Harriet Tubman Analysis

Central Thesis

The main focus of this article found on The Washington Post is to provide a standpoint to the current issue of replacing president Andrew Jackson’s face with Harriet Tubman’s on the $20 U.S. bill. This article called “Keep Harriet Tubman- and all women- off the $20 bill” was written by Ms. Jones, a feminist woman in New York who is a mental health social worker and writer. According to Ms. Jones, there are major several problems of misrepresentation of women, especially black women in the United States. Such misrepresentation issues occur in regular jobs’ positions, as well as in the government, specifically in the House of Representatives, the Senate and other important positions that determine the primary decisions of the country.

Harriet Tubman is known for escaping slavery in Maryland and helping many slaves, including her own family to escape as well. By facilitating slaves to escape from their owners, she was considered to be stealing property; consequently, for obvious matters, she did not respect the ideology of American capitalism, which historically has promoted the oppression of women and people of color. Tubman spent the last years of her life putting her life at risk by working for the Union Army by spying in exchange for slaves rescue, to help people “who were treated as currency themselves” (Jones 2015). Therefore, by putting her face in a currency bill, Ms. Jones identifies, it is an insult to her legacy since it is the complete opposite of her beliefs since they were not based on supporting the economic system, but instead in freedom

Moreover, I believe it is a good start to set a foundation in order to work and find solutions to every misrepresentation in the country in regards to women. In my opinion, it is an honor to have a woman representing one of the most used U.S. bills, especially since it is the first time in the history that has ever been generally accepted. On the other hand, there is a strong irony and controversy respecting the substitution of a president who supported and profited black slaves with a woman who escaped, helped escape other slaves, and fought for this discriminatory policy. However, it is extremely interesting the relationship of both, especially because there were other women in the contest to be portrayed in the bill, and she was the one who won thanks to citizens’