Confederate States Featured Slaves On Their Money During The Civil War

Confederate States Featured Slaves On Their Money During The Civil War

There’s been a lot of celebration (and a slew of hilarious memes) since news broke that Harriet Tubman will officially completely replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill in about 14 years time.

But did you know that slaves were featured on money back in the 1860’s while this country was still at war with itself? A quick history lesson reveals that scenes of passive slaves happily working in the fields for their white masters were featured on Confederate $50’s and $100’s, to project a sense of prosperity and hope for the future to the states and other countries they dealt with…

Via DailyBeast:

Another racial barrier was overcome with the United States Treasury’s decision to replace Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill and add Martin Luther King Jr. to the back of the $5 bill. While the announcement has been received with a great deal of excitement, it is not the first time in American history that African Americans have been featured on currency.

African Americans were depicted in a wide range of scenes on Confederate currency during the first year of the war. Their presence reveals how leaders of the new nation hoped to be viewed by foreign countries but, more importantly, these banknotes or Treasury notes highlight the importance that Confederate leaders placed on the preservation of slavery and white supremacy to their new nation. In early 1861 Vice President Alexander Stephens unapologetically argued that the preservation of slavery and white supremacy were the “cornerstones” of their nation. The inclusion of representations of slavery on Confederate currency suggest that, far from trying to conceal it, this new nation celebrated it as a mark of their “American Exceptionalism.”

Images of slaves on currency in the 1860s were not new. Individual Southern states included scenes of enslaved blacks on their currency beginning in the 1820s, which helped to fuel the expansion of the Cotton South and its place in a vibrant Atlantic economy that extended to European banks and manufacturing centers.

Interesting. So while happy complacent slaves were featured on money to send a solidify White supremacy and give hope for Confederate domination, featuring a runaway freedom fighter like Harriet serves as a testament to the truth of the horror of slavery and celebrates the fact that it was abolished.

It is fitting that Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson, who did much to encourage the spread of slavery westward. The stories of Tubman’s efforts to undercut slavery by leading the enslaved out of bondage can now be found in most history textbooks, but she also worked tirelessly during the war itself to defeat the Confederacy as a spy and as a battlefield nurse. Tubman’s efforts helped to ensure that a nation’s currency that celebrated the virtues of slavery remains worthless to this day. Her image on our own nation’s bills will go far in strengthening it.

Nice. Even better to feature Harriet on the money it a prominent way, right?

Handout / Daily Beast