So I got inspired by going to Hamilton last week to write this, it’s meant as a bit of fun and Hamilton is a great show live and on Disney, I just think it’s interesting to see what was fact and what was fiction, although I think I mayy have been a bit too specific in going through it line by line, so I decided to split it into 4 parts (a half each of Act 1 and 2). Also, I decided not to address inaccuracies that come up in multiple songs, rather, just the first song they come up in, and to only talk about songs there might be inaccuracies in.
Aaron Burr, Sir
🎵(Hamilton) I may have punched him, it’s a blur, sir, he handles the financials- (Burr)You punched the bursar?🎵
Hamilton didn’t punch the bursar, but everyone seems to know this, including Lin Manuel-Miranda, who just thought it was a truly great rhyme (“bursar”, “Burr, sir”, clever, huh?)
My Shot
🎵(Hamilton) only 19 but my mind is older🎵
Not necessarily untrue, just unknown. Historians are divided as to whether Hamilton’s birth year was 1755 or 1757, but if we take it to be 1757 he was indeed 19. Ironically, if we take his birth year to be 1755 that makes Hamilton 1 year older than Aaron Burr, “sir”? Slightly strange that he’d refer to someone younger than him as “sir”.
🎵(Hamilton) a bunch of revolutionary manumission abolitionists, give me a position show my where the ammunition is🎵
Hamilton is often criticised for glorifying its titular character as some champion anti-slavery activist. From my limited historical knowledge, the musical isn’t a total whitewash of history, but it does exaggerate Hamilton’s anti-slavery beliefs. He probably opposed it personally, but there is also a record of him purchasing slaves for his father-in-law and didn’t really take much action in trying to end slavery. As for Hercules Mulligan and Marquis de Lafayette, they had both owned slaves but later backed the abolitionist movement, and John Laurens....well okay, you can like him, swell guy, definitely a real abolitionist.
The Story of Tonight
🎵Raise a glass to the four of us, tomorrow they’ll be more of us🎵 Though they were all friends of Hamilton, there isn’t sufficient evidence to suggest Mulligan met either Laurens or Lafayette. Moreover, they didn’t meet in a bar, they bonded during the War of Independence.
The Schuyler Sisters
🎵Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy-The Schuyler Sisters🎵
There are like, several other Schuyler sisters, some of them were stillborn, some of them grew to adulthood. And people think Peggy is the forgotten one.
🎵(Angelica) Burr, you disgust me-
(Burr) Ah, so you’ve discussed me 🎵
I can’t really find anything to suggest Aaron Burr ever met Angelica Schuyler, though she does reference him in a letter referring to him as “that wretch”.😂
🎵(Angelica)We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal/And when I meet Thomas Jefferson/Imma compel him to include women in the sequel!🎵
There’s also no real proof Angelica was a feminist, or even had any radical views on women’s rights.
Farmer Refuted
🎵Hear ye! Hear ye! My name is Samuel Seabury, and I present free thoughts on the proceedings of the continental congress🎵
We don’t know exactly when the argument between Hamilton and Seabury takes place within the show, but Seabury wrote “Free Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Continental Congress” in 1774, and we know the song takes place sometime after 1776, when Burr met Hamilton in “Aaron Burr, Sir”. The paper which the song owes its name to, “The Farmer Refuted”, which was a rebuttal written by Hamilton in response to Seabury’s third “Farmer’s Letter” expressing his Loyalist views, was written in 1775.
Right Hand Man
🎵(Burr) I was a captain under General Montgomery until he caught a bullet in the neck in Quebec, and well, in summary 🎵
Richard Montgomery more likely got shot in the head, not the neck. Clever rhyme though.
🎵(Burr)As I was saying, sir, I look forward to seeing your strategy play out-
(George Washington) Burr?
(Burr) Sir? (Washington) Close the door on your way out.🎵
Hamilton implies Burr sought George Washington’s approval only to be shot down by the then General, but in fact the animosity between them was probably due to Burr never receiving a commendation from Washington for his actions after the British landed in Manhattan, where Burr saved an entire brigade from being captured. That is, if there was animosity between them at all at this point; they only became real rivals in the 1790s once Burr joined the opposition party (Democratic-Republicans) to Washington’s Federalist Party.
A Winter’s Ball
🎵(Burr)Martha Washington named her feral tomcat after him-
(Hamilton) {That’s true;)}🎵
No, it isn’t.
Helpless
*No specific lyric, but this song implies this was the first time Alexander and Eliza ever met; they had in fact been in each other’s company 2 years prior at the Schuyler Mansion.
🎵(Eliza) One week later I’m writing a letter nightly..... Two weeks later in the living room stressing, my father stone-faced while you’re asking for his blessing🎵 They didn’t get engaged that quickly. They met again at the Winter’s Ball in early 1780, and got engaged by April.
Satisfied
*Angelica was already married by the time she met Hamilton; she eloped with John Church in 1776. It’s likely due to their flirtatious letters there was some sort of attraction between the two of them, but Hamilton perpetuating the idea that Angelica was head-over-heels in love with him is almost certainly an exaggeration.
🎵(Angelica) my father has no sons so I’m the one who has to social climb for one🎵 Philip Schuyler had three (surviving) sons; Philip Jeremiah Schuyler, Renssalaer Schuyler and Cortlandt Schuyler. Weird names.
The Story of Tonight (Reprise)
🎵(Lafayette and Mulligan) [....if Alexander can get married] (Laurens) There’s hope for our ass, after all! 🎵
Every one of Lafayette, Mulligan and Laurens were already married by the time Alexander married Eliza.
🎵(Hamilton, to Burr) ignore them, congrats to you, Lieutenant Colonel🎵 Burr had quit the military to practise law in 1779 due to poor physical health, though he dipped in and out of unofficial military service for the Revolutionary cause after his resignation.
Sources: The Real History of Alexander Hamilton (Awesomepedia)
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aaron-Burr
Plus a few founding fathers’ wiki pages :)
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