As the first secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Hamilton built a financial foundation for the new nation, against fierce opposition from arch rival Thomas Jefferson. The differences between the two men would help shape the nation’s first political parties. Hamilton’s outspoken, polarizing style of politics (and an embarrassing sex scandal) limited his later career prospects, and in 1804 he was killed in a duel by Aaron Burr, another longtime political foe.
Childhood in the Caribbean :
Hamilton was born in either 1755 or 1757 on the Caribbean island of Nevis. His father, the Scottish trader James Hamilton, and mother, Rachel Faucette Lavien, weren’t married. Rachel was still married to another man at the time of Hamilton’s birth, but had left her husband after he spent much of her family fortune and had her imprisoned for adultery.
Hamilton’s father abandoned the family in 1766 and his mother died two years later. Hired as a clerk in a trading company on St. Croix when he was just 11, Hamilton gained wider attention after he published an eloquent letter describing a hurricane that had hit the island in 1772. Locals helped raise money to send him to America to study, and he arrived in New York in late 1772, just as the colonies were gearing up for a war for independence from Great Britain.
After the war, Hamilton studied law, passed the New York bar and set up a practice as an attorney in New York City. In 1787, when a federal convention was held in Philadelphia to overhaul the Articles of Confederation, Hamilton was chosen as one of three delegates from New York. He famously made a six-hour speech about his own plan for a strongly centralized government, drawing criticism that he wanted to create a monarchy.
Though Hamilton ended up having little influence on the Constitution itself, he played an important role in its ratification. Along with James Madison and John Jay, Hamilton published a series of 85 essays defending the new document to the American people. Hamilton wrote no fewer than 51 of these Federalist Papers, and they would become his best-known writings.