pub-lius

[pub-lius]

Hey there, it's the anon who asked about Maria Reynolds! I realized in hindsight (read: two seconds after I sent the ask lmao) that I got her mixed up with Maria Cosway, and then I realized that I don't know crap about her either. Reading past posts you seem to mostly cover stuff about Hamilton and the people surrounding him, and also Maria Cosway isn't American lol, but I hope you don't mind me at least asking anyway? Sorry for rambling it's cool if you don't answer

hey welcome back! don't worry, you're not the first nor the last person to do that lol. and don't worry! europeans are welcome here, so maria cosway is fair game for asking about. however, apologies for asking questions aren't so i hate you (jk ily <3) now i won't be able to go into as much detail because im not drawing from much of my own personal knowledge, but my internet sources will be linked!

Source: The Judgment of Korah, Dathan and Abriam by Maria Louisa Catherine Cecilia Hadfield Cosway

Maria Louisa Catherine Cecilia Hadfield Cosway was the first child of two hotel owners in Florence, Italy. As a young girl in a convent, she showed proficient artistic talent in both drawing and music. She was educated by Johann Zoffany and introduced her to other European artists.

She began painting by copying other works when she began to get recognition, allowing her to travel Italy. After her father's passing, she moved to London in 1779 and became well connected. One such connection was with Angelica Kauffman Church (not the same as Angelica Schuyler Church, though she was friends with her two) who was also a female painter.

Maria was introduced to Richard Cosway in London, and they were married in January 1781 for primarily financial reasons. The couple were within the most fashionable circles of the time. In 1786, the Cosways went to Paris where they met Thomas Jefferson. Maria and Jefferson became friends who flirted an excessive amount, and I found a really interesting article on that here.

Unfortunately, her husband was a grade-A asshole who wouldn't sell her works and stunted her artistic growth. I'm an artist, and I can tell you, a few months off can really do a lot of damage to your muscle memory and suddenly everything you put on paper looks like absolute shit, so I feel for her.

Maria had her only daughter, Louisa Paolina Angelica, in May 1790 but her health suffered afterwards. She went to Italy to recoup and returned to London in 1794. In 1796, her daughter tragically died.

Maria coped by turning to religion, Catholicism to be specifically (been there too, she just like me fr). However, on the plus side, she got her prints published by Rudolph Ackermann and made etchings of paintings at the Louvre which had been stolen during the Napoleonic Wars. She actually knew the Bonapartes personally and their patronage allowed her to open a girls' school at Lyons in 1803, which is so badass. She would later open another school for girls in Lodi in 1812.

Her husband died in 1821, and she sold his work at auction. She used some of the profit from these sales to fund her school in Lodi which is so fucking metal. She was actually made a baroness by the Austrian Emperor and Empress after they visited her school. That's also fucking metal.

She lived the rest of her life in Lodi where she died in 1838 near her school. In conclusion, Maria Cosway was more badass than I realized, and I think she's absolutely lovely. RAHHH WOMEN!!!

I hope this has helped. Again, sorry I haven't been able to go as in-depth, but I don't know Maria like that. I'm gonna give you extra sources just because I love you so much. I hope you can find a jumping off point!! European painters are always interesting, especially if they're badass, metal women who kick names and take ass, so I encourage you to do more research!!!

Sources: Maria Cosway- Royal Academy of Arts

Royal Collection Trust- Maria Cosway Collection (this has her art!!)

American Heritage- Thomas Jefferson and Maria Cosway (this was quoted in the post!)

Yale Center for British Art- Maria Cosway Was a Part of England's First Celebrity Art Couple

#history #maria cosway #maria hadfield cosway #european history #italian history #art history #women's history #18th century #1700s #1800s #19th century #thomas jefferson #angelica schuyler #angelica schuyler church #asks

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I get why u don't like Ron Chernnow, but if his book is so contradictory and just... bad, why do you use him as a source so often?

(no hate! Sorry if this comes out as rude, I'm just curious 😭)

because you don’t need to have good personal opinions to be a good historian. the only thing chernow doesn’t back up with evidence in his book are his theories, but when i say the only thing, i mean he cites literally everything else. he put in the WORK for that book, and the index of it is literal gold. in my last hamilton post, unless a citation was linked, it was taken from chernow’s index. his book has a plethora of information inside it, which is the only reason i recommend it, and the only reason i read the entire thing. its a very valuable historical resource, ron chernow just sucks ass at interpreting evidence, with is the other major part of yk. his job

#alexander hamilton #ron chernow #asks #thank you for the ask tho! #this was good to clear up

[pub-lius]

WAKE UP ITS HAMILTON TIME (hamilton pt 1)

everyone thank richard for getting me to put all my knowledge about alexander hamilton in one place. if you're at all new or confused, @thereallvrb0y once asked me 3 years ago to tell him everything about every historical figure i can, and since then i have been doing that. now we are onto the last one on the list he gave me, and studying hamilton is literally my life's work, so here it is. on tumblr.com. for free.

my sources for this are Ron Chernow and Hamilton himself and a strange amalgamation of knowledge from different museums, documentaries, interviews with historians, and other otherwise publicly accessible knowledge that i have compiled into the vast library inside my mind! you can find my notes in the link in my pinned post. let's go (this historical research is sponsored by the ghost of freddie mercury and my aunt who made me a whole pot of coffee)

Background Information

Ron Chernow loves to talk about how the island of St. Kitts and Nevis was formed, but that's not fucking important. What's important about Hamilton's birthplace is that it was positioned in the Caribbean in such a way that made it a very easily accessible port, however the coastline was pretty smooth which made it generally unideal for mooring ships.

Source: The St. Kitts' Scenic Railway; Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the US Navy by Ian W. Toll, p. 112 ("Basseterre Roads was not a good natural harbor. It was little more than a dent in the otherwise smooth coastline that ran along the western side of the island. There was no pier- visitors were obliged to run their boats directly onto the beach, sometimes surfing in on waves that broke heavily as they reached the shore.")

Now, notice that St. Kitts and Nevis is, in geographic terms, to the right-ish of the Caribbean. That means when you're coming from Jolly Ole England, you might make a pit stop in St. Kitts and Nevis. So if you ignore the fact that the island has no natural harbor (at least not a good one), it might be a good economic prospect for a young merchant, right?

Well, not if that merchant is James Hamilton, because he was an idiot. And I say that lovingly, or at least more lovingly than Ron Chernow did. Ron Chernow also emphasized that St. Kitts and Nevis was filled with the 18th century version of Shameless, and also Jewish people. Ron Chernow might not hate Jewish people, but he does hate the character archetypes in Shameless. In Shameless terms, James Hamilton was like Frank Gallagher.

Disclaimer: knowledge of Shameless is not necessary to understand that being compared to a guy named Frank is not a good thing

I've already made posts about Hamilton's parents and brother (here, if you'd like to read that ig. weirdo), but I want to talk about the things that Hamilton would have learned from his parents. Later in life, Hamilton vaguely alluded to his father's failings in business being due to an excessive amount of generosity and not really understanding where he should and shouldn't spend his money. This did not by any means make Hamilton stingy with his money, or even smart, for that matter, but it did make him want to be something specific: independent.

James Hamilton's tragic flaw was his dependence on other people, whether it was his older brother or Rachel Faucette or his business partners, etc. Due to the position and order in which he was born, James was never destined to be a leader. He wasn't exceptional academically like other non-first-born-sons, such as James Madison, or dispositionally inclined to organize and inspire, like George Washington. He was just a dude, and he was a dude who was not built for 18th century society, especially not in the Caribbean. From what we can tell, James Hamilton was a gullible, moderately intelligent man with symptoms of autism and non-descript mental health issues. He was basically fucked from the get-go.

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (p. 12-16); Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 25, p. 89, letter to William Jackson, August 26, 1800 ("In a capacity of a merchant he went to St. Kitts, where from too generous and too easy a temper he failed in business and at length fell into indigent circumstances.")

Rachel Faucette was like James Hamilton's polar opposite. She was forced to learn how to provide for herself, not being able to rely on anyone, because that could be ripped out from under her feet at any moment, and the only thing concrete in her life was herself. She was a woman, and that was what most women had to learn at some point.

Rachel was also perfectly poised to be the clear moral guide for young Hamilton. When James Hamilton left, he basically sacrificed any reverence his son might have for him, and instituted Rachel as Hamilton's sole role model for his developmental years and i just burned the shit out of my hand with coffee.

Disclaimer: James Hamilton had nothing to do with me burning the shit out of my hand with coffee, I promise. You can't blame all your problems on deadbeat dads

If you're a Sigmund Freud fan, (good opener, I know), you're aware of the Oedipus Complex, and that's not exactly what I'm talking about, but yk. look it up. This theory proposed by Freud was only partially rejected by the psychological field (due to the fact that not everything is about wanting to fuck your mom and kill your dad, and also that's not the story of Oedipus Rex like. at all??), but the part that still rang true was that children do have a unique attachment to the opposite sex parent.

Psychological studies show that children tend to describe their opposite sex parents more favorably than same sex parents. Why? I don't know, I'm not a psychologist, I'm an 18 year old who drinks coffee like he was 5 kids to raise.

Source: "The Relation between Attachment to Opposite Sex Parents and Attachment to Romantic Partners" by Gary L. Grogan and Dr. Mary E. Pritchard, p. 10 ("However, most significant for the present inquiry were the findings that respondents described their opposite sex parents more favorably, and same sex parents more critically.")

This statistic is visible in Hamilton's descriptions of his parents, and must have been enhanced by James Hamilton's early departure in his son's life, the consequences from that which seemed constant, but also by the reputation his father had built on the island he left Hamilton on. Hamilton would grow up to see his mother not only providing for herself and her children, but also overcoming the consequences of James' actions, which provoked resentment towards his father, and admiration towards his mother. This will develop as a theme throughout his life, but we'll touch on that as he grows up. He isn't even born yet! So let's get on to that.

Source: so when I say Hamilton's description of his mother, I really mean HIS son's, but JCH most likely got this description from his father, Life of Alexander Hamilton by John Church Hamilton, vol. 1, pg. 42 ("...a woman of superior intellect, elevated sentiment, and unusual grace of person and manner. To her he was indebted for his genius."); for the sake of my reliability and reputation, I'll include JCH's description of his grandfather for comparison, Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton by John Church Hamilton, p. 13 ("Hamilton's father does not appear to have been successful in any pursuit, but in many ways was a great deal of a dreamer, and something of a student, whose chief happiness seemed to be in the society of his beautiful and talented wife, who was in every way intellectually his superior.")

Early Life

Alexander Hamilton was born ginger on January 11, 1755, and I don't entertain the argument that he was born in 1757 because I'm not an anarchist and I believe society has laws (I'm actually lying, I'll talk about the birth year debate in the college section). Hamilton was not, however, born black or Jewish. He was also, potentially, born not James Hamilton's son.

"Wh- WHAT?! *cries*" I hear you say, and I know, it's shocking information, but yes. First off, Hamilton was not black in any percentage more than the Pillsbury dough boy is black. This theory comes from the fact that Rachel Faucette was a lower class woman and therefore we have no proof that she WASN'T partially black. I don't even have to dispute that for anyone with a gram of critical thinking skills to see that that isn't a valid historical hypothesis.

The Jewish thing has a little more merit to it, and there's a whole book about it that I haven't read. There is some evidence to suggest that Rachel Faucette's ex husband, Johann Lavien, could have been a secret Jewish person, and possibly caused Rachel herself to convert, and she tried to pass on that to Hamilton by having a Jewish woman educate him when he was a toddler (that last part is a true fact, and is the earliest piece of information we have about Hamilton's education). If this is true, (and it's nearly impossible to prove true or false because well if Lavien was a secret Jew, it was a secret), it did not impact Hamilton's religious beliefs in any way, and he identified as a Christian throughout his entire life.

We'll do a paternity test on Hamilton later, just hang tight. See, this is how I get you, I say something controversial, and then I don't talk about it until 16 paragraphs later.

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, p. 9 ("A persistent mythology in the Caribbean asserts that Rachel was partly black, making Alexander Hamilton a quadroon or an octoroon. In this obsessively race-conscious society, however, Rachel was invariably listed among the whites on local tax rolls. Her identification as someone of mixed race has no basis in verifiable fact. (See pages 734-35 [this is in Chernow's Acknowledgments, and he just talks about how he used a paper trail to come to this conclusion, and thought genetic research would only confuse the evidence. He also discusses that there is a small chance that Hamilton fathered a black child named William Hamilton, but I can go ahead and tell you that's false due to the fact that Hamilton had just arrived in America when William was born -HWS]) The folklore that Hamilton was mulatto probably arose from the incontestable truth that many, if not most, illegitimate children in the West Indies bore mixed blood."); Life of Alexander Hamilton by John Church Hamilton, vol. 1, p. 42 ("...rarely as he alluded to his personal history, he mentioned with a smile his having been taught to repeat the Decalogue in Hebrew, at the school of a Jewess, when so small that he was placed standing by her side upon a table); Ibid., vol. 7, p. 710-11; Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 26, p. 774, "Comments on Jews"

Hamilton's education began with his mother, who is almost definitely the person who made him fluent in French by the time he came to America. Despite limited access to books (34 books in both French and English to be specific), Hamilton still studied everything he could from a young age, with an early love for learning new things and proving that he was smarter than you. However, most of his education was in the School of Hard Knocks Community College, which was amply provided by the environment around him.

In the height of the British Empire, the Caribbean was essentially a social prison for anyone who broke the moral laws of the colonial, Eurocentric society of the time. This included pirates, prostitutes, drunks, thieves, and basically anyone who didn't fit the mold for a member of high society and/or someone who could serve high society and their lives of luxury. Hamilton, by birth, was one of these people.

Hamilton's father moved the family to St. Croix right before he left, which was a dramatic shift from Hamilton's life on St. Kitts and Nevis. In St. Croix, everyone knew Hamilton's mother as the disgraced ex-wife of Johann Lavien, and therefore knew her two sons as "whore-children", which was a word usually given to illegitimate children. Here, Hamilton was roped in with the degenerates of society, and it was practically said directly to him that he was destined to be unholy, unclean, worthless, and disgusting. Could you believe that this would have an impact on his mental health?

Along with seeing the poor lifestyles of the inhabitants of the Caribbean, Hamilton also saw glimpses into a very different world: ~rich people~. There were few rich white people on the islands, and they owned vast amounts of enslaved people, with the black to white ratio being 8:1 in the Caribbean. These enslaved people were forced to live in horrible conditions, and Hamilton saw it everywhere- his mother owned three people, but they were often rented out to garner profit for the white family, rather than working a plantation as others in the Caribbean did. Violence towards enslaved black people was only part of the violence young Hamilton witnessed in the Caribbean, some of which came in the form of dueling *insert ominous music*

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, p. 18 ("To the extent that dueling later entranced Hamilton to an unhealthy degree, this fascination may have originated in the most fabled event in Nevis in the 1750s [a duel between two men where one of them was killed"); Ibid., p. 19; Ibid., p. 23-24

James Hamilton abandoned the family in 1765, and the reasons he did so are debated, but most likely are due to debt. However, there's another possibility that I've alluded to before: Hamilton's paternity.

So, remember, Rachel Faucette is not a perfect angel, and she also didn't particularly care for matrimony. There is a chance that she was with other men besides Hamilton and Lavien, and though we have no evidence that she was, there is an interesting character I'd like to throw into the mix.

Thomas Stevens, a moderately rich guy, was a merchant who lived on King Street in Charleston, St. Croix, with his wife Ann and his son Edward, who was born a year before Alexander Hamilton. Thomas Stevens was a very generous guy, and Edward Stevens would later be lifelong friends with Alexander Hamilton. And uh. They looked almost exactly the same. I really wish we had a portrait of Edward Stevens, but according to literally everyone, it was hard to tell the difference between him and Hamilton. Now, statistically, we all have some kind of doppelganger out there, but like what are the chances that they grew up down the street from each other and their parents had suspiciously close connections? Now, I'm not saying that Hamilton should have been Alexander Stevens, I think that's pretty irrelevant, but it is possible that Thomas Stevens... you... ARE THE FATHER!!!

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, p. 27-28 ("Nevertheless, in the absence of direct proof, the notion that Alexander was the biological son of Thomas Stevens instead of James Hamilton would clarify many oddities in Hamilton's biography.")

The Hamiltons' life post-dad-desertion was actually somewhat comfortable due to Rachel's kickassery. She established a little store for a source of income, relocated a couple times, rented out the enslaved people (as one does, i guess, that's such a wild phrase), and kept a pet goat for milk and cheese and idk soap or whatever else people make with goat milk. Her sons would help out, possibly providing an origin for Hamilton's incessant need to be productive at all times without resting. At times, they were supported by his aunt Ann Lytton Mitchell, who he would remain loyal to until his death. During this time, as he was old enough to understand what his father did, is probably when his fiercely loyal, chivalrous and family-driven attitude developed.

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, p. 22-23; Ibid., p. 28

I'm so hopped up on caffeine I could do a triathalon.

Hamilton and his mother were both afflicted by a strange and unspecified illness in the winter of 1768. The primary symptom was a severe fever, and they were treated with purgatives, medicinal herbs, and bloodletting. Nothing helped, and Rachel died at 9 pm on February 19. Hamilton miraculously survived.

Immediately, Hamilton and his brother James had everything they owned taken away, indebted by bills charged against them by local debtors. Their half brother inherited whatever else belonged to their mother, which brought up the marital scandal all over again, beginning a legal battle that lasted for around a year. In the end, the two Hamilton brothers were left with two things: jack shit and fuck all.

Custody of the two boys was appointed to their cousin, Peter Lytton. In my notes, I described him as "white trash" and "insane", including the quotes, so idk who said that. Peter Lytton lived with his black mistress and their illegitimate child. He killed himself on July 6, 1769, and what's strange about that is that we don't know if he shot or stabbed himself. I don't know who got confused about the difference between a knife and a gun, but that isn't my problem.

To make a bad situation worse, Peter Lytton didn't leave the boys anything in his will, and neither did his father, who did "his best" to help. His best could have been even just mentioning the name Hamilton in his will, but whatever, I guess.

These events held very important lessons for the young Alexander: 1) nothing lasts forever; 2) everyone dies; 3) the legal system is terrible; 4) rich people hate you; and, most importantly, 5) the only way out was up.

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, p. 22-27

On His Own

This marked a split between Hamilton and his older brother, but this didn't seem to affect him as much as what happened with his parents- possibly because he wasn't biologically his brother, but I don't really care about that. What's more important is that Hamilton was almost entirely on his own, with inconsistent housing, so he couldn't always rely on the Stevenses. He was in a very similar situation that his mother was in at one time not long ago: alone and self reliant.

Hamilton was already working for the mercantile company, Beekman and Cruger. This company was later renamed, so I'll just say that Hamilton worked for Cruger, who was a business man with ties to New York. Hamilton worked as a clerk at this import-export business, giving him the responsibility to monitor intake and outtake as well as the organization of papers and just generally keeping everything in line. Due to the international relevance that was St. Croix, Hamilton often used French in his business dealings. Here, Hamilton perfected his handwriting into that elegant mess we know and can't read, picked up information on shipping/navigation, and learned his famously proficient math skills, particularly in relation to finance and economics.

Hamilton's famously maniacal work ethic began here, but so did his yearning for military valor. The first piece of personal correspondence we have from Hamilton is a letter to bestie Edward Stevens, and was made very famous from The Musical.

"Im confident, Ned that my Youth excludes me from any hopes of immediate Preferment nor do I desire it, but I mean to prepare the way for futurity. Im no Philosopher you see and may be jusly said to Build Castles in the Air. My Folly makes me ashamd and beg youll Conceal it, yet Neddy we have seen such Schemes successfull when the Projector is Constant I shall Conclude saying I wish there was a War. I am Dr Edward Yours Alex Hamilton (sic)"

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, p. 29-30; Alexander Hamilton to Edward Stevens, November 11, 1769, St. Croix; Library of Congress, Image 13 of Alexander Hamilton Papers: General Correspondence, 1734-1804; 1734-1772

When Cruger left St. Croix for New York due to medical reasons in 1771, he left 16 year old Alexander Hamilton in charge of his primary source of income. And you're probably thinking that's a stupid idea. Because it is.

BUT ITS ALEXANDER HAMILTON. SO IT WAS FINE??? Well, fine for everyone besides the captain of the HMS Thunderbolt.

The Thunderbolt pulled into St. Croix's busy harbor after crossing the ocean and manned by a veteran captain, however Hamilton was not satisfied with the outfitting of the ship nor the quality of the goods that had been transported.

"Reflect continually on the unfortunate voyage you have just made and endeavor to make up for the considerable loss therefrom accruing to your owners." -Alexander Hamilton to Captain Newton, February 1, 1772

You can really see Hamilton's "I'm better than you and I know it" attitude shining through, made more shocking than ever than the fact that he was SIXTEEN YEARS OLD and talking to a man who was LITERALLY TWICE HIS AGE. The only reason he didn't lose his job over this is because he was right. The mules that had been transported were in such poor health, Hamilton had to pull strings to get them sold, and the wood was too waterlogged to be sold on the open market, so he sold it to a private buyer who was able to find something to do with them. He showed quick thinking, confidence in his abilities, and managerial skills. It was these skills that would later appeal to George Washington, not his financial abilities, and led to his most important appointment.

Source: Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 1, p. 23, letter to Tileman Cruger, February 1, 1772 ("It would be undoubtedly a great pity that such a vessel [the Thunderbolt] should be lost for the want of them [cannons]."); Ibid., p.4, letter to Captain Newton, February 1, 1772; Alexander Hamilton: A Biography by Forrest McDonald, p. 128 ("Taken aback, Washington replied, 'I always knew Colonel Hamilton to be a man of superior talents, but never supposed that he had any knowledge of finance.")

Cruger's firm also engaged in the Atlantic slave trade, as did the majority of trading firms in the Caribbean and the American south. It was this exposure to the abhorrent conditions on slave ships and the violence African people faced in the triangle trade that shaped Hamilton into a vocal opponent of slavery- when it was convenient. More impactful was the fear he developed of slave revolts, as was very common in the Caribbean because of the disproportionate slave to free/black to white ratio in the islands, and this would later define his views on the French Revolution and public protest in general. He and Thomas Jefferson had this in common.

Hamilton continued studying books in his free time, and the local newspaper, the Royal Danish American Gazette, began publishing poems from an anonymous young writer- obviously it was Hamilton. His poems ranged in subjects, and aren't particularly good, but they're better than any poems I've written angrily in my journal about my evil exes, so that is to his credit.

Hamilton's poems took a religious turn, most likely traceable to the arrival of Reverend Hugh Knox, who took in Hamilton as a mentor. Clergymen were a hot commodity in the hell hole that was the Caribbean, and Knox had a lot of work on his hands, but he took a particular interest in Hamilton, specifically in getting him out of the aforementioned hell hole. He saw that Hamilton was incredibly intelligent and hard working, almost to a fault- he was probably the first person who was genuinely concerned for this dude's health over how much he worked.

Fun fact, Knox also had personal ties to the Burr family, but that is literally only a fun fact and not a sign that Burr and Hamilton were star-crossed lovers in fair Verona or whatever Chernow has deluded himself into thinking.

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, p. 32-33; Ibid., p. 34

Source: National Guard Bureau, "Examining Lessons from Katrina 10 Years Later"

Then, a massive hurricane struck the Caribbean on August 1, 1772. It was incredibly damaging, causing mass destruction in St. Croix, and this is most definitely one that we in the south would evacuate for. Even my dad would evacuate for this one, and it took a lot of convincing to get him to evacuate for Katrina.

In reaction to this event, Hamilton wrote his famous letter to his father detailing and reflecting on the storm. And finally, I'm giving y'all my analysis of this letter that I keep saying I'll do. However, this post is already incredibly long, so I'm going to do it in a google doc and attach it here.

Source: Alexander Hamilton to The Royal Danish American Gazette, September 6, 1772

The letter was published to The Royal Danish American Gazette, which spread around the afflicted community. Knox's congregation gathered money for the anonymous young author (now not very anonymous) to sail to the American mainland for his education. Originally, Hamilton went to study medicine, due to the high demand for doctors in the Caribbean (his knowledge of anatomy would remain helpful throughout his life). However, at some point he decided he would not be going back to the Caribbean, and switched his focus to law, but we'll discuss that more in part two.

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, p. 37-40

Well, there's part one. I did all of this in one day because um. I don't know, but it is now one in the morning and i have to wake up earlier than normal. so that's fun. i hope y'all enjoyed. shout out to my mom for proofreading half of this, and shout out to my aunt who gave me coffee, that was a horrible idea. i'll be back with part two at some point, which will probably be more concise because hamilton's childhood in the caribbean is where most of the theories are, so yeah. love y'all.

#alexander hamilton #history #amrev #american history #american revolution #hamilton #18th century #caribbean history #long post #research #heavy breathing #this is my career guys #do it for richie 💪 #amrev history #i also watched like half of a chris chan documentary during this #and an entire markiplier playthrough #this is my spring break

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I'm finally sitting down and listening to the AmRev songs and oughhhhhhhh my autism. Mad Anthony Wayne and The Fate of John Burgoyne are my favorites

this is so real and relatable.

“oughhhhhh my autism” really resonates with me

#amrev #asks

[pub-lius]

update im working on it now

hi i was just curious to know if you were like continuing it began about dusk orrr if thats just on hiatus for now

NO PRESSURE AT ALL!!!! just wondering because so far that thing is amaaaazing

damn wasn’t expecting a call out post /j

i am continuing it!! im just very busy with school, but im currently on spring break so im hoping to work on it sometime this week. im basically a mess and just jump from project to project at random but it is a circle so i will get to it at some point i promise‼️‼️

if you’re looking for similar fics on ao3, i recommend merited partiality by clear_as_starlight, the song of alexander by ciceroprofacto and (this is an entirely different au but its my favorite fic ever) i lose my voice when i look at you by ouiouixmonami. this is insider information to make up for the fact that im lazy as hell LMAO. remember to always check the tags. love you!!

[pub-lius]

Do you have a post on Maria Reynolds? I haven't been able to find much information about her, I read she became a nun or something after the scandal??

i know i do, i am struggling to find it because tumblr's search function has and always will be ass

RAHHH I CANT FIND ANY OF THEM fuck this im giving you a short history of her life because i love you with all my heart

DISCLAIMER: i fucking hate Ron Chernow, especially for his treatment of Maria Reynolds in his book, but him and wikipedia are all I have right now and my relationship with him is very toxic pls help. also this post will discuss heavy things like forced prostitution and ron chernow absolutely butchering this subject so just be aware of what is best for you

Early Life

Maria Reynolds was born as Mary Lewis on March 30, 1768 to Susannah Van Der Burgh and Richard Lewis, who was Susannah's second husband. She had eleven siblings, and they did not have very much money, and were likely a pretty average 18th century white family in America, with poor literacy rates, struggles with debt, and the women being taken advantage of. They lived in Dutchess County, New York.

Maria was literate, but not well educated. This is something she was strongly mocked for by both her husband, Hamilton, Chernow, and other men. Well, I guess Hamilton didn't really mock her, but he definitely looked down on her for it. Fucking asshole. She also seemed to have very strong mood swings from a young age, and this could have been something psychological, like a mood disorder, or it could have been physiological or hormonal, such a menstrual disorder that was never properly treated because women's issues were not taken seriously at the time, mental or physical. This is also something she was mocked for.

Maria was married off to James Reynolds, a Revolutionary War veteran, on July 28th, 1783 when she was 15 years old. James Reynolds often lobbied the government for money after the war, foreshadowing his debt problems and later exploitation of his underage wife for money.

Together, the couple would have one daughter, Susan, named after her grandmother, who was born on August 18, 1785. Maria showed herself to be a devoted mother who would do anything for her daughter, including putting herself in harms way to make sure she didn't face the same fate. Unfortunately, Susan would also later be in an unhealthy relationship, despite her mother's efforts.

Maria Lewis was always described as very emotional, innocent, smart, and pretty, despite those who attempted to degrade her.

Men before Hamilton

It was early in her marriage when she was looked down upon by men, beginning with the son of her first landlady in Philadelphia.

"Her mind at this time was far from being tranquil or consistent, for almost the same minute that she would declare her respect for her husband, cry and feel distressed, [the tears] would vanish and levity would succeed, with bitter execrations on her husband. This inconsistency and folly was ascribed to a troubled, but innocent and harmless mind... [Reynolds] had frequently enjoined and insisted that she should insinuate herself on certain high and influential characters- endeavor to make assignments with them and actually prostitute herself to gull money from them." -Richard Folwell, August 12, 1797

Her complicated feelings about her husband allowed men to reduce her to being deceptive, however it shows that she was torn between her bias towards her husband, who had been around her and influencing her throughout her formative, adolescent years, and the things he was asking her to do, including prostituting herself.

These escalated to more than requests for her to prostitute herself to rich men into demands and threats. Reynolds became physically abusive to his wife if she did not comply with his demands to sleep with and extort rich men. Eventually, this became a pattern, and she became known as a prostitute who slept separately from her husband so she could entertain her midnight visitors, when essentially she was being human trafficked by her husband at the age of 18.

There is evidence to suggest that she only slept with Hamilton when Reynolds threatened to physically abuse her daughter, Susan. I'm not going to go into too much detail about the affair because I believe it's over done, but I am going to discuss how Ron Chernow talks about this woman, and the consequences of victim blaming.

Ron Chernow Hates Women

Ron Chernow discusses the Reynolds Affair in chapter 19 of his novel Alexander Hamilton. Already, he places some of the blame on Elizabeth Hamilton with the sentence "It was a dangerous moment for Eliza to abandon Hamilton,", even though he likes to put her on a pedestal so people think he's a feminist (Chernow 363). You're not a feminist, Ron, you're a 75 year old incel, and I feel bad for your wife.

Chernow introduces Maria Reynolds by stating her age at the time of the affair (23), and for some reason, making up the fact that her name is pronounced "Mariah"??? He gives no citation for this, so I'm assuming he made it up to make her seem more slutty. Her name was Maria. Actually, her name was Mary, but if we had any link between her and the Christian figure for maternity and purity, well that wouldn't work with the portrayal of her as a disgusting, crazy, lying whore, right?

Chernow uses words like "doleful tale", "fanciful", "conspired", and "trickster" to describe Maria, but gives no proof of her malicious intent towards Hamilton. He portrays Hamilton as vain, however a savior to Maria, and she simply HAD to have been in love with him because of how good of a person he was. Ron Chernow manipulates Maria Reynolds' character to fit his personal belief that there are two kinds of women: good, pure, Christian homemakers, and uneducated sluts who deserve their mistreatment from men (Chernow 367).

Even though Ron Chernow finds it more comfortable to believe that Maria worked in cohorts with her piece of shit husband, and that they together decided to use Hamilton for his money, the truth is that she was a severely abused woman throughout her entire life, especially at the hands of James Reynolds. Her manipulation of Hamilton was not to gain something, but to prevent her and her daughter from being abused. Chernow glosses over this, dismissing it as something she made up to secure a divorce, but it was proven true in a court of law. Chernow's famous cognitive dissonance strikes again: the US government is very securely made with a magnificent justice system, yet uneducated, illiterate women can manipulate it to get... a piece of notarized paper! Yeah, don't let this senile old man write any more books. Thanks.

Aftermath

The backlash from The Reynolds Pamphlet, published 1797, would haunt Maria for the rest of her life. She remarried twice, once to Jacob Clingman, who is another piece of shit who should have his dick guillotined, and the other time to Dr. Matthew (idk his last name) who she was a housekeeper for. She allegedly wrote her own pamphlet, but never published it. Idk anything about that.

Maria would raise her two grandchildren after her daughter's untimely death. She also changed her name back to Mary, becoming Mary Matthew for the rest of her life. She was devoutly religious, joining the Methodist Church, but not a nun. She died loved on March 25, 1828. And if there isn't someone on earth who loves Mary Matthew, then I am dead.

Here's your Maria Reynolds post. I love her so much, and I will defend her until I have no voice left, my fingers can't write or type, my eyes can't move, and my legs can't walk. She deserves so much better than what she got and how she's been portrayed. Vive Mary Lewis.

#history #amrev #american history #women's history #maria reynolds #the reynolds pamphlet #the reynolds affair #alexander hamilton #asks #still pissed that i cant find my other posts on her because i know i have a few :/

[pub-lius]

hi i was just curious to know if you were like continuing it began about dusk orrr if thats just on hiatus for now

NO PRESSURE AT ALL!!!! just wondering because so far that thing is amaaaazing

damn wasn’t expecting a call out post /j

i am continuing it!! im just very busy with school, but im currently on spring break so im hoping to work on it sometime this week. im basically a mess and just jump from project to project at random but it is a circle so i will get to it at some point i promise‼️‼️

if you’re looking for similar fics on ao3, i recommend merited partiality by clear_as_starlight, the song of alexander by ciceroprofacto and (this is an entirely different au but its my favorite fic ever) i lose my voice when i look at you by ouiouixmonami. this is insider information to make up for the fact that im lazy as hell LMAO. remember to always check the tags. love you!!

#asks #ao3 #fanfic

[pub-lius]

When is your birthday??

january 28th! im an aquarius

#asks

[pub-lius]

Hello, I was wondering if you have information on John Laurens’s family? Like, all of them; in depth? Also any sources where you learned the information? Sorry if this is bothersome, I’m just trying and failing to write smth about Laurens that centers around him and is also historically accurate.

hey gang

yes i do!! i have this post as another post about john laurens floating around but i cant find it. i have many posts about him that are tagged with his name if you want previous questions about him or whatever. that biographical information is also included in the google doc linked at the bottom of my pinned post. i believe that doc also contains the online sources i used but most of my laurens-related information comes from John Laurens and the American Revolution by Gregory D. Massey, Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow and George Washington’s Indispensable Men by Arthur S. Lefkowitz (which is a very Laurens-centric book)

also that is so exciting and if you feel comfortable sharing your writing i would love to read it!! nothing heals me like historical accuracy even if its like the tiniest detail that gets mentioned.

also also you didn’t ask for this but i also just wanted to remind you and any other writers who may use my blog for information, you dont need to make everything historically accurate. like it isn’t that fucking deep. the fic im writing rn (read private interest on ao3 xoxo) is like so far from accurate. i used to be a huge stickler for accuracy but it just is Not That Deep. you can write about whatever the fuck you want, and if you want to, use historical fact to ENHANCE your writing with cultural information, foreshadowing, symbolism, small references to outside events, and those other things that make the story feel well rounded and complex. have fun writing and dont let people with sticks up their asses tell you you’re doing it wrong

#john laurens #laurens family #writing #history #asks #henry laurens #amrev #american revolution

[pub-lius]

Hi! Sorry if this is well known I literally just got into the actual history side of hamilton a week ago.

But in James madison related works they make him super sick. Is that because of how his actor was coughing in the original thing or was he just really inbred in reality and tended to be sick lots. Or maybe something else (these are just my main two ideas,,)

im speedrunning this because my computer might die. also if one more of you come into my ask box apologizing for asking questions, i will be under your bed

James Madison is one of the most accurately portrayed characters in Hamilton: An American Musical because he's constantly coughing up a fucking lung. Because he was. All the time. He wasn't inbred as far as I know (which. you know. anything is possible, but these aren't royals, so they're not THAT inbred, at least not closely), but he was deathly ill most of the time.

So, in the 18th century, medicine wasn't exactly the best. For example, people believed that the yellow fever epidemics were caused by "a particular construction of the atmosphere", "fetid humors", and "mephitic vapors". Those people were doctors. As you can imagine, we're not working with the height of medical technology.

As a result of this, there was a high rate of specifically child deaths related to illness. During this time period, if you made it past 18, you were pretty much good to live a long life, but your chances of making it past 18 were not. great. So. Those who did make it into adulthood often had complications due to childhood illnesses. For example, Alexander Hamilton was continuously suffering from rheumatic fever throughout his life, George Washington had pock-marks on his face from smallpox, and Benjamin Franklin never seemed to be in good health.

So Madison's illness at the time was not by any means mysterious, but it did stand out to his contemporaries. I actually found this website that lists (allegedly) everything that was wrong with this motherfucker, so if that interests you, the link is there. I've perused it, and it seems to line up with everything that I've read on the little guy.

I would love to go into more detail about this, but unfortunately Ron Chernow isn't pulling his weight on this tumblr account and my computer is gonna fucking die so bye i love you xoxo gossip girl

#james madison #american history #founding fathers #18th century #medical history #asks

[pub-lius]

LOL i guess im kinda in the middle ish-bottom of the country so its less surprising

Dude did you know that Yankee Doodle is like an east coast only thing. Like wtf is that. I was infodumping to a friend last week and brought up Yankee Doodle and she'd NEVER heard of it (I'm in Cali rn) and I'm still reeling from that. One of my other friends was like yeah it's an east coast thing. She's from the same town that the guy Yankee Doodle was written about is from btw

yeah!! bc america was originally confined only to the east coast, cali wasn’t even considered real until like 1820 (thats an exaggeration not an actual historical fact). also there’s a reason we in the south use the term “yankee” for people in the north east, and it goes back to before the civil war, and has always been an insult LMAO

[pub-lius]

Dude did you know that Yankee Doodle is like an east coast only thing. Like wtf is that. I was infodumping to a friend last week and brought up Yankee Doodle and she'd NEVER heard of it (I'm in Cali rn) and I'm still reeling from that. One of my other friends was like yeah it's an east coast thing. She's from the same town that the guy Yankee Doodle was written about is from btw

yeah!! bc america was originally confined only to the east coast, cali wasn’t even considered real until like 1820 (thats an exaggeration not an actual historical fact). also there’s a reason we in the south use the term “yankee” for people in the north east, and it goes back to before the civil war, and has always been an insult LMAO

#amrev #asks

[pub-lius]

MAKE ME PROUD🫡

its intriguing to me how you know so much so instead of asking a question about said knowledge im gonna ask how u know all this?-?/?-

oh hey!! the simple answer is autism but i'll give more specifics

so i've always been a nonfiction guy, and i first started doing historical research when i was really young on the history of New Orleans from my school library, which was abundant since I'm only about 40 minutes outside the city. every week we could check out two books so i'd check out two history books (or books on ghosts, dogs, or greek mythology, i'm kind of a jack of all trades) and just. read them for fun.

later on, i started writing essays in my free time about the things i was reading about to summarize what i was learning (this blog is just a digital version of that). from this point until, well, now, i was taught how to do research online in school and also kinda figured it out on my own and this extended to my other interests which, at the time, was psychology (i still study psychology but just for school).

its not a shock to anyone that my research on the american revolution and american history in general began when i listened to hamilton, and i started researching information about the events portrayed in the musical online. i read yk the online articles about the lives of the characters, then the relatives and friends of those characters. then i found the government archives and started reading through hamilton's letters. then i started giving all my money to bookshops and now i have a library of fully annotated history books, bookmark folders full of secondary and primary sources, and exactly $1.88 to my name (not exactly but its funnier to say that).

i am very privileged to be able to pay for books and have transportation to libraries and bookshops and the archives and whatnot, and i take full advantage of it!! i was actually kinda called out by my law teacher today because he said that usually people get addicted to things that are fun and not tedious while looking right at me. so. that's a fun thing that happened today.

knowledge is just a collection of facts, and intelligence is the accumulation of skills, and so i do my best to get both. so really any knowledge i have is just enough free time to accumulate enough facts to keep me yapping 24/7/365 and enough skills to make it seem that i vaguely know what im talking about!

[pub-lius]

LIVE YOUR TRUTH‼️‼️‼️‼️ publius is just a pseudonym, its open to share

its intriguing to me how you know so much so instead of asking a question about said knowledge im gonna ask how u know all this?-?/?-

oh hey!! the simple answer is autism but i'll give more specifics

so i've always been a nonfiction guy, and i first started doing historical research when i was really young on the history of New Orleans from my school library, which was abundant since I'm only about 40 minutes outside the city. every week we could check out two books so i'd check out two history books (or books on ghosts, dogs, or greek mythology, i'm kind of a jack of all trades) and just. read them for fun.

later on, i started writing essays in my free time about the things i was reading about to summarize what i was learning (this blog is just a digital version of that). from this point until, well, now, i was taught how to do research online in school and also kinda figured it out on my own and this extended to my other interests which, at the time, was psychology (i still study psychology but just for school).

its not a shock to anyone that my research on the american revolution and american history in general began when i listened to hamilton, and i started researching information about the events portrayed in the musical online. i read yk the online articles about the lives of the characters, then the relatives and friends of those characters. then i found the government archives and started reading through hamilton's letters. then i started giving all my money to bookshops and now i have a library of fully annotated history books, bookmark folders full of secondary and primary sources, and exactly $1.88 to my name (not exactly but its funnier to say that).

i am very privileged to be able to pay for books and have transportation to libraries and bookshops and the archives and whatnot, and i take full advantage of it!! i was actually kinda called out by my law teacher today because he said that usually people get addicted to things that are fun and not tedious while looking right at me. so. that's a fun thing that happened today.

knowledge is just a collection of facts, and intelligence is the accumulation of skills, and so i do my best to get both. so really any knowledge i have is just enough free time to accumulate enough facts to keep me yapping 24/7/365 and enough skills to make it seem that i vaguely know what im talking about!

#in other words there’s plenty of publius to go around #sorry #she pub on my li till i us #okay moving on

[pub-lius]

dont hide your flattery of me in the tags, i will out you.

thank you 🥰🥰 the moral of the story should be RAAHHHH ACADEMIC WEAPON ACADEMIC WEAPON YOU GOT THIS TEAR THAT SHIT UP SHOW THEM WHO’S BOSS MAKE FREDDIE MERCURY PROUD‼️‼️‼️🦅🦅🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🏈🏈🏈🏈💸💸💸💸

its intriguing to me how you know so much so instead of asking a question about said knowledge im gonna ask how u know all this?-?/?-

oh hey!! the simple answer is autism but i'll give more specifics

so i've always been a nonfiction guy, and i first started doing historical research when i was really young on the history of New Orleans from my school library, which was abundant since I'm only about 40 minutes outside the city. every week we could check out two books so i'd check out two history books (or books on ghosts, dogs, or greek mythology, i'm kind of a jack of all trades) and just. read them for fun.

later on, i started writing essays in my free time about the things i was reading about to summarize what i was learning (this blog is just a digital version of that). from this point until, well, now, i was taught how to do research online in school and also kinda figured it out on my own and this extended to my other interests which, at the time, was psychology (i still study psychology but just for school).

its not a shock to anyone that my research on the american revolution and american history in general began when i listened to hamilton, and i started researching information about the events portrayed in the musical online. i read yk the online articles about the lives of the characters, then the relatives and friends of those characters. then i found the government archives and started reading through hamilton's letters. then i started giving all my money to bookshops and now i have a library of fully annotated history books, bookmark folders full of secondary and primary sources, and exactly $1.88 to my name (not exactly but its funnier to say that).

i am very privileged to be able to pay for books and have transportation to libraries and bookshops and the archives and whatnot, and i take full advantage of it!! i was actually kinda called out by my law teacher today because he said that usually people get addicted to things that are fun and not tedious while looking right at me. so. that's a fun thing that happened today.

knowledge is just a collection of facts, and intelligence is the accumulation of skills, and so i do my best to get both. so really any knowledge i have is just enough free time to accumulate enough facts to keep me yapping 24/7/365 and enough skills to make it seem that i vaguely know what im talking about!

[pub-lius]

WONDERFUL

yay!!!!

HIIIIIII it's been a while :D The AmRev autism is BACK do you know any other songs that were common during the time, especially military songs? I'm familiar with Chester, Free America and British Grenadiers and ofc Yankee Doodle but Idk any others :3

HEYYY IT HAS BECAUSE IVE BEEN LOSING IT PHYSICALLY MENTALLY AND ACADEMICALLY BUT IM BACK

listen. to. how stands the glass around. it was potentially the song that Hamilton sang at the dinner he and Burr attended right before the duel that really unnerved Burr, and its just so haunting and cool and emotionally powerful. the other possible song he sang was called The Drum, but I haven't heard it and haven't found it (because i haven't looked for it)

i also recommend listening to Songs and Ballads of Colonial and Revolutionary America by The Committee of Correspondence. It's on itunes, and i imagine its on spotify as well, and it has more songs from the period! There's also Battle Cry of Freedom by Robert Shaw and Robert Shaw Chorale, which isn't exclusively amrev, but its the other album in my library with amrev music on it SFHSJKHF

these are all i have, but i hope you're able to find some music you enjoy!

[pub-lius]

Hello! it’s the same anon asking about an ask game for Lafayette. I haven’t found the original prompt but I found one that you filled out for Andre. Links down below. (Btw love your blog and your posts are so informative that they always teach me more than what my own history teacher can do in an entire hour)

https://www.tumblr.com/pub-lius/701311905236746240/andr%C3%A9-for-the-ask-game?source=share

YAYYYY THANK YOU THANK YOU

also that is so sweet im glad you find my posts useful! that's what i do them for :)

Lafayette hcs:

sexuality: a very straight man, but kisses the homies goodnight in a very tender and loving way

gender: cis but he could be a straight drag queen

brotp: obviously the gay trio. that's a given

notp: him and washington. they called each other father and son so its quite strange to me, but to each their own

random hc: this was hard because its hard for me to find something that wasn't just a trait he had because his actual personality was just so dynamic and wild, but i think that he would gossip with his daughters and just have the STRONGEST opinions that would shock them

general opinion: honestly lafayette is my comfort research topic, even though he caused two massacres, but he comes across as such a real person, and i think that he is very interesting because of that. he's probably in my top three of most researched historical figures along with hamilton and washington. i love giving asks about him because i think an understanding of lafayette's life gives you a good picture of the more exciting events of the 18th and early 19th centuries, as well as knowing that historical people were real people who lived, laughed, and loved as hobby lobby reminds us all to do. more lafayette content, i love that 5'11" french guy

#marquis de lafayette #lafayette #amrev #frev #asks #ask game