American History: Alexander Hamilton - The History Behind the Hamilton Musical

Sophie and Ellie tell the story about Alexander Hamilton to help them understand the story told in the Musical – which comes out on Disney this week. The girls have heard some of the songs from Hamilton the Musical. But they don’t really understand the full story. So together we learn the life story of Alexander Hamilton.

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Obviously we don’t use any of the songs. But we do explain some of the phrases used in the musical through some of the lines. For example, we explain what the phrase “right hand man” means and what the US constitution is and what the Federalist Papers were. And we echo some of the concerns that are raised by the Musical about the rights of women and black people by the musical.

We tell the story of:

• Hamilton’s birth and upbringing
• Hamilton’s friendships in America
• How Britain and America came to war in the Revolutionary War
• The efforts of loyalists like Sam Seabury
• The intervention of the French and Lafayette
• The Battle of Yorktown
• The French Revolution and how Hamilton kept America out of it
• The election of 1800 and the election of Thomas Jefferson
• Alexander Hamilton and the Reynolds affair
• The duel with Aaron Burr
• We also explain how the benefits of the revolution did not come to women or to black people
• And we explain why the cast of Hamilton are black and latino.

Finally we explain how people felt about Alexander Hamilton after he was gone.

If you are interested in finding out more about Alexander Hamilton or George Washington then you might like our Battle of Yorktown episode.

https://www.historystorytime.com/e/george-washington-and-the-battle-of-yorktown/

You can also find out more about George Washington’s early life in our War of Jenkins Ear episode.

https://www.historystorytime.com/e/the-war-of-jenkins-ear-and-washingtons-home/

And you can learn about the founding of America in our Jamestown episode

https://www.historystorytime.com/e/the-jamestown-settlement-and-the-real-pocahontas/