel government that was held in a black school house in Chatham, Ontario. Furthermore, Tubman did not appear at any future meetings and there is nothing in any correspondence to Brown from Tubman nor anyone else that indicates she would join him in his raid.

David S Reynolds' biography titled John Brown Abolitionist mentions Tubman in a single short paragraph in regards to Brown's meeting with her in St. Catherines, Canada with no mention of her planning on actively participating in his raid. Likewise, in two paragraphs of Stephen B. Oates' To Purge this Land With Blood - A Biography of John Brown, the author also mentions Brown's meeting in St. Catherines with Tubman, providing him with contacts and safe routes in Virginia and her agreement to recruit blacks from her community in Canada. Only one author from the five biographies I have of Brown and Douglass and one book of the personal correspondence and letters of Brown (The Life and Letters of John Brown, Edited by F. B. Sanborn, 1885), suggests that Tubman was supposed to participate in Brown's raid. W. E. Burghardt Du Bois in his bio John Brown, states "[o]nly sickness, brought on by her toil and exposure, prevented Harriet Tubman from being present at Harper's Ferry."
Du Bois employs footnotes throughout his book but this passage is strangely lacking one if it was based on fact.
The bond between Tubman and Brown was pretty tight. Douglas himself felt the raid on Harpers Ferry was sure to fail. Perhaps Tubman felt the same way. That being the case her taking part would have exposed r put at risk the Underground RR, it's routes and members.
 
The dime is a cupro-nickel sandwich, where once it was silver. The quarter dollar, half-dollar, and dollar coins once were silver. In fact, the "Spanish milled dollar" or "piece of eight" or "peso de a ocho/ peso de ocho reales" served as the basis for the U.S. silver dollar, which had to be the same size, weight, and purity as the Spanish. It was legal tender into the 1850s, perhaps a bit like these newfangled Bitcoin type ideas and what not?

The nickel, thankfully, was always just nickel. The penny was once a huge copper coin, and became gradually reduced in size until it finally became zinc with a copper cladding after 1982... Now the zinc is worth more than the penny is worth. And people hoard the things in jars in every home and remove them from circulation.

The Sacagawea dollar led to the U.S. President du jour dollar... Literally every single POTUS was to grace the currency, including, say, William Henry "Tippecanoe" Harrison, POTUS for all of a few months, his successor, the "accidental POTUS" John Tyler, Martin Van Buren, James Buchanan... Millard Fillmore ... Warren G. Harding ... Calvin Coolidge ...

I think that bi-metallic coins where an inset of a very different metal, or by now, even ceramic?, might make for a coin that would not be confused by the user like the 1979-only Susan B. Anthony "Carter quarter" given formerly as change at USPS, or, perhaps, the brass/bronze color of the Sacagawea and POTUS dollars. They've already got different state quarters and now different parks and whatnot... For the record, I'm not opposed to putting flora and fauna on currency, and witness the success of Canada with the "loony."

Change simply weighs too much, wears holes in the pockets, and jingles when you walk... Let's make light-weight coinage of some high-tech but cheap material, and size the coins by denomination---five cents--ten cents--fifteen--twentyfive--fifty--a buck--a two buck coin--five dollar bill, ten, twenty, fifty, etc. etc.

If actual persons are to be honored with a place on the currency, maybe have a rotating set of options a bit like the POTUS dollar fiasco? The US mint has already changed the colors of bills, so people won't get confused by the "all green, all the same size" bills... Get people to actually look at what they are paying for purchases with?
 
The bond between Tubman and Brown was pretty tight. Douglas himself felt the raid on Harpers Ferry was sure to fail. Perhaps Tubman felt the same way. That being the case her taking part would have exposed r put at risk the Underground RR, it's routes and members.
I mostly agree with you on this. I'm not sure that there was a tight bond between Tubman or for that matter, Douglass and Brown. I'd say they had great respect for Brown believing that he was one of the very few white men, if not THE only white man, who carried no prejudices and truly wanted to help the blacks. Both Tubman and Douglass had no problems recruiting others and raising and donating money for Brown's activities but that's where it stopped.
 
The dime is a cupro-nickel sandwich, where once it was silver. The quarter dollar, half-dollar, and dollar coins once were silver. In fact, the "Spanish milled dollar" or "piece of eight" or "peso de a ocho/ peso de ocho reales" served as the basis for the U.S. silver dollar, which had to be the same size, weight, and purity as the Spanish. It was legal tender into the 1850s, perhaps a bit like these newfangled Bitcoin type ideas and what not?

The nickel, thankfully, was always just nickel. The penny was once a huge copper coin, and became gradually reduced in size until it finally became zinc with a copper cladding after 1982... Now the zinc is worth more than the penny is worth. And people hoard the things in jars in every home and remove them from circulation.

The Sacagawea dollar led to the U.S. President du jour dollar... Literally every single POTUS was to grace the currency, including, say, William Henry "Tippecanoe" Harrison, POTUS for all of a few months, his successor, the "accidental POTUS" John Tyler, Martin Van Buren, James Buchanan... Millard Fillmore ... Warren G. Harding ... Calvin Coolidge ...

I think that bi-metallic coins where an inset of a very different metal, or by now, even ceramic?, might make for a coin that would not be confused by the user like the 1979-only Susan B. Anthony "Carter quarter" given formerly as change at USPS, or, perhaps, the brass/bronze color of the Sacagawea and POTUS dollars. They've already got different state quarters and now different parks and whatnot... For the record, I'm not opposed to putting flora and fauna on currency, and witness the success of Canada with the "loony."

Change simply weighs too much, wears holes in the pockets, and jingles when you walk... Let's make light-weight coinage of some high-tech but cheap material, and size the coins by denomination---five cents--ten cents--fifteen--twentyfive--fifty--a buck--a two buck coin--five dollar bill, ten, twenty, fifty, etc. etc.

If actual persons are to be honored with a place on the currency, maybe have a rotating set of options a bit like the POTUS dollar fiasco? The US mint has already changed the colors of bills, so people won't get confused by the "all green, all the same size" bills... Get people to actually look at what they are paying for purchases with?
Time eliminate the duplication of figures on ones, twos, fives, and the cent, 5 cents and 25 cents pieces
 
The dime is a cupro-nickel sandwich, where once it was silver. The quarter dollar, half-dollar, and dollar coins once were silver. In fact, the "Spanish milled dollar" or "piece of eight" or "peso de a ocho/ peso de ocho reales" served as the basis for the U.S. silver dollar, which had to be the same size, weight, and purity as the Spanish. It was legal tender into the 1850s, perhaps a bit like these newfangled Bitcoin type ideas and what not?

The nickel, thankfully, was always just nickel. The penny was once a huge copper coin, and became gradually reduced in size until it finally became zinc with a copper cladding after 1982... Now the zinc is worth more than the penny is worth. And people hoard the things in jars in every home and remove them from circulation.

The Sacagawea dollar led to the U.S. President du jour dollar... Literally every single POTUS was to grace the currency, including, say, William Henry "Tippecanoe" Harrison, POTUS for all of a few months, his successor, the "accidental POTUS" John Tyler, Martin Van Buren, James Buchanan... Millard Fillmore ... Warren G. Harding ... Calvin Coolidge ...

I think that bi-metallic coins where an inset of a very different metal, or by now, even ceramic?, might make for a coin that would not be confused by the user like the 1979-only Susan B. Anthony "Carter quarter" given formerly as change at USPS, or, perhaps, the brass/bronze color of the Sacagawea and POTUS dollars. They've already got different state quarters and now different parks and whatnot... For the record, I'm not opposed to putting flora and fauna on currency, and witness the success of Canada with the "loony."

Change simply weighs too much, wears holes in the pockets, and jingles when you walk... Let's make light-weight coinage of some high-tech but cheap material, and size the coins by denomination---five cents--ten cents--fifteen--twentyfive--fifty--a buck--a two buck coin--five dollar bill, ten, twenty, fifty, etc. etc.

If actual persons are to be honored with a place on the currency, maybe have a rotating set of options a bit like the POTUS dollar fiasco? The US mint has already changed the colors of bills, so people won't get confused by the "all green, all the same size" bills... Get people to actually look at what they are paying for purchases with?
I think from 1942-45 the nickel sometimes referred to as a war nickel was made of 35% silver,
 
...she actually led an armed assault at the Combahee River Raid.
"Nothing in the documentary evidence suggests that Montgomery's soldiers deferred to Tubman in the place of their commanding officer....The notion that Tubman, not Montgomery, commanded the Combahee foray has lodged itself at the core of the "General Tubman" myth..." -Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History, p.90
 
"Nothing in the documentary evidence suggests that Montgomery's soldiers deferred to Tubman in the place of their commanding officer....The notion that Tubman, not Montgomery, commanded the Combahee foray has lodged itself at the core of the "General Tubman" myth..." -Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History, p.90
With a title like that, your source is hardly credible 😲

Leadership doesn't have to be either-or. Harriet Tubman's role in the Combahee raid is established history.
  • Springfield, MA
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  • Dallas, TX
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Civil War Centennial (P. 20)
She guided a military and naval operation that freed 756 slaves in the Combahee River area at one time

Unsung Heroes by Elizabeth Ross Haynes (p. 99)
Once while Harriet was on this trip she went with some gunboats up the Combahee River. The frightened slaves along the way left their work and took to the woods. Some of those who fled peeped out from behind trees at the gunboats and ran away like deer when they heard the sound of the steam whistle. One old man said, "Well, Master said the Yankees had horns and tails but I never believed it till now". Eight hundred of these people were taken on board the gunboats to be carried to Beaufort, S. C.

I can come up with more if you insist.

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I have to question anyone that supports the overthrow and then replacement of the nation's constitution. If she had full knowledge of Brown's 'wider war' that included violence against innocents and the formation of a new govt, then I have to question her desire to align with such a man.
Not discounting her other work - but wondering ???
 
I have read extensively on Old Hickory. I even read "The American Lion". I would not judge him too harshly. He was a great man in many ways but had some faults too. I guess that makes him human. The men who served under him, the Cherokee and even the Red Stick Creeks had great respect for him. He gave up his horse to one of his wounded soldiers and walked back to Tennessee by his side. Jackson was a bad @$$.
Harriet Tubman was an angel send by God to show us the way. When I die, if I see Ms. Tubman, I'll know I did good. If I see Jackson.....save me a place by the fire.
 
I have to question anyone that supports the overthrow and then replacement of the nation's constitution. If she had full knowledge of Brown's 'wider war' that included violence against innocents and the formation of a new govt, then I have to question her desire to align with such a man.
Not discounting her other work - but wondering ???
"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.1 Unsuccesful rebellions indeed generally establish the incroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medecine necessary for the sound health of government."
- Thomas Jefferson
https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/little-rebellionquotation

"god forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. the people cannot be all, & always, well informed. the part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive; if they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. we have had 13. states independant 11. years. there has been one rebellion. that comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. what country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? let them take arms. the remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. what signify a few lives lost in a century or two? the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. it is it's natural manure. our Convention has been too much impressed by...."
- Thomas Jefferson
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/105.html
 
I have to question anyone that supports the overthrow and then replacement of the nation's constitution. If she had full knowledge of Brown's 'wider war' that included violence against innocents and the formation of a new govt, then I have to question her desire to align with such a man.
Not discounting her other work - but wondering ???
Then, what do you think of George Washington?

Violence against innocents? Stonewall Jackson's men called in "friendly fire". Indeed, what do you think of Stonewall Jackson? Or Robert E. Lee?

John Brown was just one of many who felt that violence was the only solution. Just one. What about men such as Henry David Thoreau? Or Lysander Spooner? Or Joshua Giddings? etc., etc.

To be fair, perhaps we should see Washington removed from the dollar bill? 🥺
 
Then, what do you think of George Washington?

Violence against innocents? Stonewall Jackson's men called in "friendly fire". Indeed, what do you think of Stonewall Jackson? Or Robert E. Lee?

John Brown was just one of many who felt that violence was the only solution. Just one. What about men such as Henry David Thoreau? Or Lysander Spooner? Or Joshua Giddings? etc., etc.

To be fair, perhaps we should see Washington removed from the dollar bill? 🥺
"Yeah! He was a slaveholder, erm, uh, I mean enslaver after all! Wasn't he?" /sarcasm...
 
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