On December 14, 1780, Hamilton married Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler, the daughter of Revolutionary War general Philip Schuyler.īy all accounts, they enjoyed a strong relationship throughout their marriage and would have eight children together, despite the revelation that Hamilton had once conducted an extramarital affair with a married woman, Maria Reynolds. He wrote Washington's critical letters and composed numerous reports on the strategic reform and restructuring of the Continental Army. During his early service in the fight for American independence, he caught the attention of General George Washington, who made Hamilton his assistant and trusted adviser.įor the next five years, Hamilton put his writing skills to work. In 1777, after Hamilton fought in that year's battles of Brandywine Creek, Germantown and Princeton, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Continental Army. In 1775, when the Revolutionary War began, Hamilton became part of the New York Provincial Artillery Company and fought in the battles of Long Island, White Plains and Trenton. Intent on learning through hands-on experience, he left King's College before graduating to join forces with the Patriots in their protest of British-imposed taxes and commercial business regulations. In 1774, he wrote his first political article defending the Patriots' cause against the interests of pro-British Loyalists.Ī quick learner, Hamilton deemed himself quite capable of becoming a self-made man. Despite his gratitude toward his generous patrons, with the American colonies on the brink of a revolution, Hamilton was drawn more to political involvement than he was to academics. In 1773, when he was around 16 years old, Hamilton arrived in New York, where he enrolled in King's College (later renamed Columbia University). Hamilton had impressed Knox with an eloquent letter he had written describing a ferocious hurricane that had hit the island in 1772. Hamilton's boss, a businessman named Nicolas Cruger, so valued Hamilton's acumen when it came to accounting that he and other businessmen pooled their resources with a minister and newspaper editor named Hugh Knox to send Hamilton to America for an education. Through this early experience, Hamilton was first exposed to international commerce - including the importing of enslaved people - and learned about the business of money and trade. Croix, the bright and ambitious young lad quickly impressed his employer. Working as an accounting clerk in a mercantile in St. After working tirelessly to make ends meet, his mother became ill and died in 1768 at the age of 38. But the family was soon dealt another sad blow. John Adams would one day come to characterize Hamilton's rise from humble beginnings by describing the young Hamilton as "the bastard brat of a Scottish peddler."ĭetermined to improve his lot in life, Hamilton took his first job at the tender age of 11, not long after his father left. abandoned the family when Hamilton was a boy, leaving Rachel and her sons impoverished. It was there she met and moved in with James Hamilton, with whom she had another son, James (Alexander's older brother), who was born in 1753.Īfter moving back to St. When she was released, instead of returning to her husband and son, the independent-minded Rachel fled the troubled marriage and moved to St. During their tumultuous relationship, by Danish law, he even had her imprisoned for several months for adultery. Lavien was abusive to Rachel and had spent nearly all the money she had inherited when her father died in 1745. Hamilton's parents were Rachel Fawcett Lavien, who was of British and French Huguenot descent, and James Hamilton, a Scottish trader.Īt the time of Hamilton's birth, Rachel was married to John Lavien, a much older merchant whom she had been pressured to wed by her parents when she was a teenager. Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies, on Januor 1757 (the exact date is unknown). Hamilton - an avowed Federalist - then served as the nation's first secretary of the treasury, from 1789 to 1795. In 1788, as one of America's Founding Fathers, he convinced New Yorkers to agree to ratify the U.S Constitution. Alexander Hamilton was born in the British West Indies, and later became General George Washington's assistant.
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