Episodes

  • Episode 48: Juliette Gordon Low – The Girl Scouts

    Episode 48: Juliette Gordon Low – The Girl Scouts
    Jun 16 2026
    Photo courtesy – U.S. Mint Episode 48: Juliette Gordon Low – The Girl Scouts Juliette Gordon Low & the Girl Scouts From 18 Girls in Savannah to a Global Movement Hello, hello, hello—and welcome to another journey through history. Today we’re traveling to Savannah, a beautiful Southern city known for its moss-draped oak trees, historic squares, and charming architecture. But Savannah is also the birthplace of a movement that changed the lives of millions of girls around the world. The story begins with a determined woman named Juliette Gordon Low—known affectionately to friends and family as “Daisy.” And now, more than a century later, her legacy is being honored on the Juliette Gordon Low Quarter, part of the American Women Quarters Program issued by the United States Mint. She was a Woman Ahead of Her Time To understand Juliette Gordon Low, we need to step back to the early 1900s. In those days, opportunities for women and girls were limited. Women could not vote yet. Social expectations were strict. Girls were often taught to be quiet, polite, and prepared for traditional roles. But Juliette Gordon Low believed girls deserved something very different. She believed they should be curious, adventurous, independent, and confident. And she believed they should learn skills that would help them make a difference in the world. In 1911, while traveling in England, Juliette Gordon Low met a man named Robert Baden-Powell. He had founded the Boy Scouts, a movement designed to teach boys outdoor skills, leadership, and service. The idea sparked something in Juliette Gordon Low immediately.She saw how powerful this type of program could be—but she believed girls deserved the same opportunities. So she returned home to Savannah with a bold plan. On March 12, 1912, Juliette Gordon Low gathered 18 girls in Savannah. Those girls became the very first troop of what would become the Girl Scouts of the USA. At the time, the organization was first called Girl Guides, modeled after a similar group in Britain. But the name soon changed to Girl Scouts. Those first meetings focused on things that were unusual for girls at the time: hikingcampingfirst aidleadershipcommunity service And perhaps most importantly—confidence. Juliette Gordon Low encouraged girls to believe they could do anything. What started with just 18 girls in Savannah quickly began to grow. Girls across the country were drawn to the idea of adventure and service. They learned to: build campfiresnavigate outdoorswork together in teamsserve their communities These were skills that prepared girls not just for childhood—but for life. The movement spread quickly. In the 1920s, Girl Scout troops began appearing beyond the United States. Troops formed in places like: ChinaSyriaMexico One of the earliest Native American Girl Scout troops formed on the **Onondaga Nation Reservation in New York in 1921. Mexican American girls formed a troop in Houston in 1922. By 1925, a troop was registered in Shanghai, showing just how quickly the movement had grown. What Juliette Gordon Low started in Savannah had become international. When the Great Depression struck in the 1930s, Girl Scouts stepped forward to help. Troops collected: foodclothingsupplies for families in need They also worked to welcome immigrants into their communities. The Girl Scouts even printed information about their organization in several languages, including: YiddishItalianPolish This helped new immigrant families understand and join the movement. Inclusiveness became one of the organization’s core values. During World War II, Girl Scouts once again stepped forward to serve. Troops across the country participated in national war efforts. Girls collected: scrap metalcooking fatsclothing They also planted Victory Gardens to help support food supplies. Some troops even operated bicycle courier services, delivering important messages and supplies. Girl Scouts also organized Defense Institutes, where women learned emergency skills and ways to help children remain calm during air raids. Even Japanese American girls held in wartime internment camps in Utah and California formed Girl Scout troops—demonstrating the power of community even during difficult times. The spirit of service continued after the war. During the Korean War, Girl Scouts assembled “Kits for Korea,” packages filled with supplies for Korean civilians. The organization also continued pushing for equality and inclusion. By the early 1950s, progress toward racial integration was already happening within Girl Scouts—even in the segregated South. In the 1960s, Girl Scouts became increasingly active in conversations about equality and social change. The organization held Speak Out conferences across the country where girls could discuss issues of race and justice. A national program called ACTION 70 encouraged girls to work toward overcoming prejudice and building stronger relationships among communities. Girl Scouts...
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    12 mins
  • Episode 47: Ona Judge – The Courage of Freedom

    Episode 47: Ona Judge – The Courage of Freedom
    Jun 9 2026
    Ona Judge was a woman of courage. She stood strong for her freedom from the most prestigious American family - George and Martha Washington. She escaped and remained free.
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    37 mins
  • Episode 46: The Liberty Tree Yesterday and Today

    Episode 46: The Liberty Tree Yesterday and Today
    May 25 2026
    The Liberty Tree Yesterday and Today Long before America became a nation… before there was a Declaration of Independence… before there were fireworks, parades, or even the United States itself… there was a tree. There was The Liberty Tree. Its branches stretched over the streets of Boston like open arms gathering together ordinary people with extraordinary courage. Beneath that tree, colonists whispered dangerous ideas. They gathered in fear, in frustration, and eventually in hope. Hope that freedom could belong not only to kings and wealthy men, but to common people willing to stand together and demand it. The Liberty Tree was more than wood and leaves rooted in the soil of colonial America. To the colonists, it became a living symbol of resistance, unity, and the belief that their voices mattered. Under its shade, the Sons of Liberty organized protests against British rule. Effigies were hung from its branches. Speeches stirred the hearts of the people. Plans were made that would help ignite a revolution. But emotionally, the Liberty Tree represented something even deeper. It reminded people they were not alone. For dock workers, craftsmen, merchants, laborers, free Black colonists, and even the enslaved who heard whispers of liberty carried through Boston’s streets, the tree became a symbol of possibility. A place where courage grew. A place where the idea of freedom took root long before the nation itself did. And even after British soldiers cut the tree down in 1775, they could not destroy what it had already inspired. Because the Liberty Tree had become more than a place. It had become an idea. Today, nearly 250 years later, that same spirit still speaks to us. The belief that communities matter. That ordinary voices can shape history. That liberty requires courage, sacrifice, and people willing to stand together beneath the weight of uncertain times. On this episode of Quarter Miles Travel, we travel back to the roots of the American Revolution to uncover the story of the Liberty Tree… the tree that helped grow a nation. The Liberty Tree came to represent the values that would eventually shape the soul of a nation: freedom, unity, courage, civic responsibility, resistance to injustice, and the belief that ordinary people have the power to shape their own future. Beneath its branches, colonists discovered that liberty was not simply an idea spoken by politicians or written in documents—it was something living, something worth protecting and fighting for together. The tree became a gathering place where voices joined in common purpose, where communities stood against oppression, and where hope grew stronger than fear. Its symbolism inspired a nation to believe that freedom belonged not to a king, but to the people. That government should answer to its citizens. That protest could become patriotism. And that even in uncertain times, unity and courage could grow deep enough to change the course of history. Though the original tree was cut down, the values it represented continued to spread across the colonies like roots beneath the soil—eventually giving rise to the birth of the United States itself. Yes — there were tensions, contradictions, and sometimes open conflict between Black and white colonists during the years leading up to the American Revolution, especially in slaveholding colonies. The revolutionary era was filled with a painful irony: White colonists were demanding liberty from Britain while many continued denying liberty to enslaved Africans. African Americans recognized that contradiction immediately. Some Black people supported the patriot movement and hoped the Revolution would eventually lead to freedom and equality. Others deeply distrusted white revolutionaries and believed British promises of emancipation offered a more realistic path to liberty. So the Revolutionary period was not one unified movement. It was complicated, layered, and often divided along racial and economic lines. Planting a Liberty Tree in Maryland Photo Courtesy of Champ Zumbrun. The Liberty Tree in Maryland Photo courtesy of Champ Zumbrun Photo courtesy of – The Liberty Tree exhibit at American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, VA Photo courtesy of – The Liberty Tree exhibit at American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, VA Our commitment to storytelling – Our goal is to journey through history in search of the untold and little-known stories — the ones overshadowed by larger narratives, pushed to the margins, or too often silenced and forgotten. We believe history is richest when all voices, experiences, and perspectives are explored with honesty and care. We strive for accuracy, fairness, and thoughtful storytelling in every piece we create. Our work is grounded in research, historical records, oral histories, and cultural context. But we also recognize that history is not always fully preserved in written documents or official accounts. Sometimes it must also be understood ...
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • Episode 45: African Americans and The First Memorial Day Celebration

    Episode 45: African Americans and The First Memorial Day Celebration
    May 24 2026
    African Americans and The First Memorial Day Celebration Memorial Day, the USCT, and the Black Americans Who Remembered First Do you know the story of African Americans and The First Memorial Day Celebration. There are some graves America remembers with marble, flags, and ceremony.And then there are others. Graves that began as trenches. Bodies placed quickly into the earth. Names unspoken. Families never notified. No proper prayer. No final honor. No mother, wife, child, or loved one standing close enough to say goodbye. For many Black soldiers who served in the Civil War, death did not always bring dignity. Even after fighting for the Union, even after risking their lives for a country still deciding whether it would recognize their humanity, many were buried without ceremony, without markers, and without the honor they had earned. But history has a way of waiting. It waits beneath the soil. It waits in old newspaper clippings. It waits in family stories passed down when official records fall silent. And in Charleston, South Carolina, in the spring of 1865, newly freed African Americans did something extraordinary. They remembered. They took a place of suffering, a former racetrack turned Confederate prison camp, and transformed it into sacred ground. Today on Quarter Miles Travel, we uncover the overlooked Black history of Memorial Day, the United States Colored Troops, and the freed men, women, and children who insisted that the soldiers who died for Union and liberty would not be forgotten. The Civil War was America’s deadliest conflict. Approximately 620,000 soldiers died, and about two-thirds of those deaths came not from bullets, but from disease. The country was broken. Families were shattered. Towns were emptied of sons. And across the South, the war did more than destroy buildings and battle lines, it shook the foundation of slavery itself. For enslaved people, the Civil War was not simply a war between North and South. It was a war that opened a door. A dangerous door, yes but one that led toward freedom. As Union forces moved through Southern states, enslaved men, women, and children made life-changing decisions. Some fled plantations. Some followed Union troops. Some entered contraband camps. Some joined the army. Some searched for relatives who had been sold away. And some simply tried to survive long enough to see what freedom might become. And then came the United States Colored Troops – the USCT. Black men enlisted to fight for the Union at a time when the country still refused to treat them as equals. They wore the uniform. They carried the flag. They faced Confederate bullets, disease, discrimination, and the knowledge that if captured, they could be treated far worse than white soldiers. They were fighting for the Union. But they were also fighting for something deeper. They were fighting for freedom with their bodies, their courage, and their names. In Charleston, South Carolina, during the final year of the war, Confederate forces turned the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club into a makeshift prison camp for captured Union soldiers. It had once been a place of leisure and wealth — a racetrack connected to the world of planters and privilege. But during the war, it became a place of suffering. At least 257 Union prisoners died there, many from disease and exposure. Their bodies were buried quickly in unmarked graves near the racetrack. No proper ceremony. No lasting dignity. Just a mass grave behind the grandstands. Then Charleston fell. The Confederate army evacuated the city. And the people who remained included thousands of newly freed African Americans — men, women, and children who understood exactly what those Union soldiers represented. To them, these were not nameless bodies. These were men who had died in a war that helped destroy slavery. So the freed people of Charleston acted. In the days leading up to May 1, 1865, roughly two dozen African American Charlestonians went to the site. They reinterred the bodies. They placed the graves in proper rows. They built a ten-foot-high white fence around the burial ground. Over the entrance, they placed words that still carry power: “Martyrs of the Race Course.” That phrase said everything. Created by a group called Friends of the Martyrs – A group of two dozen recently freed slaves who spent two weeks exhuming and reburying the bodies. And along with a group called the Patriotic Association of Colored Men They knew these soldiers had not simply died. They had died for something. Both groups helped exhume these brave soldiers and form a committee to honor their service and their lives with ceremony. On May 1, 1865, about 10,000 people gathered at the old racetrack in Charleston. Most were Black residents, newly freed people, joined by some white missionaries and teachers. The ceremony began in the morning. Around 3,000 Black schoolchildren marched around the racetrack carrying flowers. Imagine that ...
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    17 mins
  • Episode 44: Yellowstone National Park Bison and Wolves

    Episode 44: Yellowstone National Park Bison and Wolves
    May 2 2026
    Episode 44: Yellowstone National Park
    Bison and Wolves

    2010 America The Beautiful Quarters Coin Yellowstone Wyoming Uncirculated Reverse

    “Reach into your pocket… pull out a quarter… and let it take you somewhere unexpected.” Today… that quarter takes us to a place where the earth still breathes. Where steam rises from the ground…as if the land itself is telling a story.

    Where rivers carve through valleys unchanged by time…and where wildlife moves not for us…but as it always has.

    This is Yellowstone. A place that doesn’t ask to be understood—
    only respected.

    A place where you don’t just visit…You feel.

    Stand still for a moment in Yellowstone…
    and you begin to notice things differently.

    The quiet isn’t empty. It’s full.

    The ground beneath you isn’t still. It’s alive.

    And the distance between you and the horizon…
    feels just a little bit wider than anywhere else.

    And somehow… all of that is captured on something small enough to hold in your hand.

    The Yellowstone National Park Quarter.

    A single moment—
    Old Faithful rising into the sky…
    and a bison standing steady in the foreground.

    Geothermal wonder…
    and iconic wildlife…

    Existing side by side in one image.

    But Yellowstone is more than a beautiful place. It’s an idea.

    In 1872, under President Ulysses S. Grant,
    Yellowstone became the first national park in the United States—

    And the first in the world. At a time when land was something to be claimed, used, and developed…this was something entirely different.

    A decision to protect. To preserve.

    To say that this land—
    with all of its power, beauty, and life—

    Would belong to everyone.

    And more importantly…
    would be protected for those who had not yet seen it.

    And that decision…
    is why we can still stand here today.

    Still watch the geysers rise.
    Still see the bison move across the land.
    Still experience a place where nature leads.

    In this episode of Quarter Miles Travel,
    we’re going deeper into Yellowstone—

    Exploring the land…
    the wildlife…
    and the stories that continue to shape one of America’s most enduring places.
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    1 hr and 25 mins
  • Episode 43: Florida State Quarter – Three Woman Change Space Exploration

    Episode 43: Florida State Quarter – Three Woman Change Space Exploration
    Apr 25 2026
    Episode 43: Florida State Quarter Three Woman Change Space Exploration Photo courtesy U.S. Mint – Florida State Quarters Coin Florida State Quarter US Mint release in 2004 features stories and history. Let’s start with- “Space… the last frontier.” A place that has always called to us—quietly, persistently—asking us to look up and wonder what lies beyond. It is the great unknown… vast, silent, and infinite. And yet, it feels deeply personal. Because space isn’t just about distance or discovery— it’s about possibility. It’s about curiosity. It’s about the human desire to go further than we’ve ever gone before… and to understand our place in something far greater than ourselves.” Three women have reach beyond the bound of earth and traveled among the stars and today we say their names and we share their stories. Today… a quarter helps us tell that story – a quarter takes us to Florida. To the Space Coast. To Kennedy Space Center. To a place where history doesn’t sit still—it launches. But this isn’t just a story about rockets. It’s about people. It’s about possibility. And it’s about three women who helped redefine who gets to go to space. We’ll start with the coin. The Florida State Quarter, released in 2004, tells its own story. On the reverse side, you’ll find: A space shuttle launching into the skyA Spanish galleon, representing early explorationAnd the words: “Gateway to Discovery” And that phrase, Gateway to Discovery, isn’t just poetic. It’s literal. Because right here… in Cape Canaveral… Florida became the launch point for America’s journey into space. That shuttle on the coin? It represents decades of innovation, ambition, and risk. But what the coin doesn’t show— is who was onboard. To understand the full story, you have to stand on the ground where it happened. Kennedy Space Center is where America’s boldest dreams took flight. It began in 1958, when NASA was created. On the 29th of July 1958 President Dwight Eisenhower signed the bill that established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. On the 1st of October 1958 NASA began operations to perform civilian research related to space flight and aeronautics. On the 25th May 1961 President John F. Kennedy announced his ambitious goal of sending an American to the moon before the end of the decade. Just three years later, after NASA was created President Kenney made a promise that would define a generation: To land a man on the moon, and bring him home safely, before the decade was out. To make that promise real, NASA needed a launch site that could support something never done before. So they built it. More than 80,000 acres. Massive launch pads. The towering Vehicle Assembly Building—still one of the largest structures in the world. From here: Apollo 8 became the first mission to leave Earth’s orbitApollo 11 launched toward the moonAnd the space shuttle era redefined space travel This place is more than history—it’s momentum. But for a long time…the people who made that history all looked the same. Well…. That is …Until they didn’t. Enter Sally Ride. Born in California in 1951, she wasn’t just brilliant, she was driven. A physicist. A scholar. A top-ranked tennis player. And in 1977, she saw something that changed her life—a small newspaper ad from NASA. They were recruiting astronauts. She applied that day. Out of more than 8,000 applicants, she was selected. June 18, 1983. Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle Challenger lifts off. And with it, Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space. At just 32 years old. She wasn’t a passenger. She was a mission specialist. She: Operated the shuttle’s robotic armDeployed satellitesConducted scientific experiments But the media? They asked about makeup. About emotions. About motherhood. And Sally handled it with quiet strength. She once said: “Everybody wanted to know about what kind of makeup I was taking up,” Ride said. “They didn’t care about how well-prepared I was to operate the arm or deploy communications satellites.” Sally Ride didn’t just go to space, she made it possible for others to follow. She flew again. She investigated the Challenger disaster. She became a professor. She created programs encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers. In 1984, Ride went to space again for NASA mission STS-41G. This time, another female astronaut, Kathryn Sullivan, was on board the shuttle with her. This was the first time two women were in space together, and Sullivan became the first American woman to perform a spacewalk. We say Kathryn’s name too. Sally was there making history again. You may have heard this before – sounding bold and proud – Americans saying – Ride, Sally, ride and that she did. ……She changed the narrative. Fast forward nearly four decades. In 2022, another barrier falls. Nicole Mann, a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes...
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    18 mins
  • Episode 42: Cumberland Island Salt Marshes and African American History

    Episode 42: Cumberland Island Salt Marshes and African American History
    Apr 2 2026
    Photo: U.S. Mint Episode 42: Cumberland Island Salt Marshes and African American History Cumberland Island, located about 15 miles southeast of Kingsland, is the largest public barrier island off the coast of Georgia. And, Cumberland Island Salt Marshes and African American History is where located throughout the island. Accessible only by ferry, the Cumberland Island National Seashore (the name given to the area after being acquired by the National Parks Service in 1972). Many groups have occupied the island over its 4000-year history, from the Timucoan tribe that first inhabited the island to the Spanish who built missions there and the British occupied it Spanish Florida By 1860, over 500 enslaved people lived on the island, outnumbering white inhabitants by a ratio of seven to one. At its peak, the largest plantation, Stafford Plantation held 348 subjugated Africans and African Americans working over 4,200 acres of land, spanning one-third of the island. The island had fifteen plantations and small farms involved in its chattel slavery system. Many enslaved Africans were imported from present-day Senegal, Gambia, and Sierra Leone, including people from the Fula, Igbo, Gola, Malinke, Bambara, and Serer tribes who resided on the continent’s Western Coast. They were not randomly chosen as the demand for enslaved African labor with rice-growing expertise increased, over 13,000 Africans arrived from the “Rice Coast” and “Grain Coast” regions, bringing their sophisticated knowledge of rice and grain harvesting in both lowland and upland regions. This matters enormously: these were not people stripped entirely of knowledge and culture. They arrived as experts and the marshes of Cumberland Island looked, ecologically, very much like home. Cumberland Island’s enslaved people worked largely on a task system, which meant that they were responsible to complete a certain task rather than work certain hours. This is crucial to understanding daily life on the island’s marshes and fields. When the assigned task was complete typically around 2 o’clock in the afternoon the enslaved populations had what their enslavers called “free time” to manage their private vegetable and herb gardens behind their cabins, hunt, trap and fish, tend to the sick or infirm, practice private forms of worship, or assist extended family members. The salt marshes were central to this survival economy. The enslaved Africans typically ate corn and sometimes pork rations provided by the plantation owner but often supplemented their meals with fish, wild animals, oysters, and clams for survival. The marsh was not just a workplace, it was a pantry, a pharmacy (marsh plants had medicinal uses rooted in West African herbal knowledge), and a space of relative autonomy. These difficult working conditions sometimes resulted in spinal injuries from rice cultivation, pulmonary illness, rheumatism, foot rot caused by standing in high water levels, and even death. An archaeological dig near the Dungeness slave quarters has yielded a glimpse into daily life. Along with pieces of iron skillets, glass, clay pipe segments and pottery, bones from small mammals, birds, turtles, frogs and fish were uncovered. This tells us that people were fishing, hunting, and cooking their own supplemental food, building a domestic life in the margins the system allowed them. The enslaved Africans on Stafford Plantation lived in eighteen cabin sites, with several chimney ruins still intact today. They routinely used tabby, a durable construction material made from sand, lime, and oyster shells common to the Lowcountry, to construct their chimneys and fireplaces. Even their building materials came from the marsh. The isolation of Cumberland Island, the very thing that made it so brutally efficient as a plantation system, paradoxically preserved something extraordinary. The Gullah-Geechee culture that resulted in enslaved communities on Georgia’s coast was a result of the retention of many aspects of African culture and language. The isolated nature of Georgia’s barrier islands also resulted in distinctive slave management practices. Many traditions of the Gullah and Geechee culture were passed from one generation to the next through language, agriculture, and spirituality. The sweetgrass baskets, the ring shout spiritual songs, the creole Gullah language itself, all of it survived because the islands were isolated enough that the people could hold onto it. Since speaking in their native African tongue was typically forbidden, Gullah Geechee allowed enslaved people at least one small act of freedom, communicating with each other, in words and song, in a way which was accepted yet not understood by their masters. One of the most powerful stories connected to Cumberland Island happened during the War of 1812. In 1815, British troops took over Cumberland Island and all its plantations, offering freedom to the enslaved by joining British forces...
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    20 mins
  • Episode 41: Harriet Tubman Woman of Courage

    Episode 41: Harriet Tubman Woman of Courage
    Mar 23 2026
    Harriet Tubman Woman of Courage Harriet Tubman: Conductor, Soldier, Humanitarian A Life of Freedom, Courage, and Purpose Photo: U.S. Mint Harriet Tubman Woman of Courage – Today, we journey through one of the most powerful stories in American history, a story of courage, determination, and an unshakable belief in freedom. It’s the story of Harriet Tubman. A woman born into slavery… who would go on to lead others to freedom, serve her country in war, and spend her life caring for those in need. Her story so often is centered around her work on the Underground Railroad. While this courageous commitment to freedom is one that is truly her legacy – there so much more to the women once called “Moses” or “the Moses of her people”. This nickname was given to her because, the remarkable journeys she made leading enslaved people to freedom via the Underground Railroad, never losing a “passenger” during her rescue missions. But there is more and – Today….we say her name and we tell her story. Her extraordinary life is honored through the Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Commemorative Coin Program, issued by the United States Mint—a collection of coins that tells her story through three defining chapters of her life. Chapter One: The Conductor Harriet Tubman was born around 1822 on a plantation in Maryland. Her birth name was Araminta “Minty” Ross. From the very beginning, her life was marked by hardship, danger, and resilience. But even in those early years, there was something within her, something strong and unyielding. A determination. A belief in freedom. In 1849, Harriet Tubman made a decision that would change not only her life, but the lives of countless others. She escaped slavery. Traveling under the cover of darkness, guided by the North Star and the hidden network known as the Underground Railroad, she made her way to freedom in Pennsylvania. For many, that would have been enough. But not for Harriet Tubman. She went back. Not once. Not twice. But 13 times. Over the next decade, she returned to Maryland again and again, risking her life each time, to guide others to freedom. She personally led about 70 people to safety. And provided instructions that helped another 70 people escape on their own. She later said something that still echoes through history: “I never lost a passenger.” The silver dollar in the commemorative coin series honors this chapter of her life—her work as a conductor, guiding people out of bondage and into freedom. Chapter Two: The Soldier When the American Civil War began, Harriet Tubman stepped forward. In 1862, she joined the Union Army. She began as a nurse, caring for wounded soldiers. But Harriet Tubman was never meant to stay in just one role. She became a scout. A spy. A leader. She used her knowledge of the land, her courage, and her ability to move quietly and strategically to gather intelligence for the Union Army. And then came one of the most remarkable moments of her life. The Combahee River Raid. Harriet Tubman became the first woman in American history to lead an armed military expedition. Under her leadership, Union forces traveled along the Combahee River in South Carolina. That mission resulted in the freedom of more than 700 enslaved people. Seven hundred lives changed in one night. The half dollar coin in the commemorative series represents this chapter, her service during the Civil War. Her courage. Her leadership. Her unwavering commitment to freedom. Chapter Three: A Life of Service After the war, Harriet Tubman could have chosen to rest. She had done more than most could ever imagine. But once again, she chose service. She settled in Auburn, where she would spend the remaining 54 years of her life. And there, she continued her work. She supported newly freed men and women trying to build new lives. She cared for the elderly. She opened her home to those who had nowhere else to go. Later in life, she established what would become the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, a place where people could live with dignity and care. But she didn’t stop there. Harriet Tubman also became a powerful voice for women. She traveled and spoke at gatherings supporting women’s suffrage, advocating for the right of women to vote. She spoke about civil rights. She spoke about equality. She spoke about access to healthcare. Her work was never limited to one group of people. She believed in freedom for everyone. The $5 gold coin in the commemorative series represents this final chapter of her life. A life dedicated not just to freedom—but to humanity. The Meaning Behind the Coins Each coin tells part of her story: The silver dollar reflects her work on the Underground RailroadThe half dollar represents her Civil War serviceThe $5 gold coin honors her later years in Auburn, caring for others and advocating for justice Together, they form a portrait of a life lived with purpose. A life that never turned away from the fight for freedom. Harriet ...
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    43 mins