We don’t have much time today, but we wanted to point you to a Bastard of Note: Alexander Hamilton. Now, many of us Jeffersonians (including me) consider Hamilton a “bastard” (small b) for a lot of reasons, but he was indeed ONE OF US: a genuine Bastard, born of lust and sin and sweaty sheets. He is the only Bastard whose portrait appears on US currency and the only Bastard ex-US Secretary of the Treasury to be shot and killed by a US Vice President.
Wiki has a long entry (my bold) on Hamilton including
By his own account, Hamilton was born in Charlestown, the capital of Nevis in the British West Indies, out of wedlock to Rachel Faucett Lavien, of part French Huguenot descent, and James A. Hamilton, fourth son of Scottish laird Alexander Hamilton of Grange, Ayrshire. He was born on January 11 in 1757. A young Hamilton claimed 1757 as his birth year when he first arrived in the Thirteen Colonies. However, he is also recorded in probate papers, shortly after his mother’s death, as being 13 years old,[2] indicating 1755. Explanations for this discrepancy include a supposition that he may have been trying to appear younger than his college classmates or to avoid standing out as older; that the probate document may have misreported; or that he may have been passing as 13 to be more employable after his mother’s death.[3] Hamilton was often approximate about his age in his later life. Hamilton in his youth Hamilton’s mother had been separated previously from Johann Michael Lavien of St. Croix;[4] to escape an unhappy marriage, Rachel left her husband and first son for St. Kitts in 1750, where she met James.[5] They moved together to Rachel’s birthplace of Nevis, where she had inherited property from her father.[6] Their two sons were James, Jr., and Alexander. Because Hamilton’s parents were not legally married, the Church of England denied him membership or education in the church school. Instead, he received “individual tutoring”[6] and classes in a private Jewish school.[7] Hamilton supplemented his education with a family library of thirty-four books,[8] including Greek and Roman classics.
Here is a hip-hop summary of Hamilton’s rise from bastardy to Weehauken Heights, written and performed by Tony award winning composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, It’s taken from his new in-progress Alexander Hamilton concept CD, Mixtape. After all, who embodies hip-hop more than Hamilton? Note the Obamas groovin’ on The Man.
