The U.S. Treasury Department has chosen Harriet Tubman to be the first woman on an American banknote. Tubman was born a slave but escaped and during the years before the Civil War spirited slaves out of the south by way of the historic Underground Railroad. This was a series of safe places where slaves could stop and hide during their flight to the north. Later, Tubman became a spy for the Union during the war of 1860-65. President Andrew Jackson, who she will replace on the front of the twenty, moves to the other side of the new bill. BBC
