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Summary
Chapter One: The Castaways
Alexander Hamilton was born in 1755. He was raised on various islands in the British West Indies, a center of the world sugar trade at the time, but the precise location of his birth remains a mystery. His father, James Hamilton, was the fourth child of a Scottish laird, and his mother, Rachel Faucette Lavien, was from a mixed English and French Huguenot family.
Because his mother was separated from her first husband (who would not grant her a divorce), from a legal and social standpoint, Hamilton is considered âillegitimate,â a circumstance that is both a secret source of shame and arguably the major cause of his insatiable drive to succeed. Unique among the founding fathers, his childhood is beset by a nearly unimaginable number of tragedies and financial hardships.
Chapter Two: Hurricane
Despite his tumultuous upbringing, Hamilton is a remarkable student. A chance encounter with Hugh Knox, a fatherly Presbyterian minister who had recently relocated to the island of St. Croix, helps the precocious teenage Hamilton win sponsorship to study in North America. He leaves the island overwhelmed by the belief that he is, at last, fulfilling his destiny.
Chapter Three: The Collegian
After arriving in New York, Hamilton enrolls at the Elizabethtown Academy, a college preparatory school across the river in Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth), New Jersey. His connections in the West Indies put him into contact with members of the area elite, and he integrates himself into New York and New Jersey colonial society with remarkable speed and finesse.
Hamilton enrolls at Kingâs College in lower Manhattan, which is overseen by a stern Tory president named Dr. Myles Cooper. Although New York is a Loyalist stronghold, recent British actions against Massachusetts in response to the Boston Tea Party enrage many people in the city, and Hamilton is quickly sucked in to the bubbling subculture of anti-British activism.
Chapter Four: The Pen and the Sword
By April 1775, the political situation in New York had become explosive. After news of the deadly skirmishes at Lexington and Concord reached the city, newly formed militia groups begin rallying and harassing Loyalists, many of whom flee to England fearing for their lives. Hamilton immediately volunteers for service, but, despite his enthusiastic military participation and fiery rhetoric, he worries that unchecked revolutionary fever could lead right back to the kind of tyranny he is fighting against. He is soon made an artillery captain, and fights a number of majorâand agonizingly bloodyâbattles in and around New York City.
Chapter Five: The Little Lion
All-out war erupts in the colonies. Hamilton demonstrates strategic talent in a number of retreats, and the leader of the fledgling Continental Army, General George Washington, takes notice of the gifted young captain. Washington recruits Hamilton to be one of his aides-de-camp, and Hamilton accepts the position, despite his wishâadmitted years laterâto be given a senior fighting appointment. Nevertheless, Hamilton predictably flourishes in his administrator role and earns enough of Washingtonâs trust to serve as a largely autonomous representative of the general.
This kicks off a number of feuds, some of which would become lifelong, with various Continental Army military and political leaders unaccustomed to taking orders from a confident twenty-two-year-old.
Chapter Six: A Frenzy of Valor
Due to the unimaginable deprivation and death count at Valley Forge, the winter of 1778 marks the low point of Continental Army morale. In June, its fortunes take a dramatic turn. At the battle of Monmouth, with Washingtonâs steely leadershipâand Hamiltonâs intensity (or perhaps recklessness)âthe Army inflicts significant casualties. With assistance from France, American victory slowly came to be seen as less than impossible.
Hamilton and his close friend John Laurens, an antislavery aristocrat from South Carolina, draft a proposal to abolish slavery by giving blacks freedom in exchange for military service. The proposal fails, leading Hamilton to conclude bitterly that, âprejudice and private interest will be antagonists too powerful for public spirit and public good.â
Chapter Seven: The Lovesick Colonel
In 1780, the Continental Army endures another devastating winter while stationed in Morristown, New Jersey. Fortune turns, however, after a chance visit to Morristown by Elizabeth (Eliza) Schuyler, the beguiling twenty-two-year-old daughter of Philip Schuyler, a Continental Army general and one of the most distinguished figures in New York Dutch society.
Hamilton falls head over heels for Eliza. After only a month of courtship, the pair decide to wed; they marry that December. His frustration with Washington reaches a boiling point, and after being denied yet another request for combat, Hamilton resigns his position as Washingtonâs right-hand man.
Chapter Eight: Glory
Even though he is no longer a member of Washingtonâs staff, Hamilton continues to hound him for a military assignment. Washington finally relents, and, in the summer of 1781, Hamilton is put in charge of a light-infantry battalion. In September, he leads a courageous charge at the Battle of Yorktown that helps provoke the sur...
