Editing Alexander Hamilton (section)

==Early life and education==
Hamilton was born on January 11, 1755, or 1757,{{efn|name=birthyear}} in [[Charlestown, Nevis|Charlestown]], the capital of [[Nevis]] in the [[British Leeward Islands]], where he spent his childhood. Hamilton and his older brother, James Jr.,<ref name=ramsing>{{cite journal |first=Holger Utke |last=Ramsing |title=Alexander Hamilton |journal=Personalhistorisk Tidsskrift |language=da |year=1939 |pages=225–270}}</ref> were born out of wedlock to Rachel [[Johann Michael Lavien|Lavien]] ([[née]] Faucette),{{efn|Primary sources disagree on the spelling of Hamilton's mother's surname.<ref name=Newton2019-115>{{cite book |last=Newton |first=Michael E. |title=Discovering Hamilton: New Discoveries in the Lives of Alexander Hamilton, His Family, Friends, and Colleagues, from Various Archives Around the World |url={{GBurl|5oOiDwAAQBAJ |p=115}} |year=2019 |publisher=Eleftheria Publishing |isbn=978-0-9826040-4-5 |page=115}}</ref> Hamilton's grandfather signed his name "John Faucett" on a legal document dated May 31, 1720, which some historians consider authoritative.<ref name=Newton2019-28>Newton (2019), [{{GBurl|5oOiDwAAQBAJ|p=28}} p. 28].</ref> Hamilton himself spelled the surname as Faucette in a letter dated August 26, 1800, which was corrected to Faucett in a footnote by the editor of Hamilton's papers.<ref name=HamPapers1800>{{cite web |last=Hamilton |first=Alexander |title=From Alexander Hamilton to William Jackson |type=Letter |date=August 26, 1800 |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-25-02-0068#ARHN-01-25-02-0068-fn-0004 |website=Founders Online |publisher=National Archives |access-date=February 4, 2021 |archive-date=March 31, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331120905/https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-25-02-0068#ARHN-01-25-02-0068-fn-0004 |url-status=live}} Archived from {{cite book |title=The Papers of Alexander Hamilton |volume=25 |orig-year=July 1800 – April 1802 |editor-first=Harold C. |editor-last=Syrett |editor-link=Harold Syrett |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1977 |pages=88–91 & n.4 |isbn=9780231089241 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rbL7xJhUIVoC&q=faucett&pg=PA91 |access-date=February 4, 2021 |archive-date=November 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231123161839/https://books.google.com/books?id=rbL7xJhUIVoC&pg=PA91&dq=%22faucett%22&q=faucett |url-status=live}}</ref> Hamilton's son, [[John Church Hamilton|John]], wrote Faucette.<ref name="Hamilton1879">{{cite book |first=John Church |last=Hamilton |title=Life of Alexander Hamilton: A History of the Republic of the United States of America, as Traced in His Writings and in Those of His Contemporaries |url={{GBurl|1FQSAAAAYAAJ |p=41}} |year=1879 |publisher=Houghton, Osgood and Company |page=41}}</ref> [[Ron Chernow]] and many early historians followed Hamilton by writing Faucette,<ref name=chernow8-9>Chernow, pp. [https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilto00cher/page/8/mode/2up 8–9]</ref> while another group of historians adopted the anglicized name Fawcett, reflecting an absence of consensus.<ref name=Newton2015-10>{{cite book |last=Newton |first=Michael E. |title=Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years |url={{GBurl|9GvpCQAAQBAJ |p=10}} |year=2015 |publisher=Eleftheria |isbn=978-0-9826040-3-8 |page=10}}</ref>}} a married woman of half-British and half-[[Huguenot]] descent,{{efn|Although there are persistent claims that Hamilton's mother was of mixed race, this is not substantiated by any verifiable evidence. Rachel Faucette was listed as white on tax rolls.<ref name=chernow9-734>Chernow, pp. [https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilto00cher/page/9 9], [https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilto00cher/page/734 734–35].</ref><ref name="Owens2004">{{Cite news |last=Owens |first=Mitchell |date=January 8, 2004 |title=Surprises in the Family Tree |pages=Appended correction dated January 15, 2004 |no-pp=y |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/08/garden/surprises-in-the-family-tree.html |access-date=November 15, 2016 |quote=While there have been suggestions that the mother, Rachel Faucett or Fawcett—and therefore Hamilton himself—was of mixed ancestry, it is not an established fact. |archive-date=January 20, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170120064220/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/08/garden/surprises-in-the-family-tree.html? |url-status=live}}</ref>}}<ref>[[#chernow|Chernow, 2005]], p. 8.</ref> and James A. Hamilton, a Scotsman and the fourth son of Alexander Hamilton, the [[laird]] of [[Grange, Ayrshire]].<ref name="Randall1">{{cite book |title=Practical Proceedings in the Supreme Court of the State of New York |first=Alexander |last=Hamilton |contribution=Foreword |contributor-first=Willard Sterne |contributor-last=Randall |page=ix |year=2004 |publisher=New York Law Journal}}</ref>

Prior to Alexander's birth, in 1745, Rachel Lavien married [[Johann Michael Lavien|Johann Lavien]] in [[Saint Croix]].<ref name=chernow10-12>Chernow, [https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilto00cher/page/10 pp. 10–12].</ref> Together, they had one son, Peter. However, Rachel Lavien left her husband and first son in 1750, traveling to [[Saint Kitts]], where she met James Hamilton.<ref name=chernow10-12/> Hamilton and Lavien moved together to Nevis, her birthplace, where she had inherited a seaside lot in town from her father.<ref name=chernow17/> While their mother was living, Alexander and James Jr. received individual tutoring<ref name=chernow17/> and classes in a private school led by a Jewish headmistress.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lewisohn |first=Florence |author2=American Revolution Bicentennial Commission of the Virgin Islands |title='What so proudly we hail': the Danish West Indies and the American Revolution |publisher=American Revolution Bicentennial Commission of the Virgin Islands |publication-place=[St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.] |year=1975 |oclc=2150775 |pages=17–30}}</ref> Alexander supplemented his education with a family library of 34 books.<ref name=chernow24>Chernow, [https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilto00cher/page/24 p. 24].</ref>

James Hamilton later abandoned Rachel Lavien and their two sons, ostensibly to "spar[e] [her] a charge of [[bigamy]]...after finding out that her first husband intend[ed] to divorce her under Danish law on grounds of adultery and desertion."<ref name="Randall1"/> Lavien then moved with their two children back to Saint Croix, where she supported them by managing a small store in [[Christiansted]]. Both his mother and Hamilton contracted [[yellow fever]]. On February 19, 1768, Hamilton's mother died from the disease, leaving him orphaned.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brockenbrough |first=Martha |date=2017 |page=19 |title=Alexander Hamilton, Revolutionary |publisher=Feiwel & Friends |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FKAvDwAAQBAJ |isbn=978-1-250-12319-0}}</ref> His mother's death may have had a severe emotional impact on Hamilton.<ref>e.g., Flexner, ''passim''.</ref> In [[probate court]], Lavien's "first husband seized her estate"<ref name="Randall1"/> and obtained the few valuables that she had owned, including some household silver. Many items were auctioned off, and a friend purchased the family's books, returning them to Hamilton.<ref name=chernow25-30>Chernow, [https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilto00cher/page/25 pp. 25–30].</ref>

The brothers were briefly taken in by their cousin Peter Lytton. However, Lytton took his own life in July 1769, leaving his property to his mistress and their son, and the propertyless Hamilton brothers were subsequently separated.<ref name=chernow25-30/> James Jr. apprenticed with a local carpenter, while Alexander was given a home by Thomas Stevens, a merchant from Nevis.<ref>{{cite web |first=William |last=Cissel |title=''The West Indian Founding Father, 2004'' |url=http://www.virginislandspace.org/Division%20of%20Libraries/cisselpaper.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.virginislandspace.org/Division%20of%20Libraries/cisselpaper.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Hamilton became a clerk at Beekman and Cruger, a local import-export firm that traded with the [[Province of New York]] and [[New England Colonies|New England]].<ref>Chernow, [{{GBurl|4z5eL5SGjEoC|p=29}} p. 29].</ref> Though still a teenager, Hamilton proved capable enough as a trader to be left in charge of the firm for five months in 1771 while the owner was at sea.<ref name=Founders1771>{{cite web |title=To Alexander Hamilton from Walton and Cruger, [19 October 1771] |type=Letter |website=Founders Online |publisher=National Archives |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-01-02-0004 |no-pp=y |page=fn. 1 |access-date=July 29, 2020 |archive-date=July 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729040747/https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-01-02-0004 |url-status=live}} Archived from {{cite book |title=The Papers of Alexander Hamilton |volume=1 |orig-year=1768–1778 |editor-first=Harold C. |editor-last=Syrett |editor-link=Harold Syrett |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1961 |page=8 n.1}}</ref> He remained an avid reader, and later developed an interest in writing and a life outside Saint Croix. He wrote a detailed letter to his father regarding a hurricane that devastated Christiansted on August 30, 1772.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Letter_by_Alexander_Hamilton_on_the_hurricane_of_August_1772 |title=Letter on the hurricane of August 1772 |access-date=January 8, 2022 |archive-date=January 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220108135550/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Letter_by_Alexander_Hamilton_on_the_hurricane_of_August_1772 |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[First Great Awakening|Presbyterian]] Reverend Hugh Knox, a tutor and mentor to Hamilton, submitted the letter for publication in the ''Royal Danish-American Gazette.'' Biographer [[Ron Chernow]] found the letter astounding because "for all its bombastic excesses, it does seem wondrous [that a] self-educated clerk could write with such verve and gusto" and that a teenage boy produced an apocalyptic "fire-and-brimstone sermon" viewing the hurricane as a "divine rebuke to human vanity and pomposity."<ref name=chernow37>Chernow, [https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilto00cher/page/37 p. 37].</ref> The essay impressed community leaders, who collected a fund to send Hamilton to the North American colonies for his education.<ref name="gordon">{{cite journal |first=John Steele |last=Gordon |author-link=John Steele Gordon |url=http://americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2004/2/2004_2_42.shtml |title=The Self Made Founder |journal=[[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]] |date=April–May 2004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081119235829/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2004/2/2004_2_42.shtml |archive-date=November 19, 2008}}</ref>

In October 1772, Hamilton arrived by ship in [[Boston]] and then proceeded to New York City, where he boarded with [[Hercules Mulligan]], the [[Ireland|Irish]]-born brother of a trader known to Hamilton's benefactors. Mulligan assisted Hamilton in selling the cargo that Hamilton was to use to pay for his education and support.<ref name=OBrien-Mulligan>{{cite journal |first=Michael J. |last=O'Brien |orig-year=October 30, 1915 |title=Field Day of the American Irish Historical Society Held in New York City |year=1916 |type=transcript of address |journal=The Journal of the American Irish Historical Society |volume=1 |number=1 |page=144 |url=https://archive.org/stream/journalofamerica15amer_0#page/n291/mode/2up/search/Mulligan}}</ref><ref name=Newton64>Newton (2015), [https://books.google.com/books?id=9GvpCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA64 p. 64].</ref> Hamilton sought to fill gaps in his education in preparation for college, and later that year began to attend [[Snyder Academy|Elizabethtown Academy]], a preparatory school run by [[Francis Barber (Colonel)|Francis Barber]] in [[Elizabeth, New Jersey]]. While there, he was introduced to [[William Livingston]], a local leading intellectual and [[Patriot (American Revolution)|revolutionary]] who influenced him, and he boarded with the Livingstons while studying.<ref name=Newton2019-227>Newton (2019), [{{GBurl|5oOiDwAAQBAJ|p=227}} pp. 227–228]. "Thus, when Alexander Hamilton arrived in Elizabethtown in October 1772 and moved in with the Livingstons, they lived in this house rented from Jacob De Hart."</ref>

In fall 1773, Hamilton returned to New York and entered Mulligan's alma mater, King's College (now [[Columbia University]]). Hamilton began as a private student and boarded again with Mulligan until he matriculated into the college the following year, in May 1774.<ref name=Newton69>Newton (2015), [https://books.google.com/books?id=9GvpCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA69 p. 69].</ref> His college roommate and lifelong friend [[Robert Troup]] spoke glowingly of Hamilton's clarity in concisely explaining Patriot case against the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] during the [[American Revolution]] in what was Hamilton's first public appearance, on July 6, 1774.<ref>Randall, p. 78.</ref> As King's College students, Hamilton, Troup, and four other undergraduates formed an unnamed literary society that is regarded as a precursor to what is now the [[Philolexian Society]].<ref name=chernow53>Chernow, [https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilto00cher/page/53 p. 53].</ref><ref name=Cardozo1902>{{cite book |last=Cardozo |first=Ernest Abraham |title=A History of the Philolexian Society of Columbia University from 1802–1902 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8aEAAAAIAAJ&pg=PT23 |year=1902 |location=New York |publisher=Philolexian Society |page=23}}</ref>

Later in 1774, [[Church of England]] clergyman [[Samuel Seabury]] in New York published a series of pamphlets promoting the [[Loyalism (American Revolution)|Loyalist cause]], seeking to provoke fear in the [[Thirteen Colonies]], which he hoped would discourage them from uniting against the British.<ref>Miller, p. 9.</ref> Hamilton countered anonymously with his first published political writings, ''[[A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress]]'' and ''[[The Farmer Refuted]].'' He published two additional pieces attacking the [[Quebec Act]],<ref>Mitchell 1:65–73; Miller, p. 19.</ref> and may have also authored the 15 anonymous installments of "The Monitor" for Holt's ''[[New York Journal]]''.<ref name=Newton116-117>Newton (2015), pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=9GvpCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA116 116], [https://books.google.com/books?id=9GvpCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA117 117], 573.</ref> Hamilton supported the revolutionary cause before the war began, but he disapproved of mob violence against the Loyalists. On May 10, 1775, he was credited with saving King College president [[Myles Cooper]], a Loyalist, from an angry mob by speaking to the crowd long enough to allow Cooper to escape.<ref>Mitchell, I:74–75.</ref> Hamilton was forced to discontinue his studies before graduating when the college closed its doors during the British occupation of New York City and his subsequent military service.<ref name="ReferenceA">Robert Troup "Memoir of General Hamilton", March 22, 1810</ref>