Moses On A Twenty Dollar Bill?

At a time when Christianity is apparently on the wane here in the United States, an online petition by Women On 20s is pushing for a woman to replace President Andrew Jackson on the twenty dollar bill, and a poll of Americans interested in the question named Harriet Tubman, a Christian mystic, the most popular choice.

Tubman beat out Eleanor Roosevelt, her closest competition, 118,328 votes to 111,227.

Tubman was an interesting lady. Best known for her humanitarian efforts and active abolitionism as a conductor for the Underground Railroad. She became known as a "Moses" of her people.

Since a head injury in her youth (being hit in the head by a metal weight), she had suffered with headaches, epilepsy and fainting spells. She also experienced visions and dreams which she felt came from God. It was her feeling that she actually left her body during her fainting spells and spent time among the spirits in the spirit world.

When a slave, Harriet Tubman began to pray that God would change the heart of her owner, Edward Brodess, and make him a Christian:

I prayed all night long for my master, till the first of March; and all the time he was bringing people to look at me, and trying to sell me. I changed my prayer. First of March I began to pray, "Oh Lord, if you ain't never going to change that man's hear, kill him, Lord, and take him out of the way."

Much to her shock and later regret, Brodess died a week after she changed her prayer.

Click this link to read an online article dealing with a possible visionary premonition of hers concerning the death of abolitionist John Brown.

Rosemary Sadlier, in her biography of Tubman, Harriet Tubman: Freedom Seeker, Freedom Leader, concluded that Tubman's spirituality "combined African spirituality with her interpretation of Christianity." No biographer I've found ignores Tubman's deep religious faith as it influenced her life's work.

Wanna know something weird? Before I saw this story in the news I had already began researching the dreams and visions of Tubman. I don't know why I had began to do this, but it provided me with source material for this post.