Fab Friday Spotlight: Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman - she's one of the most well-respected figures in history and now more than 100 years after her death and she's making history yet again. It was announced this week that Tubman will be replacing President Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 bill. The redesign will take place over the next few years and the Harriet Tubman $20 will be officially revealed in 2020.

It's a honor well-deserved for a woman who lived a life that we could barely imagine. She was born into slavery along with her entire family. As a child she was severely beaten by her masters and suffered head wounds that caused her to endure seizures, headaches and epilepsy for the rest of her life.

It was in her 20s that Tubman decided enough was enough. She, along with her brothers, made an escape from their plantation in 1849. Tubman made it all the way to Philadelphia but something wasn't right. 

"I was a stranger in a strange land. My father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were [in Maryland]. But I was free, and they should be free," she said years later.

Tubman knew that freedom wasn't for her alone and she was willing to risk her life for it. With the help of anti-slavery activists and the Underground Railroad, she made several trips back and forth to lead her parents, her relatives and countless other slaves to safety. Even more amazing - neither Tubman nor the escaped slaves she helped were ever recaptured.

Tubman went on to play an active role helping the Union in the Civil War and supported the fight for women to have the right to vote. She died in 1913 and was buried with military honors.

“I would fight for liberty so long as my strength lasted," Tubman said looking back over her life. We salute Harriet Tubman because fighting for liberty is exactly what she did and now her pioneering legacy will live on even further for future generations.

Learn more about Harriet Tubman

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