#hamfacts

[hamfam1804]

Since life is already depressing due to coronavirus here’s something to make it worse!😭

[hamfacts]

Pensylvania

The U. S. Constitution contains a number of minor misspellings that have survived even to this day. The most obvious of these, however was the spelling of Pennsylvania with only one n, penned by Alexander Hamilton. Although this was an accepted spelling at the time, and even appeared on the Liberty Bell, it conflicted with the two previous mentions of the state in the document, both of which were spelled ‘correctly’ by today’s standards.

[hamfacts]

Tell the King "Casse toi!"

The French phrase "casse-toi" means "get broken" or "go away," however it is more agressive, with a  use akin to that of "piss off" or even "f*** off," although it is not inherently vulgar.

[hamfacts]

Burrn

"I did go to bed at 10, promising myself a rich sleep. Lay two hours vigil; that cursed one single dish of tea! Note: My bed had undergone a thorough ablution and there were no bugs or insects. Got up and attempted to light candle, but in vain; had flint and matches but only some shreds of punk which would not catch. Recollected a gun which I had had on my late journey; filled the pan with powder and was just going to flash it when it occurred that though I had not loaded it someone else might; tried and found in it a very heavy charge! What a fine alarm it would have made if I had fired! Then poured out some powder on a piece of paper, put the shreds of punk with it and after fifty essays succeeded in firing the powder; but it being dark, had put more powder than intended; my shirt caught fire, the papers on my table caught fire, burnt my fingers to a blister (the left hand, fortunately); it seemed like a general conflagration. Succeeded, however, in lighting my candle and passed the night till 5 this morning in smoking, reading, and writing this." -Private Journal of Aaron Burr Vol. 1, p. 219

[hamfacts]

Laurens, I like you a lot.

"Cold in my professions, warm in my friendships, I wish, my Dear Laurens, it might be in my power, by action rather than words, to convince you that I love you. I shall only tell you that ’till you bade us Adieu, I hardly knew the value you had taught my heart to set upon you. Indeed, my friend, it was not well done. You know the opinion I entertain of mankind, and how much it is my desire to preserve myself free from particular attachments, and to keep my happiness independent on the caprice of others. You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent. But as you have done it and as we are generally indulgent to those we love, I shall not scruple to pardon the fraud you have committed, on condition that for my sake, if not for your own, you will always continue to merit the partiality, which you have so artfully instilled into me." - Excerpt of a letter from Alexander Hamilton to Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens [April, 1779]

[hamfacts]

Alexander and Elizabeth Hamilton's Children

Philip Hamilton (January 22, 1782 - November 24, 1801)

Angelica Hamilton (September 25, 1784 - February 6, 1857)

Alexander Hamilton Jr. (May 16, 1786 - August 2, 1875)

James Alexander Hamilton (April 14, 1788 - September 24, 1878)

John Church Hamilton (August 22, 1792 - July 25, 1882)

William Stephen Hamilton (August 4, 1797 - October 9, 1850)

Eliza Hamilton Holly (November 20, 1799 - October 17, 1859)

Phillip Hamilton II (June 1 or 2, 1802 - July 9, 1884)

[skyguyandsnips]

I’m so tired of watching oblivious, white hamilton bloggers ignore and argue with Facts™:

lmm’s a non-black person with no right to claim or use n-word. he said it, uncensored, in the Hamiltome while quoting Daveed, a black man referencing a rap lyric written by another black person. it was censored in the text of the book.

hip-hop has roots in the Latinx community as well as the African-American and Caribbean communities, but he’s made millions off a predominantly black art form without telling the stories of any black people, and in some cases, actively erasing them. Cato, a black man kept in bondage by Hercules Mulligan, heavily assisted Mulligan’s intelligence work.

also, “No one else was in / The room where it happened” as if Jefferson, who “arranged the menu, the venue, the seating,” didn’t have his slaves serving whatever was consumed during the “Dinner Table Bargain”?

in the end, Hamilton continued the dangerous trend of romanticizing the founding fathers. some of these men were actual rapists, all were racists and cowards. they founded a country built on the exploitation and abuse of black people. there is nothing wrong with an interest in this historical era and even these historical figures. that is, unless you’re denying the facts of what they did and how their actions still affect millions today.

why say Hamilton in the musical is bisexual and not throw in more than a “Laurens, I like you a lot”? depending on your interpretation of surviving Hamilton-Laurens correspondence--censored by Hamilton's son after his death--there is historical evidence for feelings on Hamilton’s side at the least.

the closest we ever get to mentioning Washington owning slaves is “turn n’ go back to plantin’ tobacco in Mount Vernon” and, in the live show, him nodding and stepping back when Eliza mentions slavery in the finale.

slavery's used as a tool to show the goodness of Hamilton and those aligned with him. the worst example of this is when Hamilton refers to the Revolutionary Set as “a bunch of revolutionary manumission abolitionists.” Mulligan (and Burr) owned slaves. Hamilton rented them for his own purposes, allowed slave-related ads in the NY Evening Post, and bought them for immediate family like Angelica.

the Schuylers were a slave owning family. this didn’t bother Hamilton enough to court someone aside from Eliza. that, or it’s consistent with how any anti-slavery sentiment he harbored was secondary to his social station and political agendas.

Laurens was the only real abolitionist, historically, and even he opposed forced manumission out of a belief in property rights.

as a black person, I appreciate Hamilton as a piece of art that has dynamic, multi-dimensional roles meant for people of color. as a writer and fangirl, I especially love thinking about its creation closely mirrors that of fic au: identifying with a character while reading the source material, going “but what if so and so?”, and then putting one’s own spin on it.

but art, fanfiction (which is famed for the research dedicated writers do about everything but people of color) and other types of transformative works included, do not exist in a vacuum. they’re part of the real world. a world where antiblackness, American history, glorification of the Founding Fathers, the downplaying of slavery, the erasure of historical black figures, and heteronormativity are real things that hurt real people.