Elizabeth Kennedy Hamilton Research Paper

“I’m well aware I’ve accidentally set myself on fire. I don’t need your pity water. Let me burn in peace,” (Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton). This quote shows how strong Schuyler was after the affair her husband had. She still kept her head up. Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton created the first orphanage in the USA, used persisting overcome the deaths of most of her family, and has saved millions of orphans to this day, while also preserving her husband’s legacy. Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton created the first orphanage in the USA. After her husband Alexander Hamilton died, she used the little money she had left to found multiple orphanages. “Though Elizabeth spent her widowhood in poverty, she was active in charitable organizations (Presnell, 2004).” She was inspired to do this because Hamilton was an orphan himself as a child after his father left, his mother died, and his cousin committed suicide. Devastated about his death, she founded the orphanage so people wouldn’t have to grow up how her husband did. According Dennis Denningburg (2016), Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton helped 750 children while she was alive, and she inspired many other people to create orphanages around her. The first orphanage was created by Eliza Hamilton in honor of her husband. …show more content…
In 1801 Eliza’s sister Margarita Schuyler Van Rensselaer, nicknamed Peggy, died of illness. The same month, her son Philip died in a duel. This devastated the Hamiltons. The married couple moved uptown to Manhattan. In 1804, Alexander Hamilton was critically wounded from a duel against Aaron Burr, dying the next day. Later that year, the widow’s father died of old age. These events ravaged Schuyler and she was left to pay all of Hamilton’s debts. She kept persisting and eventually built the orphanage in her husbands