Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton was born on the Caribbean island of Nevis. The date – 11 January – is recorded, but we can’t be sure of the year: some sources give 1755, others 1757. His mother was unmarried at the time, and Hamilton was stigmatized as a bastard. It was a hard start to life, but things were going to get worse.

Hamilton’s father abandoned his partner and children when Hamilton was 11. Two years later, after moving to the island of Saint Croix, Hamilton and his mother contracted a fever. He would survive; his mother wasn’t so lucky. Disinherited and orphaned, Alexander and his two-year-old brother James were alone in the world.

But it wasn’t all tragedy. A bookish child from an early age, Hamilton devoured countless volumes in both English and French, the latter language a gift from his francophone mother. His learning stood him good stead: as a teenager, he landed a job as a clerk at Beekman and Cruger, a New York-based trading firm which did business in the American colonies and further afield. It was here that Hamilton first learned the finer points of trade policy, monetary exchange rates and international relations.

When he wasn’t working, Hamilton could usually be found with a book in his hands. A chance encounter with a church minister called Henry Knox, a recent arrival in Saint Croix, opened new doors. Taking a liking to him, Knox offered Hamilton access to his vast private library. It was in Knox’s collection that Hamilton eventually came across a volume which inspired him to take up the pen himself. Like many young men before him, Hamilton was drawn to poetry – particularly of the vain and sentimental kind – but he was also asked to write reports at work.

Hamilton soon developed a powerful voice as a writer. Though he could have hardly known it at the time, this would be his ticket out of the Caribbean. In 1772, he sent his father a letter. It told the heart-wrenching story of how a hurricane had ravaged Saint Croix. The text was so moving that Knox not only had it published but used it as an example of Hamilton’s talents to raise funds for his education. The money he collected would pay for Hamilton’s move to the American colonies.