A fitting tribute to the ‘Black Moses’

Re Harriet Tubman will take the place of U.S.

president on $20 bill, April 23 It is indeed ironic that Harriet Tubman, an ex-black slave and an ardent antislavery activist, is slated to replace Andrew Jackson on the American $20 bill. It is to be noted that Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States and an inveterate slave owner.

This is a fitting tribute to an outstanding abolitionist who shepherded hundreds of black American slaves to freedom in Canada. Harriet Tubman’s 19 trips across the border did not go unnoticed as a significant group of slave owners put a bounty on her head. It is remarkable that the then massive sum of $40,000 was put up to ensure her capture. Although her life was always at risk, she skilfully evaded capture and finally settled in St. Catharines on the Niagara Peninsula in 1851.

My wife and I were honoured to have been invited to St. Catharines on Aug. 24, 2002, where Salem Chapel was dedicated as a National Historic Site. It was indeed a deeply emotional experience to set foot inside Salem Chapel whose original structure dates back to 1855.

It is fitting that the chapel has become synonymous with the name Harriet Tubman. So great was her leadership that she was fondly referred to as the “Black Moses.” There is no question she symbolized the best of the human spirit. Rupert Johnson, Scarborough

The Star’s report on Harriet Tubman made me think of a pioneering African-Canadian woman whose recognition is overdue. Mary Ann Shadd Cary, a free African-American woman who fled the U.S. to Ontario after the passage of America’s 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, is recognized for being the first black woman to publish a newspaper in Canada. She is also the first female to achieve this feat. But while John Bushell gets credited for being the first male newspaper publisher, Mary Ann, who also became a lawyer and educator, virtually never gets this significant credit.

She accomplished what no other woman did at a time when half of Canada’s population could not sign their names. Ingrid Walter, Toronto