Empire: World History - 153. The Founding Fathers: Alexander Hamilton (Ep 3)

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar? Listen and find out. Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: [e-mail] Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Anouska Lewis Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community, discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcasts, add free listening, and a weekly newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at www.mpower.com. Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnan. And me, William, Duremple. Hey, Willie, I've got a question. How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by Providence, impoverished and squalor grow up to be a hero and a scholar.

How indeed? I've never heard you rap before. Forgive me that little amazed silence. I didn't know that was coming. There's like internationally the sound of hands slapping against forehead. What is she doing? Someone makes a stop. Please stop.

But we are here. You're better on the BBC. We are here to talk about the $10 founding father without her father. I'm going to stop quoting Alexander Hamilton the musical in a second, but I really, really, really, really, really loved it. So we're here to talk about Hamilton. Yes. It's an odd one because of that musical. You could argue he's actually now the best known of all the founding fathers.

He's the only one that certainly anyone would produce a rap song straight out on. But the reason that Ron Cherner wrote the biography that inspired the music. musical was that he was the least known and least celebrated and most obscure of the founding fathers and that while there were bookshelves full of books on Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, there was absolutely nothing about Alexander Hamilton and indeed that the end of his life and the duel and all the political shenanigans that went on at that period led many to have a negative view of him. And we forget this now, but Cherno's biography was written to overturn a whole set of very substantial prejudices against Hamilton.

So, yes, he's come a long way in a decade, I think it's fair to say. And the view we have of Hamilton today is quite different from what anyone would have thought 20 or 30 years ago. Chono has completely changed the view in scholarly circles and the musical and all the songs and sellout shows have changed his view on a popular front. His name is Alexander Hamilton. Look, and we are on a... I'm going to shameedly going to lean on the Ron Cherno book, just as Lynn Manuel Miranda did,

because it is an extraordinary deep dive into a life. And in it, Chernos says, look, this is a man. Why don't you know him better? I mean, we do now, thanks Ron. But, you know, this is a founding father who gave the world, or gave certainly America, the central bank, the financial system, an independent judiciary, a professional army. He has a lot of accolades. And at the time, Chernobyl didn't have the recognition of it. And that was a baby when he was doing all. these things, which is a baby. So we want to know his origin story, Willie, and that's what you're here to tell us today. Yes. And I think it's very, again, it's slightly different from what

you might have guessed, even if you saw the musical. I mean, certainly all my kids left imagining that Alexander Hamilton was black, or at least half black. I don't think he was. I think the balance of scholarly opinion is that he was basically Scottish, certainly from his father's side. Well, I mean, it's John Adams who hated him, who called him mulatto bastard and things along those lines. I mean, that was certainly, but I think largely because he was from St. Kitts, really, I mean, because he was from the Caribbean, but you're right. I mean, the bloodline thing, I was the first thing I went to look up. So tell us who his mum and dad were. So his mother, Rachel Fawcett, is actually quite wealthy. She inherits an estate,

which is why the near-do-well father, James Hamilton, marries her. Now, Hamilton is not an uncommon name in Scotland. And in fact, I didn't know what I ever fest up to you, Anita, but Hamilton is actually part of my surname. Are you? I was born Hamilton-Durimple, though I don't use that. His name is Hamilton-Durimple. It's certainly scams, even if it doesn't, it's hard. Yeah. So Alexander Hamilton's father was the fourth son, though, of this man, James Hamilton and the Scottish Laird. That's right. And so he's a classic Scottish Laird's younger son. But then you don't really get much as the fourth, do you? I mean, everything goes to the first. In my case, you've got nothing at all. So what do you get? What does the lucky word?

No, you don't get anything. And that historically has always been one of the sort of propellants of Scottish Empire. And you get sent abroad, which is why the whole of Indian colonial history and a lot of the history of the Caribbean involves younger sons of Scots lads. And Ayrshire is exactly the kind of area where this was the norm, because it's particularly poor countryside. It's one of the poorest areas in Scotland today. And when you go around Ayrshire, you have all the these names. I was there funny enough last weekend and beautiful summer day with Tom Holland of our sister pop, Restless History, for something called the Boswell Festival. Boswell being another contemporary of Alexander Hamilton from Ayrshire at exactly this time. And as you drive through

this country side, there's all these Indian names. I drove through a place called Patna. Partner, really? Partner. Really? That's hilarious. Oh God, that's funny. Okay. And in my book, The Anarchy, there was this character called William Fullerton, who was from Ayrshire, who's one of the the only survivor of the patna massacre, the other patner. Robbie Burns was from Airshire, and he very nearly went off to the Caribbean and famously, at the last minute, decided not to get involved in that whole world of slave plantations and all the horrors attendant there. Which is why we quote him every year. Which is why we quote him, exactly. With haggis and whiskey. But James Hamilton did. I mean, so he goes off to try and seek his

fortune, and fortune appears to him in the 16-year-old bundle of Rachel Fossett, who is an heiress after her father dies. Contrary to the impression that might have been given by the lyrics you quoted, she wasn't at all. She inherited a healthy estate, which is why she attracted James Hamilton, who is a kind of near-do-well, Scott's younger son. And she starts her life in a tiny, tiny Caribbean island called Saint Croix, which is a Danish colony. The Danes are among the many who have got claims to land in the Caribbean. And just as they have two little colonies in India, including Trankabar, they also have this island.

And there she has a very unhappy marriage, which she flees, leaving her husband. Well, her husband's really abusive, isn't he, the first husband? He imprisons her. He doesn't treat her well. It must have been really, really bad for a woman to leave a man and leave a marriage. It's a big, big deal, especially at that age. Exactly. We should say, again, completely clearly, she's neither a prostitute, nor is she half black.

No. There are rumours about this, but there's actually no clear basis for stating that. beyond people trying to dis Hamilton later in life. And she flees from Sankoat to St. Kitts, which is another tiny island, but this time it's a British island. There she comes across this slightly hopeless character. The fourth son Hamilton. Called James Hamilton.

Ah, right, right, right, right. Despite his grand ancestry, his father was Laird of the Gringe, who is from a whole network of slave-owning and mercantile families on the West Coast of Scotland, who are trading with the Caribbean and the New World. James Hamilton himself seems to make nothing of his fortune and his son, Alexander Hamilton, who barely remembers him, speaks about him almost with pity. He regards him as a hopeless embarrassment. But his mum, Rachel, is feisty and after James Hamilton disappears and basically abandons the family, the two boys from the relationship are brought up by their mother

in a sort of first floor flat above a shop. It's a really, really unpromising birth. But it's a place of books and writing and music because she is cultured and she's, you know, unlike the fourth son Hamilton. She does have intelligence and wit and clever. She has smarts. She teaches his boys, isn't she?

Yes, but I think she has a few books. I think that maybe that is the spark that sets Alexander of. You just need something to set you apart from what is otherwise a hopeless trajectory. But this idea of him being a bastard, orphan son. I mean, the thing is she's not able to get a divorce from her first husband. He won't grant the divorce. So when she has these two children with Hamilton, they are deemed to be

illegitimate because she hasn't secured this divorce. So that puts pay to that. So she can't marry the hopeless Hamilton. And then the hopeless Hamilton disappears. Right. So these kids are brought up on the smallest of small islands. It's 10 kilometres by 20 kilometres. It's really a very minor Caribbean Island. And at the time the Caribbean is considered violent. There are areas of culture like Haiti and Jamaica where there are libraries and philosophical societies and good schools. But St. Kitts is not one of those. So Nevis, I mean, we always say St. Kitts and Nevis. Nevis is where he grew up. But there is slavery all around him, isn't it? Because this is a hub of sugar plantations. Yes, it's overwhelmingly the population is enslaved Africans. And it's not an island

with any sort of libraries or serious educational institutions. And the extraordinary story is Alexander Hamilton's rise from this. This is about as backwards as unintellectual and as restricting a childhood as you could possibly have had. And then his mother dies and he's an orphan. One other thing about being in St. Kitts, Ron Cheneau, who has written this amazing book, startling me, he's such a good author. It's incredibly.

When I first arrived, thump on my doorstep. last week. It is over 700 pages. Well, it's like the Washington book. I actually really enjoyed reading, but Chernow describes St Kitt's and Nivas as a tropical hellhole of dissipated whites and fractured slaves. And it is interesting that, you know, he grows up with all of these. He's his formative memories of childhood. He is always a fierce opponent of slavery. So, you know, if you want to know people's origin stories, that's really important. And he stands apart of John Adams as another who's an opponent to slavery, but more so Hamilton. It's very interesting that. because as we've seen from our previous podcast, both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson

are slave owners who do not treat their slaves very well. And Alexander Hamilton comes from a far poorer background, far more marginal situation, from a place that even by Caribbean standards is backwards. And yet he is, of all the founding fathers, arguably the strongest opponent of slavery and the one with the clearest moral position that, to our eyes, singles him out. with John Adams, I think even more strongly than John Adams, against the slave trade and against the enslavement of human beings. So let's go back to a little 11-year-old, or maybe somewhere between 11 and 13. I think, you know, there's some question mark over his actual date of birth, but his mother has died of fever. He would have had it. His whole family would have rampaged.

The father's already bugged off somewhere else. So what happens to him? What has he got as this tiny teenage boy. So while Alexander's mother is living, he does receive individual tutoring from a Jewish headmistress. There is a Jewish headmistress in this island. And Alexander supplements his education with a family library of 34 books. But when she dies of fever in February 1768, it is a catastrophe for him. And what a state she has is claimed by her son from her first marriage. and Hamilton loses almost everything. A friend intervenes and saves the family books. So the books are an essential sort of piece of salvage for this boy from his home.

It's almost all that he has after it. Yeah, I mean, you get the impression that he was a well thought of young man and that the neighbours do, at times of huge crisis, do club together for him. So, you know, whoever this benefactor is, who gives the books and sends them back, it will be those around him who have no blood relation to him who will step in a couple of times. in his very salad days to help him out. But the horrors are not over because he's taken in by a fairly distant cousin, Peter Lytton, who's on the island.

But the following year, July 1769, Lytton takes his own life. So this boy's lost his father has bugged off, as you put it. His mum has died of a fever. And his benefactor and cousin, Peter Lytton, has hung himself. And for a while, Alexander is given a home by a local merchant called Thomas Stevens and apprenticed as a local carpenter. So it's a catastrophic childhood. And just imagine the trauma.

I mean, we talk about trauma a lot these days, you know, of having that many losses. Nobody talked about trauma in those days. They just kind of banged on through life and tried to get on because there was no other choice. Either you do that or you die. Look, let's take a break here. When we come back, we'll discuss him coming to America. Welcome back. So just before the break, we were leaving poor little skinny Alexander Hamilton,

who's just a teenager. years of age, on his own again and again reminded of the fragility of his life and the stability of his life. So what happens after his guardian has taken his life? What becomes a little Alexander then? So we left him just apprenticed to a local carpenter, which is not the natural career path for someone who ended up as a founding father of what is now the most powerful nation on earth. But at some point, because his mother has made the point of educating him and this Jewish school mistress has obviously done a good book, he is literate and he's good at his lessons. And somehow he managed to make the transition from just being an apprentice carpenter to becoming

a clerk at a local import export firm. Is this Beekman and Kruger? Beekman and Kruger, exactly that. Oh yeah, right, right, right. Which trades with the province of New York and New England. So when we say trade, it's all sorts of things that are made in the Caribbean that are needed. So timber, bread, flour, pork, beef, fish, black-eyed peas, corn, porter, cider. I mean, there's a long list of things going back and forth through the good offices of Beekman and Krueger.

I can't imagine all of those came from state kits, presumably from around the region. No, but stuff going back, you know, back and forth. It's trade, isn't it? And this is the great trade connections that New York and so on are linked to these very big Caribbean economies. You've got to remember that at this point, Jamaica has a larger economy than all the 13 colonies put together. I think that's right. So while he is working as a clerk in this import expert firm, he distinguishing. himself with his writing as well as being able to do accountancy and filling in the ledgers. He writes poetry and prose. He's a romantic. And he has an incredible work ethic.

Is that before or after? Because in the musical, I remember the hurricane, which just completely blows. Again, he's just getting on his feet. Things are just starting to look like subsistence level existence is possible for him. And then this hurricane tears through the Caribbean. It's the worst in living memory. Trees are thrown at houses. They're smashed to pieces. It's proper carnage. There would have been also a 15-foot high tsunami on the island. So it was utterly disastrous. But it's at this point that he pens this anonymous essay in the paper. Did he wrote his way out? He writes his way out. And it is so extraordinary. This essay in the local paper catches the attention of the whole island and in some of the mainland conners to such an extent that

a fund is set up to send him to the mainland for education. I mean, it's an extraordinary break for this child that's had this terrible series of catastrophes. So towards the end of 1773, he catches ship and set sail for Boston. And there he reinvents himself, as we saw in the musical. I mean, can we just for a moment, this young creature is unstoppable. He has taught himself. He has got up, he's got through more tragedies than most of us will have in three lifetimes by the time he's 20. So he washes up in America. He's pretty tough, hardened, and yet has this sort of romantic poetry writing soul as well.

He obviously had an extraordinary mother. I mean, you can only interpret this. He's a pretty amazing guy. What did he look like, actually, actually, because he didn't look like Lynn Manuel Miranda, and he didn't look like the wonderful actor I saw doing it in London. What did the actual Hamilton look like in real life? So, no, he doesn't look at all like any of those.

he looks very much the sort of 18th century Scottish aristocrat by the time that he's rich enough and successful enough to have his portrait painted. He's a wee bit pasty. Which is actually pretty soon. It's a wee bit pasty if you don't mind me. He is thin, unusually tall. Chernot talks about his trim physique and debonair style. And yeah, by the time that he has his first portrait painted, first full length, he's wearing breeches, a waistcoat.

He is notably sort of fair-skinned, blue-eyed, and I think blonde. So it's a very different picture. I'm all for colour-blind casting on the stage, but that doesn't give an accurate image of what the man actually looked like at all. Okay, but he fits in. The musical has him sort of rubbing people up the wrong way almost as soon as he lands, but he gets on. He's got charm, doesn't he?

And he starts making connections. He's witty, he's charismatic, and he's a bit of a bit of genius. He's recognised from the beginning for his scholarly ability and he makes it to what's then called King's College, which is the ancestor of Columbia. Right. Okay. In New York. So this is in New York. Right. A good school. He's 18 years old at this time. Gosh, he's 18. He's basically a level age and he's managed to get himself out. And so he's learning the things that King's College would have taught him. I mean, things that all of the founding fathers were kind of discovering for themselves, the Enlightenment, philosophy, classics, mathematics.

But more importantly, he starts meeting important people as well, doesn't he around this time? He does. And I think King's College, New York is the premier educational institution. He is getting the best education that you could get. So he's gone from the least possible favoured beginning to what is to this day the greatest springboard in New York. And he's got the charm and the looks. But that kind of is it, as far as Alexander's Hamilton is concerned, before the revolution breaks out, because he is very much unlike Franklin, who has a whole life before the revolution and who has enough achievements to fill many volumes on his pre-revolutionary

life, Hamilton is the youngest and the one who, in a sense, is most created by the revolution. And he is very clearly ready for it when he arrives in New York. He's already starting to pen anti-British essays. We have, at the moment, a revolution going on in Columbia University with all the protests there. And you could imagine Alexander Hamilton very much in that mould and of that now. Well, I'll leave you with these words. In New York, you can be a new man. In New York, you can be a new man.

Just you wait. Look, we're going to tell you about this newly created Alexander Hamilton of legend now, who is forged in the fire, as William says, of Revolution. That will come up in our American Revolution series. But we have some more founding fathers to gallop you through this week. Our next founding father could not be sort of more different, if you like, where you've got the sort of firecracker, lithe, skinny little boy, you're going to have someone a much more solid presence in John Adams,

but no less fascinating. And you can hear that right now if you join the club, or you can sign on at Empowerpoduk.com and hear it straight away. So till then, it's goodbye from me, Anita Arndanth, And goodbye from me, William Duremberg.