2 or 3 days ago (what is time?) I watched the hamilton play and now I’m flying by the front of my pants. I’m completely satisfied by the play except for one thing
I cannot decide whether I should admire Alexander Hamilton or not
Look, I know he had an affair, I know he was a lottle power hungry at the end there, but his dream was valiant and his contributions were unparalleled. I’m certain that without this man we wouldn’t have America. And if he only lived longer, along with his best friend/lover John Laurens, slavery could’ve ended a lot sooner.
Not only would America not be founded without his efforts, but it wouldn’t have lasted long in the first place without the bank he created (right? feel free to criticize me, I’m stupid. Don’t get me wrong I hate banks too, but look--)
I hate America (sorry not sorry) but, even I felt reinvigorated by the vision from this play. I need to know all that’s salvageable from this heap of corruption and depression.
Alright so I devised a simple question to test whether Alexander Hamilton was a good an admirable man in my eyes or not. Did he own slaves? And guess what (¬_¬) I didn’t get a straight answer. It’s clear that he bought slaves occasionally (rarely?) for family members or something but my google search couldn’t simply give me a yes or a no answer of whether or not Hammie owned slaves. Moreover, Eliza Hamilton, his wife, was outspokenly against slavery, just like Alexander Hamilton, so I don’t know fam, is that a no? Test failed. (and fyi, Aaron Burr owned slaves, i dont care how nice he was to them, ownage is ownage)
So I decided to go to the source! Alexander Hamilton’s writings were his heart (though he claimed it was the republic but whatever) so if I read this man’s penstrokes, I can decide if he’s a good person or just another corrupt politician (who am I kidding every politician is corrupt, what am I doing this for?!) I just.
To begin, I thought I’d start with the Federalist Papers, He wrote 51 out of 85 according to Non-stop but... but... the table of contents are extensive.
And below you’ll see the claims to the authorship of the federalist, I guess they couldn’t put their names on the essays like normal people so whoever had to walk around with the essays later on and ask “DiD yOu dO tHiS?”
I’m snickering at the line that says “All the Rest By Mr Hamilton” like DUDE.