If you haven’t heard of Hamilton yet, I commend you on your uncanny ability to avoid it. In the case you didn’t haven’t heard about Hamilton yet, it’s the musical that’s taking Broadway and the world by storm. Written by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning composer and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton is the story of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton told through the power of rap and musical theater.
Hamilton made its Broadway debut in August 2015, starring Miranda as the title character Alexander Hamilton. Along with Miranda there was an all-star cast consisting of Chris Jackson, Leslie Odom Jr, Phillipa Soo, Renne Elise Goldsberry, and Daveed Diggs. The show was nominated for a record breaking 16 Tony Awards, 11 of which were won.
Everywhere you look, there’s Hamilton everywhere. Hamilton merch, people having lunch and discussing Hamilton, the person in the Panera parking lot is singing That Would Be Enough at the top of her lungs (okay, that person was me).
Before I dive into my point, I will say that I love Hamilton. I have the cast recording on my phone, I know all the words, I own a copy of Hamilton the Revolution (a book written by Miranda and Jeremy McCarter detailing the process of transforming Miranda’s ambition into a revolutionary theatrical experience), and I have immersed myself into the fan culture. I will also say that I am of Ojibwe heritage, which I feel plays a central role in my thoughts surrounding this.
There is one huge thing that Hamilton fans are doing wrong, they have confused the roles being played on stage with the actual historical figures.
The character of Thomas Jefferson, for example, is played by the handsome, charming, Black, and Jewish Daveed Diggs; Thomas Jefferson owned at least 600 slaves in his lifetime, wrote about wanting to “civilize” Indigenous people, raped his slaves, a pedophile, and was a violent racist who compared black women to monkeys and supplied firearms to France during the Haitian revolution.
George Washington, played by the irresistible and soulful Christopher Jackson is far from the slave owner who commanded an army to destroy Iroquois land during the revolution.
I could go through the company and point out every historically bad thing they’ve done, but that would be a painfully long article
Although Hamilton is a work of creative genius, the very real people it’s based on were all awful people.
Despite this, a majority of Hamilton fans will flock to Monticello, they will worship dollar bills, they go on about the legacy of Washington, how they love to hate Jefferson but he’s really just a guy trying to do his job…
I’m not trying to criticize Miranda’s work, because the show is simply beautiful. I would just like Hamilton fans to understand why worshipping these historical figures is dangerous. Instead, I encourage Hamilton fans to look up to the actors, the talented and hardworking people in the cast.
Miranda has said many times that the point of this show is to insert yourself into history, and that’s precisely what he is doing by casting so many people of color, and by designating many of these roles for people of color. There aren’t many roles for people of color in theater, sometimes they’re racially ambiguous at best, but this show was created to combat that. To put really talented people who would be looked over for a traditionally “white” part, on center stage.
Miranda has done a phenomenal job of this, by rewriting history to be told by people of color, he himself has made history. But let’s face it, many of the real founding fathers were just crotchety old white dudes who were slave owners and did some baaaaaad stuff.
Love Hamilton, admire it, marvel in this multi-faceted work of genius from its creator, but please don’t be convinced that the real founders of this country were exactly like their on stage adaptations.
