An investigation describes Alexander Hamilton as a slave owner – Telemundo New York (47)

NEW YORK – A new research article criticizes the popular image of Alexander Hamilton as the abolitionist founding father, citing evidence that he himself was a slave trader and owner.

“Alexander Hamilton not only enslaved people, but his involvement in the institution of slavery was essential to his identity, both personally and professionally,” wrote Jessie Serfilippi, interpreter for a New York State historic site, in an article. posted last month.

Hamilton is almost universally depicted as an abolitionist in popular modern works, from the 2004 Ron Chernow biography, Hamilton, to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musical, Hamilton: An American Musical.

But after studying the ledgers and correspondence of Hamilton and his wife, Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, Serfilippi, who works at the Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site in Albany, concluded that the picture falls short.

“It is vital that the myth of Hamilton as ‘the abolitionist founding father’ ends,” Serfilippi writes in the article, titled Such a hateful and immoral thing: the hidden story of Alexander Hamilton as a slave. His research was posted on the New York State Park System website.

The paper adds to the concern expressed by many scholars that the musical’s fictional Hamilton, which attacks slavery in a rap battle with Thomas Jefferson, is just that: fictional.

“Fascinating article,” tweeted Harvard Law professor and historian Annette Gordon-Reed, who has criticized the Broadway show in the past. Remember the ubiquitous nature of slavery in the colonial period and the first American republic. Alexander Hamilton as a slave broadens the discussion. “

Chernow called the article “excellent investigative work that broadens our sense of Hamilton’s involvement in slavery in a number of ways.” But he questioned her claim that slavery was “essential to her identity” and said Serfilippi omitted information that would contradict her conclusions.

For example, Chernow highlighted Hamilton’s work with the Manumission Society to abolish slavery in New York and defend free blacks when out-of-state slave masters tried to snatch them off the streets of New York.

“If she had tried to reconcile these important new findings with a full and fair statement of Hamilton’s anti-slavery activities, we would have gotten a broad and complex view of the man and her article would have been much more persuasive,” Chernow said by email. .

Miranda declined to comment through her publicist. In previous interviews, he has said that he welcomes the discussion about Hamilton’s role in slavery and the criticism about his show’s handling of that part of his life.

When Hamilton married a member of the powerful Schuyler family in 1780, slavery was common among the New York State elite. More than 40 people were enslaved at the Schuyler family’s Albany mansion and on another estate over the years. The historic site has done extensive research on the so-called “servants” of the family and incorporates them into its tours.

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan ordered the removal of the statue of Major General Philip Schuyler earlier this year, in part because he was reportedly the largest slave owner in Albany during his time, according to the mayor’s office. .

Serfilippi challenges the often-repeated claim that Hamilton’s exposure to the brutalities of slavery during his childhood on St. Croix instilled a hatred of slavery. He said that “no primary sources have been found to corroborate it.”

Biographers have noted that Hamilton helped legal clients and family members buy and sell slaves, but they have not been as clear on whether he enslaved people himself. Serfilippi said the entries in his cash books and family letters clearly show that it is.

For example, Hamilton’s cash books record a payment of $ 250 to Philip Schuyler in 1796 for “2 black servants bought by him for me.” Another entry records the receipt of $ 100 for loaning a “black child” to someone else. And Serfilippi points out that an inventory made of Hamilton’s property to arrange his affairs after his death in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804 includes “servants” valued at 400 pounds.

Joanne Freeman, a Yale history professor and editor of the Library of America’s edition of Hamilton’s writings, said by email that: “It is appropriate that we are considering Hamilton’s status as a slave owner at a time that is demonstrating how vital It is for white Americans to take seriously the structural legacies of slavery in America. “

Serfilippi said his interest in the research goes beyond debunking myths about Hamilton.

“The truth revealed in Hamilton’s cash books and letters must be recognized to honor the people he enslaved,” he writes. “Through understanding and accepting Hamilton’s enslavement, the stories of the people he enslaved can finally take their rightful place in history.”

– .