Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton: 50 years a Widow

 

In many modern portrayals of the Hamilton story, including the most famous one, the 2015 musical, Eliza Hamilton's story is only told as far as her husband's goes. She is rarely given credit for the 50 years she survived Alexander. While those years were spent in widow's black, Eliza was not still or complacent in her mourning. Besides vowing to see the memory of her husband honored and his legacy remembered, Eliza was a pioneer in expanding the domestic sphere of American women to include charitable work that made a significant impact in communities. After Alexander's death in 1804, Eliza began her own story.

The following excerpts from Women of the American Revolution:

"Eliza forged ahead, creating a life of her own for the first time. In 1805, she joined the board of the New York Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, joining the ranks of women in the early nineteenth century in branching out from their homes to help form and improve society through benevolence. In March 1806, she was one of a group of women who formed the New York Orphan Asylum Society, as many of the small children of poor widows inevitably became orphans. Eliza perhaps also contemplated Alexander’s youth as an underprivileged orphan and transferred some of her love for him to young people in need."

Her example had a strong influence on her children, who ranged from 2-19 years old at the time of their father's death.

"Her son, James, shared an anecdote of this time in his memoir. ‘She found a little fellow in the arms of a fireman whose parents had been destroyed by the burning of their house. Being an orphan, she directed the fireman to take the little “McKavit” to the Orphan Asylum, on the Bloomingdale Road, giving him the means to hire a carriage to do so, and gave him her card.’ Many years later, Eliza found this young man a position at the Military Academy. When he was killed in the Mexican American War, he left all he had to the Orphan Asylum that had cared for him. This organization exists to this day as the Graham Windham in Brooklyn."

Eliza's work did not stop there!

"Her next project was a tuition-free school that would make education accessible to all children living in the relative wilderness surrounding Hamilton Grange. In 1818, when Eliza founded the Hamilton Free School near what is now West 187th and Broadway, it was the only school north of modern day 155th Street. Eliza was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the school but stayed engaged while focusing her efforts on the orphanage. The school provided free education until the building was destroyed by fire several years after Eliza’s death. . . .

Eliza tirelessly continued her work for poor women and orphans in New York City throughout most of the last fifty years of her life, petitioning the city for grants, increasing awareness of public needs, and personally overseeing the work of the orphan asylum for many of those years. ‘She was a most earnest, energetic, and intelligent woman,’ wrote her son, James. ‘Her engagements as a principal of the Widow’s Society and Orphan Asylum were incessant. In support of these institutions she was constantly employed, and as I once playfully told her, “Mamma, you are a sturdy beggar.” She replied, “My dear son, I cannot spare myself or others; my Maker has pointed out this duty to me, and has given me the ability and inclination to perform it.”’ "

Read more about Eliza in Women of the American Revolution! It is available at Pen & Sword, Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes & Noble, or your favorite book retailer. 

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Abigail Adams: A Woman of Contradictions

An excerpt from Women of the American Revolution:

 

"Abigail Adams was a renowned letter writer, making her one of the most studied and admired of the women of the American Revolution. As her husband once observed, ‘My wife must write!’ Abigail wrote to her sister, Mary Cranch, ‘My letters to you are first thoughts without corrections.’  Her writing, therefore, gives historians an unpolished and honest look at the life of women of this era. It is also a genuine record of Abigail’s personality and character, which would be impossible to obtain through any other source.

Two centuries of historians have attempted to paint different pictures of Abigail Adams, and the one thing that is often agreed upon is that Abigail is a character full of contradictions. Portrayals of her as a politician or feminist fail to understand Abigail’s own mindset and acceptance of the role she played in her own society. Her priorities were the management of her home and proper raising of her children, and, though she enjoyed discussing politics especially with her highly political husband, she would not have described herself as a political activist. In her own words, ‘I believe nature has assigned to each sex its particular duties and sphere of action, and to act well your part, “there all the honor lies.”’  Abigail insisted, ‘However brilliant a woman’s tallents may be, she ought never to shine at the expence of her Husband.’  While Abigail had called upon John to ‘Remember the Ladies,’ she also wrote to him, ‘Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in immitation of the Supreem Being make use of that power only for our happiness.’  A reading of their letters also reveals that while John and Abigail came to their political opinions while apart, they often arrived at the same conclusions.

Neither was Abigail a submissive, angelic wife. Her letters, which she never intended for publication, reveal a woman with opinions and complaints about daily life and even her famous spouse. On the other hand, reflecting on marriage to John, Abigail wrote, ‘After half a century, I can say. My choice would be the same if I again had youth and opportunity to make it.’ "

Read more about Abigail in Women of the American Revolution! It is available at Pen & Sword, Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes & Noble, or your favorite book retailer. 

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The Funeral of Alexander Hamilton

 

Grave of Alexander Hamilton at
Trinity Church in NYC

Alexander Hamilton's death is a well-known event in US history, and Aaron Burr's reputation remains stained by his role in that fatal duel. Lesser-known are the details of Alexander's funeral, which took place on 14 July 1804, two days after his death. 

Elizabeth Hamilton and her children had no idea of the deadly appointment Alexander had made. John, their son who was not quite twelve-years-old at the time, remembered his father was emotional the night before, though he wouldn't know why until later.

 "The day before the duel I was sitting in a room, when, at a slight noise, I turned around and saw my father in the doorway, standing silently there and looking at me with a most sweet and beautiful expression of countenance. It was full of tenderness, and without any of the business pre-occupation he sometimes had. 'John,' he said, when I had discovered him, 'won't you come and sleep with me to-night?' His voice was frank as if he had been my brother instead of my father. That night I went to his bed, and in the morning very early he awakened me, and taking my hands in his palms, all four hands extended, he said and told me to repeat the Lord's Prayer. Seventy-five years have since passed over my head, and I have forgotten many things, but not that tender expression when he stood looking at me in the door nor the prayer we made together the morning before the duel. I do not so well recollect seeing him lie upon his deathbed, though I was there."

Eliza had gathered all of her surviving children to Alexander's deathbed, perhaps underestimating how difficult this situation would be for her dying husband. She held two-year-old Philip, named for his eldest brother who had died before his birth under eerily similar circumstances as their father, up to Alexander's lips, but he reportedly closed his eyes to the rest of them until they left, in too much physical pain to endure this emotional wound.

Statue of Alexander Hamilton
near Hamilton Grange in NYC

The children were Angelica, now the oldest at nineteen. She had not been the same since her older brother had died and was mentally fragile for the remainder of her life. Next were a passel of brothers: Alexander Jr - 18, James - 16, John - 11, and William - 6. Little four-year-old Elizabeth was Angelica's only sister. 

The four boys, Alexander, James, John, and William, all sat upon the stage that was erected at Trinity Church for their father's funeral oration, given by his friend, Gouverneur Morris. The procession to the graveyard had been the most elaborate New York City had ever seen. Guns had been fired from the Battery, flags were flown at half mast as businesses closed and people lined the streets. Church bells rang as the state militia led the mourners through a sorrowful city.

It was reported that Alexander's sons sat 'with tears gushing from their eyes . . . bewailing the loss of their parent! It was too much. The sternest powers, the bloodiest villain, could not resist the melting scene.' Their mother, sisters, and youngest brother did not attend, as was customary at that time.

Gouverneur Morris gave an oration that he hoped would honor Hamilton while avoiding feeding the howl for vengeance that was raised against Aaron Burr. He said, 'Far from attempting to excite your emotions, I must try to repress my own, and yet I fear that instead of the language of a public speaker, you will hear only the lamentations of a bewailing friend. But I will struggle with my bursting heart, to portray that heroic spirit, which has flown to the mansions of bliss.' This was followed by a brief description of Hamilton's many achievements, from serving Washington during the Revolutionary War to serving as Secretary of the Treasury. Those listening were encouraged to 'Let him still be our model. Like him, after a long and faithful public service, let us cheerfully perform the social duties of private life. Oh! He was mild and gentle. In him there was on offence; no guile. His generous hand and heart were open to all.' 

Thomas's Massachusetts Spy
Singlesheet Extra from 25 July 1804

Alexander's boys must have taken the message to heart to 'Protect his fame - it is all he has left,' because they, especially James and John, dedicated much of their lives to doing just that, documenting their father's life and defending his name whenever necessary. 

Morris gave an inspiring oration, but he wrote more honestly in his private diary, where he admitted, 'this subject is difficult . . . He was indiscreet vain and opinionated. These things must be told or the character will be incomplete - and yet they must be told in such a manner as not to destroy the interest.' Perhaps it is true at all funerals that mourners focus on the positive aspects of the departed, but few had stoked the flames of controversy like Alexander Hamilton with his obstinate opinions, admission of adultery, and the scandalous circumstances in which he died.

Yet, his son, James, when writing decades later, remembered his father's 'gentle nature' that 'rendered his house a most joyous one to his children and friends.' James was thirty years older than his father had been that fatal July day when he wrote, 'His intercourse with his children was always affectionate and confiding, which excited in them a corresponding confidence and devotion.' 

In 1817, James A Hamilton was hired by the family of Gouverneur Morris to settle his estate. James called the situation 'a work of great labor' due to Gouverneur's complicated finances and land holdings which took over a year to settle, but he was pleased to serve the wife of the man who had so honored his own late father. 

Read more about Eliza Hamilton and her life after Alexander's death in Women of the American Revolution! It is available at Pen & Sword, Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes & Noble, or your favorite book retailer. 

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At Yale with Nathan Hale

 

Nathan Hale is remembered today as the quintessential patriot who proclaimed that his only regret was that he had but one life to give for his country. We don’t actually know for sure if Hale said those words, but we do know that he gave his life on 22 September 1776 when he was hanged as a rebel spy. He was only twenty-one years old and had graduated from Yale College three years earlier. He had been at school through the rise of revolution and conflict, undoubtedly discussing with his erudite peers the events that led to the Declaration of Independence and Hale’s ultimate sacrifice.

Two months after turning fourteen, Nathan began his collegiate life at Yale alongside his brother, Enoch, who was nineteen months his senior. The brothers were close friends and roommates, distinguished by their peers as Primus and Secundus. Even the Yale billing records refer to Nathan as ‘Hale 2.’ The brothers seem to have been rarely separated until after their graduation in 1773.

They shared several friends who also played their part in the American Revolution. Of these young men, Benjamin Tallmadge would eventually become the best known, with the possible exception of Nathan himself. Tallmadge became a highly successful officer and spymaster in the Continental Army, but at Yale he was just another student, if a particularly intelligent and overachieving one. In his memoirs, Tallmadge admitted that his preparation for Yale meant that ‘I had not much occasion to study during the first two years of my collegiate life, which I have always thought had a tendency to make me idle.’ 

One evening in 1771, this idleness led to troublemaking when Tallmadge, the Hale brothers, and some other students broke several windows on campus. One can imagine that Enoch, who was studying to be a minister, must have felt particularly repentant when the bill was sent to their father. Benjamin’s father was also a minister, who might have sent his son a strongly worded reprimand when he was informed of the extra charges.

The boys were not generally troublemakers, however, and a great deal of their free time was spent in intellectual debate as part of the Linonia Society. This fraternity, dedicated to ‘the promotion of friendship and useful knowledge’ gave the young men the opportunity to discuss, debate, and inquire on topics from mathematics and astronomy to religion and philosophy. They undoubtedly had lively talks about the current events of the day and the path to revolution, possibly even discussing Joseph Addison’s Cato from which Nathan’s alleged last words were paraphrased.

In 1771, Nathan served as scribe for the Linonia Society, and his name appears at the end of the surviving meeting minutes. He recorded event participants, questions presented, and topics discussed. One of the items he records is the creation of the society’s library. Since Yale made books available only on-site, the Linonians decided to supply their own library with books that could be checked out by members. The Hale brothers and other members each made contributions of a varied collection of books, including the works of Shakespeare, The Vicar of Wakefield, Rollins Ancient History, Paradise Lost, and The Art of Speaking. 

When the Hale brothers graduated in 1773, Nathan participated in a debate on the education of women. The transcript of this debate has not survived, but the fact that Nathan later opened lessons to young women at the school he managed gives us insight to the strength of his feelings on this topic. During his brief time as a schoolmaster before entering the army, Nathan taught girls from 5-7am before his male students arrived for the day.

Through his experience at Yale, we can see the development of Nathan Hale into an intelligent, loyal patriot who was willing to sacrifice all, even his life, for his ideals and for his country.

This article was originally published at the blog of Author Salina B Baker as part of the But One Life Blog Tour in June 2022.

Read more about the life of Nathan Hale in But One Life, available on Kindle and in paperback. Read it FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

Do You Know Nathan Hale?

 

When you hear the name Nathan Hale, you may recall words something like, ‘I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.’ Perhaps you remember that Hale was relatively young and an obviously poor spy. However, most Americans think of little else besides a vague sense of patriotism when thinking of Nathan Hale.

Nathan was born on 6 June 1755, on a farm in Coventry, Connecticut, approximately in the middle of a brood of a dozen children born to Elizabeth (Strong) and Richard Hale. His closest sibling was his brother, Enoch, who was nineteen months older. These two brothers were tutored by Reverend Joseph Huntington, though not all the Hale children shared their intellectual pursuits.

When it came time to attend Yale College in 1769, Nathan and Enoch went together, sharing a dorm room as they had shared a bedroom at home. The boys’ mother, Elizabeth, had died two years earlier, soon followed by their youngest sister, Susannah. Their father, Richard, remarried Abigail Adams (not THAT one) months before Nathan and Enoch set out for their university education.

At ages fourteen and fifteen, Nathan and Enoch would already have learned their Virgil and Cicero from Reverend Huntington and would have read their New Testament in Greek. While this might have been impressive to their Coventry neighbors, it was the norm for erudite young men entering Yale. In fact, one who became a best friend of Nathan’s was Benjamin Tallmadge, who was so well prepared by his own minister father that he sometimes found himself bored enough to get into trouble.

Alongside Tallmadge, the Hale brothers broke windows on campus one evening, incurring an extra billing that had to be explained to their fathers. However, most of the time the boys were well behaved and hard working. They were members of the Linonia Society, a club for debate, rhetoric, and civil discourse. One can imagine their conversations as the current events of the day were leading down a path to war. Perhaps they discussed the Boston Massacre when it occurred and tried to discern whether it had been a riot or a firing line as they compared varied reports.

They graduated in 1773 shortly before arrival of news of the Tea Act having been passed by parliament. Enoch continued his studies to become a minister, while Nathan took a teaching position. At commencement, Nathan had participated in a debate regarding the education of women. Once he was established at a Latin school in New London, he did more than speak in favor of increased opportunities for females. He offered classes for girls from 5-7am before the boys arrived for the day.

Nathan’s time as a schoolmaster did not last long. When shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, he left his position to become an officer in the New London artillery company. The summer of 1775 was spent drilling and recruiting before marching to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in September. Hale’s surviving army diary and letters reveal his disillusionment with army life and desire to do something that would make a real impact. The soldiers spent most of the winter of 1775-6 battling smallpox, hunger, and cold rather than the British.

During his time in the Continental Army, Nathan participated in a raid that successfully stole a British supply sloop and an attempt to set fire to another. However, most of his time was spent drilling and foraging for food. It was not the glorious experience he had been hoping for, so when the opportunity came to be of notable service, he grasped at it.

His friends and fellow officers did not believe that Nathan was well-suited to espionage. He was friendly, good-looking, and naturally trusting. He was intelligent but not cunning. Nothing they could say could change his mind. Nathan was determined to serve his country by sneaking onto Long Island and discovering the enemy’s next move.

It took only a few days for Nathan to be captured by Major Robert Rogers. He carried incriminating notes taken in Latin and confessed his mission. With little hope of mercy or a prisoner exchange, Nathan spent the night of 21 September 1776 in Beekman’s greenhouse in New York City. The next morning, he was hanged, a trial being deemed unnecessary given the evidence against him.

The last words often attributed to Nathan Hale, ‘I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country,’ are paraphrased from Cato by Joseph Addison, a play that he likely read and discussed during his time at Yale. The Essex Journal ascribed another Cato paraphrase to Hale, reporting that he said, ‘If I had ten thousand lives, I would lay them all down.’ Whether Nathan said both or neither of these lines, British Lieutenant Frederick Mackenzie, who witnessed Hale’s execution, recorded that he ‘behaved with great composure and resolution, saying he thought it the duty of every good officer to obey any orders given him by his Commander-in-Chief and desired the spectators to be at all times prepared to meet death in whatever shape it might appear.’

This article was originally published at Historical Novels R Us on 10 June 2022 as part of the But One Life Blog Tour.

Read Nathan Hale's story in But One Life on Kindle or in paperback. It is FREE with Kindle Unlimited!