Episode Details

Alexander Hamilton arrived in America as a destitute, orphaned immigrant from the Caribbean, and went on to design the financial foundation of the United States. This deep dive follows his childhood on Nevis and St. Croix, his teenage management of a trading firm, and the hurricane letter that led local merchants to fund his education in New York.

We examine his service as Washington's aide-de-camp, his bayonet assault at Yorktown, the Newburgh Conspiracy, his 51 Federalist Papers, and his work as the first Treasury Secretary, including debt assumption, the national bank, and implied powers. We also cover the Reynolds Affair, the 1800 election, his fatal duel with Aaron Burr, and his anti-slavery efforts.

• How poverty, plague, and a probate court shaped Hamilton's worldview
• Why he pushed so hard for a battlefield command during the Revolution
• The assumption of state debts explained with a roommate analogy
• Why Hamilton published the Reynolds Pamphlet exposing his own affair
• The rivalry with Aaron Burr that ended in a duel at Weehawken