Since Lin-Manuel Miranda created the hit musical
Hamilton, history has had its eyes on both
him and the "young, scrappy, and hungry" Founding
Father at the centre of its story.
But, just how much of what you see on screen
is Broadway fiction versus historical fact?
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan, and
in this video I'm revealing 7 intriguing differences
between Miranda's popular show and the true
story of Alexander Hamilton, and I'll be explaining
why these changes were made.
In the musical, Hamilton and Burr first meet
in 1776.
The tune where it happens is "Aaron Burr,
Sir", and it kicks off with Hamilton wanting
the low-down from fellow orphan Burr on how
he graduated college so quickly,
and it continues with the pair heading to
a tavern where Hamilton first meets John Laurens,
Lafayette, and Hercules Mulligan.
♪ What are the odds
The gods would put us all in one spot ♪
However, this entire encounter is made-up.
Back in the real world, Hamilton had already
started college in 1773 or 1774 and had likely
finished his studies by 1776.
He also already knew Mulligan before the date
in the song as he boarded with him shortly
after arriving in New York;
and he didn't meet Laurens or Lafayette until
later in the decade.
But the show's fictional first meeting between
these men and condensed timeline serve many
vital purposes.
It allows Lin-Manuel Miranda to quickly introduce
us to some of the musical's main characters
and show us how they relate to its star.
The scene also clearly sets up the differences
between Hamilton and Burr, a crucial part
of the show.
And Miranda's decision for Hamilton's real
friends Laurens, Lafayette, and Mulligan to
rap in a more simple, old-school style
♪ I'm John Laurens in the place to be ♪
sets the stage to reveal Hamilton's incredible
intellect and sophisticated way with words
that's showcased in the densely packed rhymes
of the musical's very next number, My Shot.
♪ Every disadvantage
I have learned to manage ♪
♪ I don't have a gun to brandish
I walk these streets famished ♪
Miranda makes what he calls another "historical
leap" in that song, when Hamilton says he
punched a college bursar.
Apparently, the show's historical consultant,
Ron Chernow, whose biography of Hamilton inspired
Miranda to create the musical, "blanched a
bit" when he heard the line as "Hamilton wasn't
needlessly violent".
However, Miranda just couldn't say no to this
fictionalised fight appearing in the final
show as, in his words, "the rhyme was too
good to pass up"!
♪ It's a blur, sir ♪
♪ He handles the financials ♪
♪ You punched the bursar?
♪
♪ Yes ♪
Much is made in the musical of the mutual
attraction between Angelica Schuyler and Hamilton.
♪ I'll never forget
The first time I saw your face ♪
In reality, historians disagree just how intimate
their relationship was.
While some believe the pair was satisfied
with a close friendship and exchanging letters
through the years, others suggest they were
actually lovers.
Still, when it comes to Angelica/his musical,
Miranda ignores a few facts historians are
certain about.
When Angelica meets Hamilton in the show,
we're told she has no brothers and that she's
also single, so she has to marry someone rich;
♪ My father has no sons, so I'm the one
Who has to social climb for one ♪
plus she's the one who introduces her sister
Eliza to Hamilton.
However, a quick look at the history books
proves none of that was true.
In fact, the eldest Schuyler sister wasn't
present when Eliza met her future spouse;
and not only had Angelica been married a number
of years by the time she did meet Hamilton,
but she also had two children.
The musical instead shifts Angelica's marriage
forward in time to the very end of Act 1.
♪ I have found a wealthy husband ♪
♪ Who will keep me in comfort
For all my days ♪
As for siblings, records show Angelica definitely
had several brothers.
According to Miranda his "brain wanted [him]
to forget" all that while writing
"because it's stronger dramatically if" she
can't marry the "penniless" Hamilton
because of social pressures rather than the
fact that she's already wed.
Also, Miranda was trying to make "a larger
point" [here] that "Angelica is a world-class
intellect in a world that does not allow her
to flex it."
♪ Eliza, I'm lookin' for a mind at work
♪
♪ Work, work ♪
After Hamilton very publicly reveals his extra-marital
affair in the Reynolds Pamphlet, the musical
shows his wife Eliza's reaction in the song
'Burn' where she sets fire to the letters
he wrote her.
In real life, Eliza never commented publicly
on the affair.
And historians don't know for sure when, why,
or how she destroyed her letters.
♪ Let future historians wonder how Eliza
Reacted ♪
Indeed, it even seems to be something of an
assumption to say that she did actually dispose
of them herself, rather than, say, someone
else having done it, or them simply having
gone missing over the years.
But for Miranda, the fact 'Eliza's response
is lost in time' not only gave him 'enormous
freedom' to imagine her actions and outpouring
of emotion in 'Burn', but it also added another
layer of drama and humanity to the overall
story.
♪ Burning the letters
That might have redeemed you ♪
A change of protagonist in the song Ten Duel
Commandments has an important effect on the
musical as a whole.
The song features a face-off between soldier
and statesman John Laurens and fellow military
man Charles Lee, who was charged with insulting
George Washington.
Now, while those two men did indeed engage
in combat in 1778, the show departs from reality
by having Aaron Burr act as Lee's second when,
in real life, Lee's second was actually Major
Evan Edwards.
So, why did Miranda make this change?
Well, Burr's presence in this scene sets up
the show's climactic combat between him and
Hamilton, creating a parallel between the
two moments.
This adds an irony to his and Hamilton's final
fate because in this first-act song, Burr
tells Hamilton that
♪ Can we agree that duels
Are dumb and immature?
♪
And that it's 'absurd' that a man should have
to answer for his words against another with
his life.
Yet, in the second-act song, Your Obedient
Servant, the tables have turned, and now Burr
is demanding Hamilton pay for the disrespect
he's shown him, just as Laurens demanded of
Lee in Act One.
Also, by adding Burr and deleting Edwards
from the action, Miranda re-emphasises the
continual importance of Burr throughout Hamilton's
life while also avoiding having to introduce
us to a new minor character.
♪ Alexander ♪
♪ Aaron Burr, sir ♪
A set of rules for one-on-one combat known
as the 'Code Duello' did exist at the time
the show's set.
And Miranda drew heavily on historian Joanne
Freeman's book on the subject while writing.
However, he does take an interesting little
creative liberty in this song
♪ It's the ten duel commandments ♪
as, in reality, there were actually over 20
rules for duelling.
The song cuts down the real number of rules
as it was directly inspired by the track 'Ten
Crack Commandments' by rapper Biggie Smalls,
whose influence runs throughout the musical
And, along with Miranda's many other musical
inspirations, bridges the gap between the
revolutionary era and modern day for 21st-century
audiences.
Oh, and of course, presenting just 10 rather
than 20-plus rules also helps keep the show
moving and the audience interested.
By the way, the song itself came about because
Miranda wanted, in the first act, to introduce
the audience to how duelling worked
so that when it was time for Hamilton and
Burr's famous confrontation in the second
act, he didn't have to interrupt or slow down
the action with explanations.
Ron Chernow's biography describes Hamilton
as "a committed abolitionist" and Lin-Manuel
Miranda's musical takes a [very] similar view
of its protagonist.
♪ A bunch of revolutionary Manumission abolitionists
♪
♪ Give me a position
Show me where the ammunition is ♪
In fact, right from the opening number, Miranda
portrays Hamilton's early life as being "marked
by trauma and a first-hand view of the brutal
practices of the slave trade".
♪ every day while slaves were being slaughtered
and carted
Away across the waves, he struggled and kept
his guard up ♪
Then later he has him engage in a rap battle
with Thomas Jefferson where Hamilton derides
the hypocrisy of the future president for
owning slaves.
And Miranda himself, says "it was cathartic
[...] to get to express this to Jefferson
every night".
♪ Hey, neighbor, your debts are paid
'Cause you don't pay for labor ♪
Finally, at the end of the show, Eliza sings
that Hamilton would have done more for slaves
had he lived longer.
♪ You could have done so much more if you
only had
— Time ♪
However, the show's progressive depiction
of Hamilton on this issue airbrushes out the
more complicated and problematic reality.
While the real Hamilton was part of the New
York Manumission Society and, according to
historian Annette Gordon-Reed, did publicly
criticise Jefferson's racist belief that black
people were inferior,
"[Hamilton's] record from the 1790s until
his death in 1804 includes little to no action
against slavery."
In other words, as Gordon-Reed says, "opposing
slavery was never at the forefront of his
agenda",
and many historians and political theorists
agree.
Others, though, maintain Hamilton "was an
abolitionist by the standard of the founding
period", pointing as proof to his contrasting
views on the subject with Jefferson.
But what role did slaves play in Hamilton's
own life?
Well, not only did the real-life Hamilton
buy and sell slaves for his in-laws, but some
sources indicate he may have bought them for
himself as well or at least hired them.
Indeed, Hamilton's own mother had slaves and
bequeathed them to her sons upon her death,
however, due to her children's illegitimacy
they didn't actually inherit them.
For historian Phil Magness, it's probably
accurate to see Hamilton as "a slave-beneficiary
who had qualms with the institution";
however, "to call [him] an abolitionist [– let
alone the leading abolitionist of his generation
–] is a historical absurdity."
When it comes to Miranda's musical, despite
the fact so many of the Founding Fathers were
slave owners, only Jefferson is explicitly
depicted as such.
Still, actor Christopher Jackson who plays
George Washington found his own way of giving
a subtle nod to the first president's slave
ownership in the show,
and I talk about that in my video on all the
things you missed in the movie.
So, why does Miranda portray Hamilton this
way?
Well, a big factor must be Chernow's biography
which highlights Hamilton's progressiveness
on this subject and heavily inspired Miranda's
musical.
And Chernow is actually the show's Historical
Consultant as well.
Then there's the fact that Miranda sees Hamilton
as an inspirational and aspirational figure
to him, as well as someone who reminds him
of his own father,
which, as historian Lyra Monteiro suggests,
would also likely make it more difficult for
him "to truly incorporate slavery into the
story of [Hamilton's] life."
Another likely reason the show glosses over
the contradictions in Hamilton's anti-slavery
stance is that, as Gordon-Reed says, it makes
him "more palatable and attractive to modern
audiences".
As Chernow has pointed out, "history is long,
messy and complicated, and a Broadway show
is short, coherent and tightly constructed."
And Miranda does manage to squeeze an incredible
amount of information into the musical and
even includes direct quotes from Hamilton
and some of the other characters' own writings.
But what does Miranda himself have to say
[on this]?
Speaking recently to NPR, he noted that "other
than calling out Jefferson on his hypocrisy
with regards to slavery [...],
Hamilton doesn't really say much else over
the course of Act 2.
And I think that's actually pretty honest
[... as] he didn't really do much about it
after that."
"..although he voiced anti-slavery beliefs
[he] remained complicit in the system".
While "some scholars point out the ironic
tension between the musical's diverse cast
and what they see as an overly whitewashed
script," as Kate Keller notes in The Smithsonian
Magazine,
over the years, the show's creators have highlighted
the idea that Hamilton is "a story about America
then, told by America now."
And back in the show's early days of 2015,
cast members including Leslie Odom Jr and
Daveed Diggs spoke about it giving them
"a sense of ownership over American history"
because they felt "it's [their] history, too,
for the first time ever."
During a much more recent interview, writer
Tonja Renée Stidhum spoke with the cast about
the timeliness of the film's release, as she
put it,
"allowing us an opportunity to revisit and
reckon with the history of this nation's founding
fathers during a national uprising."
A number of the cast, such as Odom, spoke
of the show as a starting point for discussion.
And Christopher Jackson added that "it doesn't
touch on everything, it's not meant to solve
problems;
it's meant to inspire thought, inspire change
through action;
but you cannot do that until [... you] fill
in all the different gaps of your understanding
about where we are, how we got here, and what
we are supposed to do now."
And, in response to recent criticism of the
show's take on Hamilton, race, and slavery,
Miranda tweeted that "all the criticisms are
valid" and that he struggled to include all
the complexities of the characters in a 2-and-a-half-hour
musical.
So, what do you think of the Hamilton musical
and how it changed history?
And were there any historical inaccuracies
which bothered you?
Let me know in the comments below!
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Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!
