Alexander Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis, British West Indies on January 11th, 1757. Alex was born to Rachel Fawcett Lavien and John Lavien. John Lavien was an abusive husband so Rachel decided to flee their relationship with Alexander and his brother James who was older. Rachel remarried to James Hamilton. When Alex was 10 his father, James, left them with all his debts for Rachel to deal with. Alexander took his first job when he was only 11. Despite his best efforts Alexander’s mother, Rachel, died when she was only 38. Hamilton became a clerk at local import-export firm Beekman and Cruger which traded with New England; he was left in charge of the firm for five months in 1771 while the owner was at sea. He and James Jr. were
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He attempted to get into The Church of England, which denied membership to Alexander and James Hamilton, Jr.—and education in the church school—because their parents were not legally married. They received individual tutoring and classes in a private school led by a Jewish headmistress. Alexander supplemented his education with a family library of 34 books. In October 1772, he arrived in the colonies and began learning fundamental subjects missing from his education. He attended the Elizabethtown Academy, a grammar school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. In 1773, he studied with Francis Barber at Elizabethtown in preparation for college work. Hamilton entered King's College in New York City (now Columbia University) in the autumn of 1773 as a private student and officially matriculated in May 1774. A Church of England clergyman Samuel Seabury published a series of pamphlets promoting the Loyalist cause in 1774, to which Hamilton responded anonymously with his first political writings, A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress and The Farmer Refuted. Seabury essentially tried to provoke fear in the colonies, and his main objective was to stop the potential union among the colonies. Hamilton published two additional pieces attacking the Quebec Act and may have also authored the fifteen anonymous installments of "The Monitor" for Holt's New York Journal. On May 10, 1775, Hamilton won credit for saving his college president Myles Cooper, a Loyalist, from an angry mob by speaking to the crowd long enough for Cooper to
He attempted to get into The Church of England, which denied membership to Alexander and James Hamilton, Jr.—and education in the church school—because their parents were not legally married. They received individual tutoring and classes in a private school led by a Jewish headmistress. Alexander supplemented his education with a family library of 34 books. In October 1772, he arrived in the colonies and began learning fundamental subjects missing from his education. He attended the Elizabethtown Academy, a grammar school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. In 1773, he studied with Francis Barber at Elizabethtown in preparation for college work. Hamilton entered King's College in New York City (now Columbia University) in the autumn of 1773 as a private student and officially matriculated in May 1774. A Church of England clergyman Samuel Seabury published a series of pamphlets promoting the Loyalist cause in 1774, to which Hamilton responded anonymously with his first political writings, A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress and The Farmer Refuted. Seabury essentially tried to provoke fear in the colonies, and his main objective was to stop the potential union among the colonies. Hamilton published two additional pieces attacking the Quebec Act and may have also authored the fifteen anonymous installments of "The Monitor" for Holt's New York Journal. On May 10, 1775, Hamilton won credit for saving his college president Myles Cooper, a Loyalist, from an angry mob by speaking to the crowd long enough for Cooper to