Hamilton's America Page #2

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of will and intellect,

changed our country forever.

-I don't even really know

if I knew

who Alexander Hamilton was.

I knew was on a --

he was on our currency.

-Alexander Hamilton is one

of the unsung heroes

of our country.

-Yeah, well, that's

the way history works.

Sometimes it takes a while

for people to give you credit.

-Hamilton saw

the opportunity

when an -- an immigrant

could come to this country,

get a little education,

have some great ideas,

work hard, and build something.

Pretty amazing guy.

-Hamilton was born

on the island of Nevis.

Nevis is a very beautiful

and colorful volcanic island

in the Caribbean.

But the day-to-day reality

was very brutal and violent,

like most of the Caribbean

islands at that time.

It was dominated by

sugar and cotton plantations.

-Most people in America

think of the slave trade

as Africa to North America,

but most of them

went to the Caribbean.

And so Hamilton was

right in the middle

of this huge, huge market.

Even people who were not

terribly well-to-do

could have one or two

slaves in Nevis.

And his family did.

-Hamilton's mother, Rachel,

had just fled

an unhappy marriage

when she met his father,

James Hamilton.

But under the terms

of her divorce,

she wasn't able to remarry,

which meant that Hamilton

and his brother had to grow up

with the stigma of illegitimacy,

which was very real

in those days.

And so Hamilton goes

through some really rough...

between birth and getting

out of the island.

-When Hamilton was 11,

James Hamilton abandoned Rachel

and the two sons

on the island of Saint Croix.

Not long afterwards, Rachel

contracted a lethal fever,

which she then communicated

to Alexander.

- In the eye of a hurricane

There is quiet

for just a moment

A yellow sky

I was 12

when my mother died

She was holding me

We were sick,

and she was holding me

I couldn't seem to die

-Hamilton suddenly

found himself,

at the age of 13,

an illegitimate orphan

in poverty,

and so he immediately

had to go to work.

-He worked for a trading charter

as a kid,

so he's getting

firsthand economic education

because the people

who actually own it

are off on ships, trading.

And he's in charge of the books

back home.

- When I was 17,

a hurricane destroyed my town

I didn't drown

I couldn't seem to die

-A hurricane

destroys Saint Croix.

He writes a letter

about the destruction he saw,

and it's so beautifully written

that a newspaper publishes it.

-It was impressive enough

and eloquent enough

that people got together

a charitable fund

to send him to North America,

to the North American colonies,

so he could get

a real education.

-And that's how he

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