“Hamilton” is the hottest show on Broadway and — according to critics like The New York Times’ Jody Rosen — “a factually rigorous historical drama.”
As an academic and biographer of Aaron Burr, I can say emphatically that rules of historical rigor do not apply to “Hamilton.”
In “Hamilton,” Burr, who shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, is a villainous foil, his personality an overblown caricature. He is portrayed as a man who lacks principles, unwilling to believe in or fight for anything that matters.
But the historical Burr was no less passionate about the Revolution than Hamilton. For courage under fire, Burr received a commendation from Congress. And Burr’s New York wing of the Jeffersonian party were men of mixed class backgrounds, whereas the Schuyler-Hamilton Federalist faction was a top-down organization favoring elite interests. Falsely casting Burr as an aristocrat incorrectly shifts the blame for class prejudice onto him.
By taking sides in a mudslinging fight for power that goes back more than 200 years, “Hamilton” misses Burr’s actual contributions. He was a skilled innovator of democracy, working to make elections, financial services, and even the U.S Senate fairer. In New York, he was charged with “revolutionizing the state,” because he backed progressive policies for funding internal improvements, debtor relief, and democratizing the election of state senators. He founded the Manhattan Company, the first bank to extend financial services to ordinary merchants and mechanics outside the ruling elite.
Hip-hop “Hamilton” unabashedly celebrates the American Dream, the U.S. as land of opportunity. Alexander Hamilton, born on the Caribbean island of St. Nevis, represents the immigrant made good. Left out of the story is that Hamilton — and the Federalist party he headed — were hostile to the idea that the United States should ever be led by newcomers. It was the Federalists who pressed for a constitutional amendment barring naturalized foreigners from elected offices, and it was Burr, in the New York Assembly at the time, who gave an eloquent speech defending the liberal promise of the young republic.
“America stood with open arms and presented an asylum to the oppressed of every nation,” he said. “Shall we deprive these persons of an important right derived from so sacred a source as our Constitution?”
Absurdly, the musical puts feminist words in the mouth of Hamilton’s wife, Elizabeth. In truth, Burr was far ahead of Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams in advancing the ideas of English writer Mary Wollstonecraft, the leading Enlightenment advocate of women’s rights. The idea that women were the intellectual equals of men was a radical one, and Hamilton attacked Burr for it, calling him a proponent of “Godwinism.” (William Godwin was Wollstonecraft’s husband.)
Finally, “Hamilton” wrongly claims that the duel with Burr was over the election of 1800, and that Burr knowingly shot Hamilton after he saw him fire a bullet in the air. Wrong again. The real cause of the duel was that Hamilton attacked Burr’s character when Burr ran for the New York governorship in 1804.
Conveniently missing is the fact that Hamilton supplied the pistols, and the one he used had a secret hair trigger. This gave him an unfair advantage and violated the gentlemanly code of conduct.
“Hamilton” may be delightful to watch, but let’s not convince ourselves it’s history. When he interviewed Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert joked: “I didn’t have to read the Bible, because I saw ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’ ” That pretty much says it all.
Nancy Isenberg, professor of American history at Louisiana State University, is author of “Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr.”
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