Alexander Hamilton.
Did you just start singing a (literally any) song from the musical? Or is that just me, as most of my friends are theatre kids? If you did or didn’t, I’m sure you’re still extremely aware of the musical Hamilton because it’s such a cultural phenom. While the America 250 celebrations have started to mellow as the year winds down that musical has been on my mind because it was inspirational for so many as it captured the fervor and excitement of starting a new country with all of its potential. Though the glamorization of the beginning of the United States founding has earworm tunes, if I learned anything from decades of movies that were “inspired by historical events” I know that sometimes it’s literally just the names of people that are the same. So how exactly accurate IS Hamilton? Let’s dive in.
Conception
Lin Manuel-Miranda was inspired to write the musical for Hamilton while reading Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton. (Score one for books, amirite!) While Miranda ultimately ended up taking artistic license with a bit of some of the events, the musical is well researched and even pulls direct quotes from historical happenings. The song, “One Last Time,” in which George Washington says he will not seek re-election, pulls lines directly from Washington’s Farewell Address:
“The hope
That my country will
View them with indulgence;
And that
After forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal
The faults of incompetent abilities will be
Consigned to oblivion, as I myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.”
Accurate vs. Inaccurate
Accurate vs. inaccurate is unfortunately not so cut and dry, I say, as the person researching and writing this blog. This could spiral into a conversation about how history is preserved, how it is interpreted and who gets to tell their story and who doesn’t (it’s even lyrics in the final song of the musical!), but that’s not really my goal. I think those are important conversations and something to keep in mind when discussing any sort of media based on real moments and people and this is especially prescient with the storyline of The Reynolds Pamphlet (I discuss this a little more below). That said, Miranda does appear to have done a vast amount of research when mounting this musical and stayed fairly true to the real events. It seems he really only embellished when something needed a little panache. For instance, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton really didn’t like each other; that part is true. However, Jefferson was noted for being quiet and reserved and not quite as boisterous as he is depicted in the musical. I imagine watching a musical about political rivals where one calmly considers before reacting isn’t so interesting, though. Other little details, like Hamilton punching the bursar, and meeting Hercules Mulligan before the war are things that don’t have any record to support them, but on some level could have happened. Mulligan went to the same university as Hamilton, and Hamilton could have punched a bursar somewhere, maybe, I guess? It sounded good in the song!
The Reynolds Pamphlet
Probably the biggest artistic license taken is regarding the Reynolds Pamphlets. If you haven’t seen the musical or don’t know the history, the Reynolds Pamphlet came about after an illicit affair Hamilton had with a woman named Maria Reynolds. Her husband found out about the affair and blackmailed Hamilton, who paid James Reynolds $1300 (a little over $45k today with inflation). What came next happened over a series of years, with James Reynolds being arrested and using his knowledge of Hamilton’s sex life (who at the time of the affair was the Secretary of the Treasury) to leverage his way out of trouble. This then lead to James Monroe, Abraham Venable, and Frederick Muhlenberg all confronting Hamilton about possible corruption. To clear his name, Hamilton turned over to the men the letters he had exchanged with Maria, revealing the affair to them. They were convinced of Hamilton’s innocence of fiscal corruption.
It would have ended there, except Monroe told Thomas Jefferson all about it, and as you may recall, Jefferson and Hamilton did not get along. Jefferson used this information to start rumors about Hamilton, and to clear his name of political wrongdoing, Hamilton wrote a 95-page pamphlet, “Observations on Certain Documents” or as it was called later, the “Reynolds Pamphlet,” in which Hamilton cleared his name of fiscal corruption, but fully, publicly, admitted to having an affair.
Artistic License
So why did I call that artistic license? That all happened in real life and more-or-less in the musical (Monroe, Venable, and Muhlenberg were replaced with Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison in the musical), and it is evidence that a large part of what we know about history comes from written documents left behind. But let’s not forget about Eliza Hamilton (unlike her husband did when
he decided to clear his name!). She and Hamilton wrote letters to each other, but the majority of those letters were never found or catalogued. In the musical, it’s posited by Miranda that Eliza burned them herself and did so because of the embarrassment and hurt she suffered from the affair. She sings, “Let future historians wonder how Eliza reacted when you broke her heart,” but the truth is, we don’t know how Eliza reacted to the affair really and we don’t know if the letters were burned. She sings that she’s taking back control of the narrative, and burning the letters after a public heartbreak is a likely scenario, but the truth is that we will never know what happened to those letters or what truly transpired between Eliza and Alexander Hamilton after the pamphlet. Maybe they’re buried in a shoebox under someone’s house and two years from now someone will find them!
My verdict is Hamilton is a good musical and a good launching pad for learning about the founding fathers, but you shouldn’t stop there. Learn actual facts about Alexander Hamilton and the founding or our country with these options below!
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