Being an immigrant was a part of Hamilton’s identity that he carried with him his entire life. Watch the first episode of Hamilton in :60 The Immigrant and learn more about Alexander Hamilton.
Read the transcript
Alexander Hamilton was born to unmarried parents in the British West Indies.
Because his parents were unmarried the Church of England would not allow him to attend their school.
A tutor and the family library of 34 books provided Hamilton’s education.
Hamilton’s father abandoned the family, and shortly after his mother died.
All that was left to him was the family library
August 30, 1772 a hurricane devastated the island.
Hamilton wrote a sweeping account of the storm.
Local businessmen were so impressed with his writing they paid for his passage to America to get an education.
The 17-year-old immigrant student wrote one of his first political writings in response to Samuel Seabury’s pamphlet attacking congress.
This resulted in a verbal battle by pamphlet between Seabury and Hamilton
Hamilton ends his final argument by saying “I consider civil liberty in a genuine unadulterated sense, as the greatest of terrestrial blessings.”
Major corporate funding provided by BNY Mellon.
