You Had Me at "Hamilton"

It started when one of my theater geek friends posted a link to a news article on Facebook. Of course, with a name like Hamilton, and the premise being the story of an influential figure from the Revolutionary War period, a history buff like me couldn’t pass it up.

That was about the same time, of course, that the show became all the rage on Tumblr.  GIFs and fan art started appearing everywhere. I listened to most of the soundtrack while working on a sewing project and had a great time.

my edit

So for the record, I have heard of Alexander Hamilton. Anyone here remember the show “Liberty’s Kids” from back in the day? Young Colonel Hamilton’s first and most memorable appearance on that series was his ride with James to Morristown, where he shared his backstory about being orphaned in the Caribbean.  He didn’t mind being with James, since they were both “Gentlemen of Low Birth.” But other than that I never really paid attention to Hamilton, in real life or otherwise.

The real Alexander Hamilton was actually kind of a big deal.  I knew he fought in the Revolution and he was close to Washington.  I had no idea that he was pretty much Washington’s right-hand man. I knew he was at the Constitutional Convention but I didn’t know much about his participation. I knew that James Madison wrote a few of The Federalist Papers and John Jay added a few but I didn’t realize that “Hamilton wrote the other 51.”  I also knew that Hamilton was the first Secretary of the Treasury--hence why he’s on the ten-dollar bill.  But I had no idea that he helped Washington run the country during his first term as president and that a lot of his initiatives created the America we have today.  

Needless to say, I have not looked at a ten-dollar bill the same way since Hamilton came out.

Hamilton the Man

After listening to the soundtrack highlights, I decided to check out the eight-hundred-page Ron Chernow biography that inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda so I could learn more about this guy. Though I am an introvert I am a people person and a sucker for biographies: the best way to learn about history is through the lives of the people who shaped it. I got through half of it before Christmas.  I had to return it and I only just recently re-checked it from the library. 
Alexander Hamilton was many things: a war hero still ambitious for military glory after the fighting had ended; a loving husband and father as well as a scoundrel; a scholar and a diplomat, a finance guru, a lawyer; a loyal friend; an enthusiast of medicine; a politician who pushed his own ideas as well as a realist who understood the world around him; but most importantly to me personally, a writer.  True, a much different kind of writer than me, but someone who put his thoughts on paper.  The line from the musical “Why do you write like you’re running out of time” is not only accurate but it convinced me that, more than any other founder, Alexander Hamilton is my spirit animal.

Every founding father was brilliant in their own way, but they were so adamant about their different ideas that they couldn’t get along.  I am reminded of a statement that Joss Whedon once made about the Avengers: they don’t belong in the same room together.  Putting all of the big names in the American Founding together for the administration of the first president may have worked to unify the country at the start but it ended up creating the party system as people rallied to different figureheads. Chernow successfully argues that Washington was not Hamilton’s puppet, as Thomas Jefferson would have you believe, but that while he took lots of advice from Hamilton he was a moderating influence and tried to placate both of the parties. And while he did favor emulating British systems of commerce and industry, he was very, very much American.
Most eighteenth century figures I admire are brilliant in their intellectual and/or military talents but have really reprehensible personal lives. John Adams was the perfect family man and did a lot of great stuff, but he had temper issues and he was super insecure as a president.  Thomas Jefferson was not only immoral but he was also a jerk towards Hamilton and the Federalists. James Madison was less immoral and more of a jerk because he was so close to Jefferson.

Via CBS News.com

Alexander Hamilton was a great family man, no doubt about that.  I prefer to think his affair with Maria Reynolds was disappointing but his only real dalliance--it was more like David’s affair with Bathsheba. But Hamilton’s true strength was in his intellectual prowess and in paving the way for an America built on industry, trade, urban development, and finance.  Chernow indicates that Hamilton was a man ahead of his time. Southerners like Madison and Jefferson didn’t see that relying on an agrarian-based economy was not the way for America to get ahead.  Hamilton, a self-made man, knew how to make a country in the same way.  Hamilton also saw that there wasn’t anything wrong with trade relations with Britain and he saw the French Revolution for the chaotic mess that it was.

Hamilton: the Musical

Being a history geek, I already knew the Founding Fathers were humans.  It’s nice that the Broadway musical has convinced its fans of the same idea. The multi-ethnic casting, as well as Miranda’s inspiration for the show correlating the story to modern rap battles and street fights, makes Hamilton’s story applicable and real to today’s audiences. It used to be that people complained about living in a country founded by dead white guys.  Newsflash: those dead white guys had feelings, they had struggles, they were human. Hamilton fans GET IT. And Hamilton also teaches and reinforces the idea that America is a place where anyone can succeed, including people who are originally from somewhere else.  
The musical also depicts how Hamilton’s self-motivation was also his Achilles’ heel.  He was so determined to make something of himself that he pushed other people out of the way.  It made more sense to him, for instance, to confess his adultery publicly than to let the world believe he had been abusing his office as Treasury Secretary, effectively putting the world before his wife’s feelings.

via Pinterest

I am a huge fan of anyone named Elizabeth.  Eliza Schuyler is no exception, and with her show-stopping numbers in Hamilton--“Helpless,” “That Would Be Enough,” and “Burn”-- Miranda creates a very three-dimensional portrait of an extraordinary but hitherto unrecognized woman in history. Chernow’s biography makes it clear that Alexander leaned on Eliza so much for emotional and spiritual support.  The musical shows her as someone who took her own initiative to make herself part of the story--Hamilton’s story, which, in a sense, is America’s. Eliza is a great character in the show because she’s an independent woman but at the same time someone in love with Alexander and a devoted wife and mother.  It is relieving to see a woman in those domestic roles portrayed in such a positive and influential light.

Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton, via Pinterest

The Broadway show also gives a sympathetic perspective of Aaron Burr.  History tells us that Hamilton disliked Burr because he was a politician who changed his stance to suit his needs. In the show, we get the incredible solo “Wait for It,” the “Stars” to Burr’s Javert.  Hamilton rushes around and grabs life by the horns.  He does what he thinks is right.  Burr takes his time, taking opportunities to advance himself from elsewhere rather than creating his own future.

Conclusion

Hamilton is another instance of me jumping on the bandwagon, but I have gained, and continue to gain, a lot from this latest fad personally. I’m not a huge fan of the explicit language in the lyrics or the chorus doing sensual dance moves in eighteenth-century underwear (although it’s an interesting visual device in the theatrical sense). I am also not a huge fan of rap or hip-hop, but I do like it occasionally as long as it's clean and catchy. I am a fan of men in eighteenth-century costume and Lin-Manuel Miranda ROCKS IT! More importantly, I am a fan of what Hamilton represents: making the past real and relatable to the present, and paying tribute to the contributions of a heroic founding father.