Just two days after the official announcement that Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch signed an agreement establishing the celebrated abolitionist’s former home as a National Historical Park.
The agreement allows land belonging to Harriet Tubman Home Inc. in Auburn, New York, to be transferred to the National Park Service, Cayuga County's newspaper The Citizen reports. The 26-acre property will now be known as the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park. Congress approved legislation in 2014 to create this park and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Maryland.
Tubman escaped from slavery in Maryland in 1849, but she returned numerous times to rescue at least 70 other people. In 1859, she moved to a house in Auburn, New York. In 1896, she bought 25 acres next to that property, where she opened the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, which provided housing for elderly African-Americans. She deeded the establishment to the AME Zion Church in 1903, with the agreement that they would manage the home and the property, according to the National Park Service.
Harriet Tubman National Historical Park includes Tubman’s former residence, the Home for the Aged and the nearby Thompson Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church.
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