Alexander Hamilton, Revolutionary
by Martha Brockenbrough
Hi! Do you love Hamilton? Well, I do! I watched the play on Disney+ and it was really good. It inspired me to read a book on his life.
Alexander was born on an island where people made sugar cane. His father left and his mother died when he was still little. One day, a hurricane destroyed his town. He wrote a poem about it and someone published it in a newspaper. Everyone was talking about Alexander and how at only the age of 17, his words were beyond his age. He managed to get to New York. There, he helped fight in the Revolutionary War. Despite Aaron Burr’s wishes, Hamilton and General George Washington became especially close. He went on to become the Treasury Secretary under President George Washington and helped start America’s first national bank. However, his old rivalries were growing bitter and Aaron Burr seemed to be coming after him.
I got a little bogged down with details in the beginning of this book. I actually started this book about a year ago (when I was 10) and got a little bored with it and had to start over this year.
I absolutely loved how this Hamilton biography filled me in on some of the parts of his life that weren’t shown in the play. There were so many cool facts, like how Thomas Jefferson actually became close friends with Angelica Schuyler, Hamilton’s sister-in-law. Jefferson was another one of Hamilton’s rivals.
If you enjoy biographies and learning about people’s lives, then this is the book for you!
Will Aaron Burr duel Alexander to the death? (A duel is a way they used to resolve arguments by shooting at each other!) Or will they find a way to peacefully resolve their issues? And how accurate is the play about Hamilton’s life? As I always say, read the book to find out!
A few helpful things I like to say about the books I read:
“Run and Get Mom” (how I describe the scariness factor – zero being not scary at all and five being majorly scary): 2
“Yucky-Lovey Stuff” (how I describe the romance factor – zero having no yucky-lovey parts in it and five having major yucky-lovey parts): 4
I give this book 5 wands.
This book was amazing! I am really interested in biographies right now, so if you don’t think you’d be interested in a biography, you might not want to read this book. If you are interested in biographies, you will absolutely love this book!
