Hamilton Joins Washington’s Staff (Hamilton 16)

Washington asks Congress for help Commander-in-Chief George Washington to John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress: New York July the 11th 1776 As I am truly sensible the time of Congress…

Comments Off on Hamilton Joins Washington’s Staff (Hamilton 16)

A Revue of Royal & Revolutionary Rhetoric (Hamilton 15)

In several violent Acts and interludes, with important and incendiary dialogue in (of course) red. Setting: A world before the Industrial Revolution and capitalism, with countries ruled by kings and assorted…

Comments Off on A Revue of Royal & Revolutionary Rhetoric (Hamilton 15)

Hamilton vs. Seabury (Hamilton 14)

By 1774, 45-year-old Reverend Samuel Seabury (1729-1796) was a veteran of verbal combat. Assigned to a church in New Jersey from 1754 to 1757, he became embroiled in the debate over…

Comments Off on Hamilton vs. Seabury (Hamilton 14)

Angelica Schuyler (Hamilton 12)

In 1776, the "old money" families in New York - the ones that had been around in Dutch times and had continued to thrive for a century under the British -…

Comments Off on Angelica Schuyler (Hamilton 12)

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (Hamilton 11)

The pamphlet Common Sense, which Angelica mentions in "The Schuyler Sisters," was published anonymously in Philadelphia, on January 10, 1776. Within a few months, British expatriate Thomas Paine was known to be…

Comments Off on Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (Hamilton 11)

Hamilton’s Death Wish, revisited (Hamilton 9)

Last week I expressed my profound dissatisfaction at not being able to read in full a letter published in early 1776 in the Royal Danish American Gazette, which Chernow (p. 72) uses to…

Comments Off on Hamilton’s Death Wish, revisited (Hamilton 9)

My Shot (Hamilton 8)

Have you stopped to think about the way "My Shot" builds on the opening number of Hamilton: An American Musical?  It sets him up as a young hero eager to change the…

Comments Off on My Shot (Hamilton 8)

John Laurens (Hamilton 4)

John Laurens didn't live to see the end of the American Revolution. He died at age 27, killed by the British ten months after Yorktown - which was only recognized in…

0 Comments