LoC Blog: ALEXANDER HAMILTON

Alexander Hamilton, the first treasury secretary of the United States, was born on January 11 in either 1755 or 1757, on the Caribbean island of Nevis in the British West Indies. Hamilton claimed 1757 as his birth year, but probate papers recorded shortly after his mother’s death indicate that 1755 is the correct year. Hamilton was born out of wedlock and his father abandoned the family in 1765. His mother died in 1768, leaving him an orphan at a young age.

Birthplace of [Alexander] Hamilton, Island of Nevis, B.W.I. Keystone View Co., 1905. Stereograph Cards. Prints & Photographs Division

Despite his impoverished childhood, Hamilton was hard-working and dreamed of military glory. In 1769, while employed as a clerk at a trading company on St. Croix, Hamilton wrote a letter to his friend Edward Stevens that captures his restless drive and ambition:... [mehr] https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/january-11#alexander-hamilton