Posted on 07/23/2004 1:57:16 PM PDT by Coleus
Theory of a founding father's African ancestry
Friday, July 23, 2004
AS MUCH as I thought I knew about Alexander Hamilton, the first treasury secretary, nobody ever told me he was black. Yes. You heard it here first, folks.
And you'll think about it from now on every time you take out a $10 bill.
Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow is the latest one to explore the theory.
I was totally blown away by that information when a friend casually mentioned Hamilton's link to two significant anniversaries - the 250th anniversary of Columbia University, originally Kings College where he was schooled, and the 200th anniversary this month of the duel in Weehawken with Aaron Burr that claimed his life.
Hamilton was black? It was in none of the historical accounts I'd read.
Knowing if it's true would help explain why Hamilton and John Jay worked on legal strategies after the Revolution to keep former slaves and freedmen from being snatched back into slavery. They called it the New York Manumission Society.
"He was a passionate and consistent abolitionist," Chernow told me. "What he says about blacks is very sympathetic."
Hamilton wrote a letter to John Jay objecting to his reasons for rejecting slaves and free blacks as soldiers.
"Their natural faculties are probably as good as ours," Hamilton wrote.
Chernow says having been born and raised in two slave-dominant Caribbean cultures - Nevis, a British Island, and St. Croix, under Danish rule - might explain Hamilton's feelings about improving the lot of blacks in America.
In "Alexander Hamilton," Chernow, the author of the newly released Penguin Press biography quotes him: "The contempt we have been taught to entertain for the blacks makes us fancy many things that are founded neither in reason nor in experience."
Chernow says Hamilton never talked about his background, but everybody else - especially his enemies - knew he was born illegitimate and that, with no "family," he had risen fast after arriving on the continent. They called him names - immigrant, foreigner, Creole — punctuated with "bastard."
News accounts of the day called his mother Creole, but Chernow says there's been no proof that he was racially mixed.
Folklore, anonymous statements in the newspaper by political enemies, and the fact that African slaves dominated St. Croix demographics about 14 to one all add to what Chernow calls the "presumption" of blackness in Hamilton's bloodlines. It didn't help that his mother had a less than stellar reputation, having borne him and his brother James after leaving her husband and son on St. Croix and hooking up with her new man on Nevis.
Chernow says there was a "presumption" that his mother was part black, but there's no proof.
"From the time he started to become politically controversial, reports started to occur in the press that he was Creole," Chernow says.
"It does not come from friendly sources. It comes from people who wanted to discredit him." Chernow found a lock of Hamilton's hair, but says geneticists told him race could not be proven definitively using that hair.
William Cissel, a U.S. Park Service historian working on St. Croix, said his mother Rachel Fawcett Levien was listed as white on several census and church burial documents.
Hamilton's blackness is supported only by circumstantial argument.
I say let's dig him up and run some genetic tests on his DNA. It's been done with older bones than his, and we know where he's buried in the Trinity Church churchyard. Why not? A whole cemetery, the African Burial Grounds, was excavated in lower Manhattan and the bones scattered so the foundation of a new federal building could be poured.
Inquiring minds want to know if the Caribbean foreigner responsible for our banking structure and establishing manufacturing in Paterson was of African descent.
One school of thought says color shouldn't matter as long as he did a good job. But it would be a good idea to pin it down for sure to expand our knowledge of colonial history... and to reinforce in African-Americans a sense of "belonging" beyond their slave history.
The message for black youngsters is that African-Americans were present at every stage of the United States' development, and that one of the founding fathers was in fact an African-American.
If nothing else, Hamilton's rise to power and prominence from beginnings that could only be described as Dickensian, is a lesson in overcoming adversity.
Lawrence Aaron is a Record columnist. Contact him at aaron@northjersey.com . Send comments about this column to oped@northjersey.com .
Is that what WC Fields used to call "an Ethiopian in the fuel supply?"
LOL!!!
outdated slave notions kept alive by liberals and people with agendas
Maybe --- I also know Indians aka Native Americans who look as white as any white does --- blue eyes and blond hair --- but were Indian enough to get money from the government for being Indian. It's funny how in some families the phenotype can be so completely different between the siblings. There is a set of twins here where the little boy is very "hispanic" or Mexican looking but his twin sister is very fair and "anglo" or European looking.
Best poetic sarcasm. Hats off. 
I don't know who is to blame --- I think sometimes blacks themselves keep that idea going --- if you have a single black ancestor among 15 non-blacks, I think you're supposed to call yourself African American or you're guilty of something like not accepting your roots.
Everyone with a legitimate claim to a black ancestor should self-identify as "black" when dealing with colleges and the government. The best way to beat the racist notion of affirmative action is to show that it is rooted in a racist desire to put everyone in a racial box, just as the Nazis did.
With the ancestry of many Americans going back to Colonial days...the majority of us probably have African blood. So? Maybe I can get reparations when they come due. ;) (My family has been here since 1640-Martha's Vineyard, maybe I can get Teddy to give the land back)
I do so wish that blacks would stop trying to change the ancestry of people to suit their agendas.
Man, that is fascinating about Heather Locklear. She is my fave blonde bimbo. I have a lot of good feelings about Heather, I'm quite sure she is very professional in her dealings, I'm sure she shows up on time, knows her lines and her blocking and just in general seems to be a nice woman. I'm convinced that's why she gets so much work.
And Coleus, very interesting post about Al Hamilton, my fave founding father. Although I can sympathize with the author's curiosity I don't think Mr. Hamilton's bones should be disturbed to settle such a trivial question.
My fave founding father and my fave blonde bimbo on the same thread! Is this the best place in cyberspace, or what?
pretty much...when I was in school, I used to have black students tell me I have to embrace my black roots. I said I do, I embrace them with Loreal Honey Brown hair coloring :)
Yup, and Babe Ruth was black too! And let's not forget Jesus too!
What exactly is it you like about big central government, standing army to keep the people down, Hamilton?
That's because he had his hair straightened and his nose "bobbed". I believe there is evidence that Michael Jackson plastic surgeon comes from a long line of New Jersey physicians who matriculated at Queens College and fashioned the visage on the Ten Dollar bill.
LOL!
Oh. You mean a government that can pay it's debts and provide a banking system to promote free enterprise, so that even the little guy get's a shot at something better, Hamilton?
Ah, I was just refering to those big bottles of spices that some companies label "creole" seasonings, and some call "cajun" seasonings-actually, I've never used either for cooking per se, but they are really good on popcorn. I sprinkle those on instead of salt-much tastier!
I didn't realize that Jefferson et al were against paying government debts.
I also didn't realize that conservatives were supportive of government banks. We should try government owned industry of all kinds!
I learn something new all of the time.
Absolutely pitiful. Hamilton had red hair, as did Thomas Jefferson. George Washington had blond hair. I guess they were black, too.
Rats rear. Ms. Locklear gets her name from the Lumbee Indians of North Carolina and I don't think it matters what it means to the Tuscarora's of Delaware. As to having a large number of blacks it's news to me, but if so I may ask for reparations. Ms. Locklear is my 4th cousin once or twice removed.
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