an-american-experiment

[an-american-experiment]

Who lives, who dies - Who tells your story?

Lin-Manuel Miranda

By the time Eliza Hamilton died, the generation of people who had started, fought, and ended the American Revolution, cleaning up its pieces and stringing together a country, were gone. All that was left of it was their stories and the stories told about them. The way those stories were talked about - even before Eliza’s death - were already changing. 

That lofty pedestal that the ‘Founding Fathers’ were put upon, that in some regards we are no stranger to today, was being built. Who was mentioned, and when, was all based on what those telling the story wanted because those who lived it or those that personally knew them, could no longer speak for themselves. It is from this that the way we speak about Hamilton was born. 

Eliza had ensured that there was a biography of Hamilton, a multi-volume collection that covered his life, but this did not mean that this was always to be the point of view from which the world saw Hamilton. Even during Eliza’s lifetime, Hamilton’s reputation was up for debate - something she tried to quell. This debate continued after her death and continues, in some form, to today. When we talk about Hamilton we are influenced by this past and current debate, and no writer, me included, is an exception from that. My viewpoint on Hamilton is biased, as are all historian’s viewpoints on any subject or topic or idea that they write and research on. The way I view history, through a feminist lens and my Jewish heritage, means that when I see history I see it in a certain way. All historians, however much they might try to distance themselves from the past, are this way. Every story that has been told about Hamilton is biased - presented from a different point of view.

After the biography of Hamilton Eliza requested and Thomas Pickering wrote, there were other biographies of Hamilton, such as the ones that I used to write this blog. The study of the historiography of Hamilton (the writing of history of Hamilton) is a broad one. Try, for instance, to search “biographies of Hamilton” in any search engine. In doing so, you will find a plethora of books written about him. Some of these are for children, some the public, and some for those who study history. These are how we tell the story of Hamilton - these books show Eliza’s success in ensuring that Hamilton’s story is told. 

Whether the story we tell about Hamilton is the one Eliza wanted or not is, in some ways, irrelevant. Like many other people who were family members and friends of the ‘Founding Fathers,’ Eliza censored his letters and papers to try to ensure that the only story that could be told is the one she wanted told - this is not unique nor is it surprising. And, yet, despite her best efforts to make it so that we could only see the good Hamilton did, there have been numerous occasions where historians point out his flaws and faults. This is all part of telling Hamilton’s story. As historians and as individuals wanting to understand the past so that we can understand the most reasonable and possible way to build a future, we have to look at both successes and mistakes. This is also part of telling the story - Hamilton’s story. 

This musical, Hamilton, by Lin-Manuel Miranda, is yet another telling of Hamilton’s story. And, like many tellings of historical events and people, perhaps it is more telling of today that it is of the yesteryear it presents. This is not to say that it does not tell Hamilton’s story - it does, albeit with historical inaccuracies - but it also tells the story of today. It tells of an America that has so long neglected, when it has told its story of the downtrodden and unmentioned, the people who also built the country but are so frequently left out when the story is told. It is a retelling of that story, Hamilton’s story, but also today’s, which reflects the country that part is and part wants to be. 

This blog is an addition to that, it is yet another telling of Hamilton’s story. I hope that in this blog, though, I have brought to light some left out and interesting parts of his story that do not always make it into others and were not in Miranda’s telling. My goal in this was in no part to break apart what he did, but to add to it, for it is just as legitimate a telling as any other because it tells the story of now along with Hamilton’s. In writing this I have continued what Eliza wants, both in this song and in real life: telling Hamilton’s story. I am sure, however, that I have not presented everything as she wished it to be seen. The way I presented Hamilton and Reynolds would be one such example. But I also brought in ideas and people who perhaps would not have traditionally have been thought to be as important to Hamilton’s story. In making Eliza and the other women in his life more prominent, I have tried to also tell their story, because his story and theirs, would be incomplete without each other. 

These people were once living - and while they lived, they told their own stories, controlling much of the narrative. Once they died, their family controlled the story that was told as much as they could, but slowly, that grip unraveled. Historians were able to gather evidence and tell the story. Now, each of us who knows the story, who talks about it, who sees Hamilton An American Musical, listens to its songs, and learns about Hamilton the person, the people around him, and the systems he created - we tell his story. 

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Eliza Hamilton was also used. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #hamilton an american musical #history #who lives who dies who tells your story #elizabeth schuyler hamilton #eliza hamilton #narrative #story #hamilton's story #the end

[an-american-experiment]

And when my time is up? Have I done enough? Will they tell my story? Will they tell your story? Oh, I can’t wait to see you again. It’s only a matter of - Time. Will they tell your story? Time… Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? Time… Will they tell your story? Time…

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Eliza worked tirelessly following Hamilton’s death - both for their family and for the world she wanted to create. She ensured that Hamilton’s legacy would not be forgotten through her perpetual insistence on a biography about him and through educating their children. Not only that, but even as the years passed and she and Dolley Madison were living in Washington D.C., years after everyone else of their generation were seemingly gone, she continued to be active and interested in the young people - her grandchildren now - who were building the world. 

She was a guest at many a president’s table - the last being Millard Fillmore, in 1853. In 1854, she returned to New York, visiting the churchyard where Hamilton and Angelica were buried and attending church at Trinity Church. By the end of the year, Eliza was growing weaker, on November 8th, the doctor was called for. November 9th, 1854, Eliza died, just after eleven o’clock. Her son, James, was with her. She was buried next to Hamilton in the cemetery at Trinity Church. 

She had ensured Hamilton’s story was told. 

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Eliza Hamilton was also used. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #Lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #hamilton an american musical #History #who lives who dies who tells your story #eliza hamilton #elizabeth schuyler hamilton

[an-american-experiment]

The orphanage. I help to raise hundreds of children. I get to see them growing up. The orphanage. In their eyes I see you, Alexander. I see you every - Time.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Over time the amount of children they could take care of - starting with twenty that first year - increased. This was through careful fundraising and donations on the part of individuals, but also the legislature of the State of New York. 

There really is no doubt that Eliza’s experience with Alexander Hamilton’s influenced her decision to work with the orphanage and help found it. She would have known his background and how he was left without parents, just as she took care of Fanny Antill and her brother’s children. She was probably also interested in this cause out of the desire to make sure that if something happened to her that her and Hamilton’s children would be taken care of too. She had many experiences with children being left without parents. 

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Eliza Hamilton was also used. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #hamilton an american musical #history #who lives who dies who tells your story #eliza hamilton #elizabeth schuyler hamilton #orphanage

[an-american-experiment]

Time. And when my time is up, have I done enough? Will they tell our story? Will they tell your story? Oh. Can I show you what I’m proudest of? The orphanage. I establish the first private orphanage in New York City.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Miranda said, “If this were a work of fiction, any screenwriting teacher would say, ‘take it out, it’s too on the nose.’ But Eliza’s true legacy is in the futures of those children. She was the director of this orphanage for 27 years. The orphanage still exists in the form of the Graham Windham organization.” He has a point - this is almost too perfect to be true, but it is. 

Eliza had always had a fondness for children, but after Hamilton’s death this blossomed into more than just their own children and an occasional friend’s child. Her brother Philip’s wife died, leaving two young boys. Eliza took care of the children for her brother. 

Eliza involved herself in the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows, which was based at Trinity Church. Two women, Sarah Hoffman and Isabella Graham, found five children crying over their dead mother in a tenement building. Graham had recently read about the Germany “ragged school” orphanage model. The two women went to Eliza with their idea of building a home for orphaned children. She accepted. 

The orphanage became a focus for her. Together with a group of other women, she planned projects, signed a lease on a two-story house in which to house the children, and hired two people - a man and his wife - to care for the children. It was on March 15, 1806, that the Orphan Asylum Society was founded. 

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Eliza Hamilton was also used. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #hamilton an american musical #history #who lives who dies who tells your story #eliza hamilton #elizabeth schuyler hamilton #trinity church #oprhanage #new york city #private orphanage

[an-american-experiment]

I raise funds in D.C. for the Washington Monument. She tells my story. I speak out against slavery. You could have done so much more if you only had -

Lin-Manuel Miranda

It was in the mid-late 1840s when Eliza helped Dolley Madison, her old friend, raise the money for the Washington monument. She was living in Washington D.C. at the time, on H Street, near the White House. The two women were there when on 4 July 1848, there was a grand ceremony where the first stones of the Washington Monument were set down. George Washington Parke Custis, Washington’s grandson through marriage to Martha, sat next to her.

If anyone could have devised a plan to end the slave trade and slavery in the United States before the Civil War, it would have been Hamilton. He probably could come up with the most brilliant, thought out plans, ones no one else at the time was even thinking of. He and Laurens started coming up with these ideas long before the nation even truly existed. No doubt if he had had the time and opportunity he would have done so.

It is true that Eliza and one of her daughters, Betsey, who lived in New York City in a rented house with her mother (they were now both widowed), spoke out against slavery. This was in the 1840s. The girl Eliza had helped raise, Fanny Antill, and her husband, Arthur Tappan, had joined the Underground Railroad chain in the 1830s, they clearly shared the same sentiments. 

In Washington D.C. Eliza met and influenced a new generation of American politicians. She knew President James Polk and Jessie Fremont (daughter of U.S. Senator). William, one of her sons, set off after Fremont’s husband to California in 1848 in search of gold. The woman who had seen the beginnings of the American Revolution, experienced the writing of a new government with the Constitution, was some kind of living history by the 1840s - she belonged practically to an age of the past. 

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Eliza Hamilton was also used. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #hamilton an american musical #history #who lives who dies who tells your story #eliza hamilton #elizabeth schuyler hamilton #washington d.c. #american revolutio #gold rush #constitution #united states

[an-american-experiment]

And I’m still not through. I ask myself, ‘What would you do if you had more Time?’ The Lord, in his kindness, He gives me what you always wanted. He gives me more - Time.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Perhaps if Hamilton had lived longer he might have reemerged in politics - or if he had not feuded and destroyed his own reputation so unequivocally. His writings are full of thousands of ideas that never made it to fruition. 

Eliza, though, did have the time, and she used it. Not only did she ensure that a biography of Hamilton was written, the first volume being published in 1834, but she worked on a number of other issues throughout the early 1800s. 

She helped her own children through their education and took care of Angelica Hamilton, her daughter, who though at times seemingly recovered enough to be under her mother’s care, never fully recovered from the death of her brother, Philip. Eliza also focused on the orphanage (more on that later) and defending Hamilton’s name in the public and political sphere. In the 1830s, she went on a trip through the American west, exploring the country her husband had helped build. 

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Eliza Hamilton was also used. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #Lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #hamilton an american musical #history #who lives who dies who tells your story #eliza hamilton #elizabeth schuyler hamilton

[an-american-experiment]

Time. I rely on - Angelica. While she’s alive - We tell your story. She is buried in Trinity Church. Near you. When I needed her most, she was right on - Time.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

The controversy of Hamilton and his legacy were repeatedly brought up time and time again during the early eighteen hundreds. In 1810, Eliza went to Washington D.C. to try to get Hamilton’s veteran’s stipend reinstated (he had waived it at the end of the American Revolution). Congress did not take action quickly. 

Another relative died, and rumors said he died at the hand of Aaron Burr in a duel to avenge Hamilton, bringing the story back into the spotlight once more. Other attacks came from the accusations of financial speculation that resulted in the Reynolds Pamphlet and scandal years before. 

Angelica Schuyler, as early as the year 1810 probably had tuberculosis. Eliza was with her in 1814 as it got worse. On March 13th, a Sunday in 1814, Angelica Schuyler died. Eliza was with her. She was buried, as the song says, at Trinity Church.

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Eliza Hamilton was also used. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #hamilton an american musical #history #who lives who dies who tells your story #eliza hamilton #elizabeth schuyler hamilton #angelica church #angelica schuyler church #reynolds pamphlet #washington d.c. #trinity church #angelica schuyler

[an-american-experiment]

I try to make sense of your thousands of pages of writings. You really do write like you’re running out of -

Lin-Manuel Miranda

One of Washington’s last letters was to Hamilton where he supported Hamilton’s idea of a military school but did not give any details about it. This was December 12. On December 14th, Washington died. Tobias Lear, Washington’s secretary, wrote Hamilton hours after Washington died, telling him what happened. 

This was one of the pieces of writing that made it through Eliza’s careful censorship of Hamilton’s correspondence and papers. Though some of her letters to Hamilton were kept, she must have destroyed a number of them, as well as some of his other documents, particularly documents pertaining to James Reynolds and the financial speculation. Evidence of exactly what happened was destroyed, most likely by Eliza, in an attempt to preserve Hamilton’s legacy. 

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Eliza Hamilton was also used. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #hamilton an american musical #history #who lives who dies who tells your story #eliza hamilton #elizabeth schuyler hamilton #george washington #legacy

[an-american-experiment]

Eliza. I interview every soldier who fought by your side. She tells our story.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Eliza did search for more and more pieces of Hamilton’s life following his death. Most of these were to find information to give the biographers. She “pressed members of the family and people who had met Alexander for information,” asking for “recollections of his bearing, his character, ‘style of conversation - and indeed everything which will illustrate the elasticity of his mind, variety of his knowledge, playfulness of his wit, excellence of his heart, firmness, forbearance, virtues, &c’” (Mazzeo 265).

The biography was a long time coming. She gathered Hamilton’s papers, culling through them and censoring some of what was in them, all the while looking for the right person to write his story. She tried first to have John Mason write it, but by 1817, she was tired of his slowness at the task and the job moved over to Mr. Joseph Hopkinson, a Congressman. But Hopkinson also failed at completing the biography, and the task moved to yet another person, Colonel Timothy Pickering, a friend of Hamilton’s. Eliza had to convince him to take on the duty, but eventually, in 1827, he agreed, and the two worked together, Eliza promising to him “all the papers related to the subject” (Mazzeo 261). 

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Eliza Hamilton was also used. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #hamilton an american musical #history #who lives who dies who tells your story #eliza hamilton #elizabeth schuyler hamilton #biographies of hamilton #tell your story

[an-american-experiment]

Who tells your story? Your story? Eliza. I put myself back in the narrative. Eliza. I stop wasting time on tears. I live another fifty years. It’s not enough.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Immediately following the death of Hamilton, Eliza “retreated into her family circle and turned to her sister” (Mazzeo 236). Aaron Burr fled New York, trying to escape the angry citizens. He would be indicted by a grand jury in the weeks following. Eventually, Eliza returned to the city and returned to the pattern of her life with her children - going to church on Sunday and visiting Hamilton’s grave. 

Hamilton had left a list of debts owed and what he had before his death. And as Eliza saw more of the finances in the months after his death, she came to realize that he had left them with financial problems on the scale of a large mortgage on the Grange (their family home) and very little in the way of money in savings. Nevertheless, she put herself to work raising her children. 

As a widow, the men around her tended to take the larger role in coming up with plans for her. In some cases, such as in their plans for her children, she resisted because “what she wanted more than anything else, in the end, was to have the children near her. She had never wanted to be apart from them or from Alexander. Now, that thought was unbearable” (Mazzeo 239). 

Not long after Hamilton died, her father, General Schuyler died of gout and organ failure. This made it so that Eliza’s financial situation was unstable at best. Prior to his death it was assumed that a man as wealthy as he was would take care of his widowed daughter and her children. Now they were left without that support - not only because of his death but the supposed large Schuyler fortune was much less than believed. It plunged Eliza and the family into chaos and arguments over money and inheritance. 

She did outlive Hamilton by fifty years. Eliza died November 9th, 1854. The United States, the country she and her husband had helped build, was almost seventy-five years old. 

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Eliza Hamilton was also used. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #hamilton an american musical #history #who lives who dies who tells your story #eliza hamilton #elizabeth schuyler hamilton #united states #alexander and eliza

[an-american-experiment]

Every other Founding Father story gets told. Every other Founding Father gets to grow old. And when you’re gone, who remembers your name? Who keeps your flame? Who tells your story? Who tells your story?

Lin-Manuel Miranda

The argument that every other Founding Father except Hamilton gets their story told is an interesting one. It is, on face value, untrue. As early as ten or fifteen years following Hamilton’s death, Eliza Hamilton was already working on having someone write a biography of him. It would take years for it to be completed, but she was already ensuring his story would not be forgotten. 

Since then, there have been numerous biographies of Hamilton and fictional tellings of his story. These books range from The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton written by Hamilton’s grandson, Dr. Allan McLane Hamilton, to Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton to Charles Cerami’s Young Patriots to Richard Sylla’s Hamiton to Eliza Hamilton: The Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton by Tilar J. Mazzeo and this is just a sampling of the nonfiction. 

To say that Hamilton’s story has not been told, is, as one can see, incorrect. Many people have told Hamilton’s story in the over two hundred years since his death. How it has been told has changed, who’s told the story has changed, but that it is told has not. 

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Eliza Hamilton was also used. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #hamilton an american musical #history #who lives who dies who tells your story #eliza hamilton #elizabeth schuyler hamilton #founding father #biography

[an-american-experiment]

President Madison: He took our country from bankruptcy to prosperity. I hate to admit it, but he doesn’t get enough credit for all the credit he gave us. Who lives, who dies who tells your story.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

The story of Madison, like that of Washington and Jefferson, is slowly changing. Like the other two men he was a Virginia plantation owner, owning numerous slaves during his lifetime and living off the profit of their labor. Just as this needs to be acknowledged, so too does the influence that Dolley Madison, his wife, had on his political success. Dolley, with her Parlor Politics and important ties, was able to help him rise much more than has traditionally been noted.

However, like Washington and Jefferson, new scholarship is arising around Madison. Historians such as Catherine Allgor, author of A Perfect Union and Parlor Politics, are changing the narrative and adding some of the often left out groups back into the story. More historians are needed to enter the field to keep fleshing out the stories that have been too often forgotten.

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Eliza Hamilton was also used. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #Hamilton an american musical #history #who lives who dies who tells your story #eliza hamilton #elizabeth schuyler hamilton #james madison #dolley madison

[an-american-experiment]

President Jefferson: I’ll give him this: His financial system is a work of genius… I couldn’t undo it if I tried. And I tried. Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

Lin-Manuel Miranda

In the end, Jefferson as a president was much more Hamiltonian than anyone would have put him out to be. His purchasing of the Louisiana territory and the way he encouraged the Lewis and Clark expedition are examples of this. The financial system that was put in place by Hamilton would not be undone until long after Jefferson was president, for the National Bank did not fail to be renewed until 1836 under Andrew Jackson. 

The way that historians have told Jefferson’s story has changed a lot, particularly recently. Traditionally he, like Washington, has been held up on a pedestal. Now, with more women historians and historians of color, the complexities of his life and its impact are being examined. Historians like Annette Gordon-Reed, Virginia Scharff, and others have written books about Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemmings, Martha Jefferson, and Maria Cosway, adding to the scholarship focused on his political life. As more historians from traditionally underrepresented groups start to publish more, who tells the story of the past and what stories they tell will change. 

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Eliza Hamilton was also used. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #hamilton an american musical #history #who lives who dies who tells your story #eliza hamilton #elizabeth schuyler hamilton #thomas jefferson #sally hemmings #martha jefferson #maria cosway #national bank

[an-american-experiment]

Let me tell you what I wish I’d known when I was young and dreamed of glory. You have no control: Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

Lin-Manuel Miranda

George Washington was very influential in Hamilton’s life. As pointed out in History Has Its Eyes On You, Washington’s experience with military power started at a young age and was met with disgrace and disaster. Though he eventually overcame this, it was part of the way he led military campaigns during the rest of his life. It is hardly even mentioned, though, in the story that is normally told of Washington - the story that is prevalent is of his successes during the American Revolution and his giving up power when he declined to run for president for a third term. 

The way we tell the stories of American history - or any history for that matter - often have much more to do with what we want to argue and what we want the world to be than what actually happened, at least at the lower levels. A story that puts Washington as someone flawed has been too frequently ignored because it does not hold him up to the pedestal that for some reason we wish to put the “Founding Fathers” on. But, Washington, like them all, was flawed. And if we want to tell his and other people’s stories from history then we need to acknowledge the whole of them and tell their whole story. 

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. Tilar J. Mazzeo’s Eliza Hamilton was also used. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #hamilton an american musical #history #who lives who dies who tells your story #eliza hamilton #elizabeth schuyler hamilton #george washington #founding fathers

[an-american-experiment]

When Alexander aimed at the sky, he may have been the first one to die, but I’m the one who paid for it. I survived, but I paid for it. Now I’m the villain in your history. I was too young and blind to see. I should’ve known. I should’ve known the world was wide enough for both Hamilton and me. The world was wide enough for both, Hamilton and me.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

The quote this song is based on - or the sentiments that Burr expresses in it - come from Burr saying, “had I read Sterne more and Voltaire less, I should have known the world was wide enough for Hamilton and me.” This quote was used in Nancy Isenberg’s biography of Burr, “Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr.” Perhaps this is a man who was regretting what he had done, it is known that Burr tried to figure out what happened to Hamilton immediately following the duel and over the short period of time after the duel before his death. However, it could also be seen as a man who has realized that any political success he might have had failed with his killing of Hamilton.

 In dueling with Hamilton that day in 1804, Burr destroyed any long term success he might have had in politics - and despite the way things seem in the musical, they were on the up for him. He was vice president at the time of the duel, with the potential for more years ahead. That ended with Hamilton’s death. He paid for his actions in the ruin and fears for his life he faced over the rest of his life as the song implies, though this did not stop him from involving himself in a number of strange schemes in the early eighteen hundreds. In all probability what he actually regretted was messing up his own future chances. 

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. In addition, American Eden by Victoria Johnson was used for information concerning Dr. Hosack and medicine in early America. In addition, Nancy Isenberg’s “Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr” is quoted. This was also influential: https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/podcast/what-happened-after-the-burr-hamilton-duel. 

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[an-american-experiment]

Death doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes. History obliterates. In every picture it paints, it paints me and my mistakes.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Later, at the request of some of Hamilton’s friends, Dr. Hosack performed an autopsy and discovered the exact pathway the bullet had taken through the middle of Hamilton’s body. He testified before city authorities Hamilton died at William Bayard’s house that July of 1804. He said he was the attending physician and present when Hamilton died. It was about a week after this (August 11th) when Dr. Hosack wrote down the account of what he saw and heard at the duel.

Death in the eighteenth century was a part of everyday life that is difficult for many of us to imagine in modern day. That is not to say that those people who experienced it were less impacted by it, but they experienced it with more frequency and in closer proximity. Aaron Burr was no exception to this - as the musical shows through the song Wait for It and others. And though duels happened, they tended not to result in deaths in many cases for a variety of reasons. 

What exactly happened that day along the Hudson as the sun was rising cannot be known. As the song says, “history obliterates.” We try to make sense of the scattered notes written by thousands upon thousands of people in the past. Stringing them together and trying to find how the pieces fit together and what to do when some of them have been lost for good. As time passes it becomes both easier and harder to look upon what has happened. Time gives us distance to try to be less biased but it also means less evidence, less pieces to string together. 

Burr is one of these pieces - whether we misjudge him or not, whether we do not consider his mistakes and his successes in a balanced way is the way we view him from now, looking back. And because of his interactions with Hamilton, and the way that we tend to view Hamilton’s successes as “better,” Burr is painted, as he says, with all his “mistakes.”

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. In addition, American Eden by Victoria Johnson was used for information concerning Dr. Hosack and medicine in early America. 

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[an-american-experiment]

Aaaah Aaaah Aaaah They say Angelica and Eliza - Were both at his side when he died.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Hamilton was taken back across the Hudson. While they traveled back across the Hudson, Hamilton repeatedly told Dr. Hosack about his “beloved wife and children.” The repetition of his love for his family continued once they reached the other side and were waiting for Eliza and the children to arrive. Hamilton would have been, according to Dr. Hosack, in basically indescribable pain. So much pain, in fact, Dr. Hosack would write later that he was not sure how Hamilton could handle it and still speak coherently at all. 

Eliza and the children were sent for, as mentioned above, but were not told the whole story. When she arrived and discovered what happened, Eliza went mad with the inconsolable grief that comes when a death could have been prevented. Before he died, Eliza brought the children in, had them stand at the end of the bed, to say goodbye. More than twenty of Hamilton’s personal friends came as well. Hamilton was the only one on the scene not distraught and in tears. Eliza stayed by his side. Angelica did too, collapsing in tears to the floor. Hamilton, in the indescribable pain, told Eliza, “Remember, my Eliza, you are a Christian.” Hamilton died the following day at around two o’clock in the afternoon. 

New York mourned for Hamilton. The bells of the city tolled to tell everyone he had died, and the grief took hold across the city. More people turned out, it seemed, than for Washington. People in the city grouped together everywhere - coffeehouses, meeting halls, private homes. Everyone just seemed to know that Burr, Vice President, had killed Hamilton, a former Secretary of the Treasury. Both had been war heroes during the revolution. 

The funeral procession was on the 14th of July. It left John and Angelica Church’s home, following it was many, many mourners. It was like the mourning for George Washington. It gripped the nation. The mourners numbered almost the entire city. 

Sources: the following sources were used - the collected letters/writings of Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton the Revolution, Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by Allan McLane Hamilton, Hamilton by Richard Syllia, and Charles Cerami’s book called Young Patriots. In addition, War of Two by John Sedgwick and Washington and Hamilton by Tony Williams were used throughout. In addition, American Eden by Victoria Johnson was used for information concerning Dr. Hosack and medicine in early America. 

Follow us at @an-american-experiment where we are historically analyzing the lyrics of Hamilton with a new post every day!

#hamilton #alexander hamilton #Lin-manuel miranda #hamilton the musical #hamilton an american musical #history #the world was wide enough #aaron burr #hamilton duel