Before Hamilton: An American Musical, I admit, I had no idea who Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton even was. Little did I know, she is one of the most important people in the entire story. If not for Eliza, Alexander Hamilton would be less well-known than he is today. She fought to keep his reputation intact and made sure his legacy was one of greatness. Although I personally do not agree with his politics or some of the systems he tried to set in motion, There is no doubt that he helped to build a country that outlived him, and Eliza, his wife, continued to build it after he was gone.
Eliza was the second daughter of Philip Schuyler, an aristocratic Revolutionary War general in Albany, N.Y. For her, it was love at first sight when she met Alexander Hamilton, and at the age of 23, she married him. She had eight children, and adopted one, but as many Hamilton fans remember, her eldest son Philip was killed in a duel with an associate of Aaron Burr, the man who would later kill Alexander in a duel in the same location. Yes, this seemingly perfect literary symmetry happened in real life. This is awful enough on its own, but soon after Philip died. Eliza's next eldest daughter, Angelica (named after Eliza's sister) went insane.
One summer when Eliza and the children were in Albany to visit her father and escape the summer diseases in the city, Alexander had an affair with Maria Reynolds. When her husband, James Reynolds found out, he extorted large sums of money from Hamilton in exchange for Reynolds' silence on the matter. These transactions, when discovered, made it look like Hamilton was stealing money from the US Treasury of which he was the secretary. In order to clear this all up, Alexander "wrote his way out" and published what is affectionately nicknamed the "Reynolds Pamphlet," detailing the entire affair.
Even after all this, Eliza eventually forgave him!
Despite many bumps in the road, Eliza and Alexander shared a relationship of mutual respect. Eliza read and gave her opinions on several of Alexander's writings, including the Federalist Papers and Washington's Farewell Address. She also negotiated purchasing their first house together. Their frequent correspondences were romantic and often flirty, especially on Alexander's end.
Fast-forward to 1804, when Aaron Burr killed Hamilton in their duel. For Eliza, not only did her husband die, but also her father in that same year. In fact, in the span of two years, her husband, father, mother, brother, and sister had died. Instead of letting these events break her spirit, Eliza lived and worked for another 50 years to preserve Alexander's legacy. She defended him against his critics, organized his letters, papers, and other writings, and made sure that many of his more famous publications were properly credited to him. Perhaps her greatest legacy is the Orphan Asylum Society she co-founded with other women from the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children. She served as president of this orphanage for 27 years, and it still exists today as Graham Windham.
It is truly incredible how strong of a mother, wife, and woman Eliza Hamilton was. Without her work in preserving history, we would not know as much about the Revolution period as we do, and Alexander's legacy as it is would not exist. This means we can indirectly thank her for the incredible Broadway musical Hamilton as well! Her charity work with orphaned children is proof of her motherly love for her own children and extends to all the children who benefit from her orphanage today.
