Alexander Hamilton.
- Hamilton: An American Biography, Tony Williams, c. 2018.
- Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary, Martha Brockenbrough, c. 2017.
Wow, wow, wow.
St Christophers, or St Kitts; and Nevis, from wiki:
Nevis is a small island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies.
Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, a singular nation state. Nevis is located near the northern end of the Lesser Antilles archipelago about 220 mi east-southeast of Puerto Rico and 50 mi west of Antigua.
Its area is 36 sq mi and the capital is Charlestown.
Saint Kitts and Nevis are separated by The Narrows, a shallow 2 mi channel.
Nevis is roughly conical in shape with a volcano known as Nevis Peak at its centre. The island is fringed on its western and northern coastlines by sandy beaches composed of a mixture of white coral sand with brown and black sand eroded and washed down from the volcanic rocks that make up the island. The gently-sloping coastal plain (0.62 mi wide) has natural freshwater springs as well as non-potable volcanic hot springs, especially along the western coast.
St Croix:
Saint Croix (rhymes with "boy") is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands, an unincorporated territory of the United States.
St. Croix is the largest of the islands in the territory, while the capital Charlotte Amalie is located on St. Thomas. As of the 2020 United States Census, St. Croix’s population was 41,004.
The island's highest point is Mount Eagle, at 1,165 ft. St. Croix's nickname is "Twin City", for its two towns, Frederiksted on the western end and Christiansted on the northeast part of the island.
St Thomas:
Saint Thomas (Danish: Sankt Thomas) is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea, one of the three largest of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.
Along with surrounding minor islands, it is one of three county-equivalents in the USVI.
Together with Saint John, it forms one of the districts of the USVI. The territorial capital and port of Charlotte Amalie is located on the island. As of the 2020 census, the population of Saint Thomas was 42,261, about 48.5% of the total population of the United States Virgin Islands. The island has a land area of 32 square miles.
Alexander Hamilton:
- born on Nevis, not far from Saint Croix, 1755
- in Charleston, the island's capital
- Nevis: best sugar in the Caribbean
- parents not married
- Johann Michael Lavien, merchant, scoundrel
- Rachel Fawcett, on Saint Croix visiting wealthy relatives; daughter of a physician; well-off;
- Lavien married her but ran through her money
- Rachel left; took son Peter with her
- Danish law: Lavien had Rachel imprisoned for adultery
- Rachel fled to nearby island of Saint Kitts; supported herself
- Rachel paired off with a Scotman named James Hamilton; wealthy Scottish family, but fourth son, so no inheritance; off to Nevis -- failure at earlier jobs
- Europe's upper crust had made tons of money in Nevis
- Rachel and James: two sons, James, Jr., and Alexander
- learned French from his mom; lessons from Jews from Spain and Portugal; started and maintained a large classical library;
- Lavien wanted to re-marry; had to get a divorce; complicated; he got the divorce; she was found guilty; she not allowed to remarry again; meant that James and Alexander officially illegitimate; when Rachel died, they inherited nothing; everything went to their half-brother Peter
- family moved to Christiansted in May, 1765; strain; father deserted them all
- family destitute; helped out by friends
- eventually Rachel ran a small grocery; Alexander Hamilton kept the books; caught the eyes of a trading company, Beekman and Cruger
- Alexander, 13 years old, mother dies
- Alexander and James, effectively orphans
- court gave everything to Peter, including Alexander's precious books
- more complications
- James, now 16; Alexander, 14
- James, carpenter, and Alexander soon parted ways, paths never to cross again;
- brothers had lived with a wealthy merchant, Thomas Stevens for awhile
- Alexander became close friend of son of Thomas Stevens: Ned Stevens
- Alexander: employed as a clerk at Beekman and Cruger -- so good at it, he ran the company ffor a short time when Nicholas Cruger was ill; Alexander, 16 yrs old
- learned ins and outs of import; export; pirate; legal trade; smuggling
- age 17, survives a hurricane; writes a stirring note for local newspaper; folks are amazed; now everyone wants to help
- Nicholas Cruger sets up scholarship to Hamilton to attend school in NYC
- so, mother and father were Scottish (father for sure; mother likely)
- US revolutionary war: Scots vs the English
- Hamilton arrives NYC, via Boston
- knows one person in NYC: Ned Stevens!
Chapter Two: A Son Of Liberty
- NYC, 1772, second-largest city in US, after Philadelphia
- Cruger's Wharf (see above): built in 1740; ran parallel to Water Street
- Alexander charmed everyone he met in NYC
- meets an Irishman, Hercules Mulligan, younger brother of a Kortright and Company employee
- Hercules took Hamilton under his wing; first order of business: complete his education
- mingled with movers and shakers; mostly ardent republicans; wanted independence from England;
- remedial education at the Academy of Elizabethtown in New Jersey
- may have met Aaron Burr, a fellow orphan, who had graduated from College of New Jersey when he was only 16;
- College of New Jersey became Princeton University in 1896
- met two ardent republicans through Hugh Know: William Livingston and Elias Boudinot
- Boudinot: so well connected, he became president of the Continental Congress
- finished prep school at College of New Jersey, a hotbed of revolutionary sentiment; Hugh Knox had gone there; both Livingstone and Boudinot on the board of trustees; the college was recruiting students from the West Indies;
- College of New Jersey: John Witherspoon, the Scottish-born theologian in charge -- Hamilton asked him if he could fast-track his degree; Board of Trustees said no; James Madison had fast-tracked, succeeded, but became so ill had to take a year off to recover;
- instead of College of New Jersey, 1773; began his studies at New York City's King's College, run by loyalists to the crown
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