{"id":207235,"date":"2021-03-20T19:30:03","date_gmt":"2021-03-20T16:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/alexander-hamilton-not-a-slave-owner-descendant-duels-critics\/"},"modified":"2021-03-20T19:30:03","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T16:30:03","slug":"alexander-hamilton-not-a-slave-owner-descendant-duels-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/alexander-hamilton-not-a-slave-owner-descendant-duels-critics\/","title":{"rendered":"#’Alexander Hamilton\u00a0not\u00a0a slave owner!’: Descendant duels critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#’Alexander Hamilton\u00a0not\u00a0a slave owner!’: Descendant duels critics<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

Douglas Hamilton \u2014 the fifth-great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton \u2014 is ready for pistols at dawn. Figuratively speaking, of course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While statues are being bulldozed and controversies rage over whether schools bearing the monikers of former presidents should be renamed, the 70-year-old Westerville, Ohio, resident told The Post (which Hamilton founded in 1801) he is worried that social<\/a> justice warriors will try to \u201ccancel\u201d his forebear next: \u201cI refuse to let my ancestor be written out of the past,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Douglas\u2019 resolve was fortified after a research paper by self-taught historian Jessie Serfilippi claimed that Hamilton bought, sold and owned slaves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Serfilippi concludes in her paper, which has been embraced by some \u201cwoke\u201d historians, that Hamilton\u2019s \u201cinvolvement in the institution of slavery was essential to his identity, both personally and professionally.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Douglas said Serfilippi\u2019s writing is \u201criddled with errors, omissions, assumptions, speculations and misrepresentations. There are a number of factual mistakes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no truth at all to her claim that he based his personal and public life all around slavery,\u201d Douglas said. \u201cIt upsets me because Hamilton was driven by fame, recognition and the call to public service.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Serfilippi, 27, is a fiction writer living in Delmar, NY. Her 2019 paper was published as a booklet and sold by the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, a partially state-funded site where she is employed as a part-time \u201chistorical interpreter.\u201d In 2020, it was published on the Web site of the New York State Office of Parksdepartments\u2019 Web site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Critic
Critic Jessie Serfilippi poses with a statue of Alexander Hamilton.<\/figcaption>
Twitter @Utterly_Jessie<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was also picked up by several media outlets, including The AP and The New York Times. While that coverage merely reported on Serfilippi\u2019s findings and didn\u2019t offer any opinion on the matter, it was enough to prompt Douglas\u2019 fears that Serfilippi\u2019s claims could be taken as truth \u2014 and that Hamilton\u2019s name could be removed from institutions or that his face could be taken off the ten-dollar bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Douglas and an experienced group of historians (under the collective name Philo Hamilton) responded with the essay \u201cOpening a Door to Their Emancipation: Alexander Hamilton and Slavery,\u201d published on enthusiast sites like DiscoveringHamilton.com. It claims there is a lack of definitive evidence that the Founding Father ever owned or traded slaves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Douglas points to records from the 1800 Census that state the Hamilton household included four \u201cservants.\u201d According to Douglas, Serfilippi may have confused the terms \u201cservant\u201d and \u201cslave.\u201d He claims the employees were likely free men and women unburdened by the yoke of slavery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Douglas is also concerned that schools might stop teaching about the good Hamilton did for the burgeoning United States as a signer of the Constitution, a military general<\/a> during the Revolutionary War and the first secretary of the Treasury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who want to destroy the culture of this country have got to start somewhere, so why not him?\u201d said Douglas, a retired IBM salesman in his 70s. \u201cThe mission of [today\u2019s] cancel culture app<\/a>ears to be the complete elimination of all our history prior to the 1960s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[It intends to] wipe out any memory of the progress made, inch-by-inch, to realize the reality of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\"Douglas
Douglas took part in a 2004 re-enactment of the \u00adHamilton-Burr duel, facing off against a Burr descendant.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Douglas, along with historian Michael E. Newton, believes that, beyond mixing up \u201cslaves\u201d and \u201cservants,\u201d Serfilippi also misinterpreted handwritten notes in \u00adHamilton\u2019s personal cash book. She presented the difficult-to-decipher numbers as the final confirmation that Hamilton had purchased slaves for his own needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Douglas insisted that the notes show Hamilton likely acted as an accountant, not a purchaser or a lender, on two occasions when his in-laws bought and sold slaves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He cited his ancestor\u2019s writing against slavery, as well as his advocacy for the education of black children and early membership in the abolitionist New York Manumission Society, as evidence of Hamilton\u2019s true intentions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe cannot defend himself, so it\u2019s my duty to speak out on his behalf,\u201d said Douglas\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also suggested that the provocative title \u2014 \u201cAs Odious and Immoral a Thing: Alexander Hamilton\u2019s Hidden History as an Enslaver\u201d \u2014 of Serfilippi\u2019s paper was a low blow: The first six words are a direct quote from a 1795 pamphlet written by Hamilton condemning the practice of slavery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Being a Hamilton descendant is a huge part of Douglas\u2019 identity. He first met Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the wildly popular Broadway musical \u201cHamilton,\u201d around 2013 at a run-through of some of the show\u2019s songs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI introduced myself to Lin and told him I thought the production was going to be a big hit,\u201d recalled Douglas. He also attended the 2015 Broadway premiere of \u201cHamilton,\u201d and 11 years earlier took part in a reenactment of the fatal duel between Alexander Hamilton and political rival Aaron Burr. It marked the 200th anniversary of Hamilton\u2019s death; Douglas\u2019 \u201copponent\u201d was a distant Burr descendant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the home Douglas shares with his wife, Debra, and where they raised their two children, family heirlooms take pride of place. Among them: a gold mourning ring, containing strands of Hamilton\u2019s hair, that the statesman\u2019s widow, Elizabeth \u201cEliza\u201d Schuyler, wore for five decades after his death.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to keep in touch with the past, even if it\u2019s sometimes painful,\u201d said Douglas. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the reasons I object to the canceling out of history.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

There is no truth at all to her claim that he based his personal and public life all around slavery.<\/p>\n

Douglas Hamilton on Jessie Serfilippi\u2019s claims<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Serfilippi wrote that her findings of Hamilton\u2019s slave ownership were \u201ca rarely acknowledged truth.\u201d She slammed \u201cnearly every major biography written about him over the past two centuries\u201d for their collective \u201cdenial and obscuration of these facts\u201d \u2014 including Pulitzer-winner Ron Chernow, author of the 2004 biography \u201cAlexander Hamilton\u201d on which \u00adMiranda\u2019s \u201cHamilton\u201d is based.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Separate of Serfilippi, some historians have claimed that Chernow\u2019s book overplays Hamilton as a supporter of emancipation \u2014 and several Twitter users have even called to \u201ccancel\u201d the musical, now streaming on Disney+.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Harvard Law School professor and Pulitzer Prize winner Annette Gordon-Reed has not directly called for the show to be canceled, she has been outspoken in her criticism of it, saying Hamilton was \u201cnot an abolitionist\u201d as suggested in the musical. In response to Serfilippi\u2019s paper, she tweeted: \u201cHistorians have to accept this if the documents are true.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miranda has tweeted that the Hamilton criticisms are \u201cvalid,\u201d but noted \u201cthe sheer tonnage of complexities & failures .\u2009.\u2009. I couldn\u2019t get\u201d into a \u201c2.5 hour show.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked by The Post for comment, Serfilippi only said: \u201cSchuyler Mansion and NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation declines to comment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site where she works is the former residence of Hamilton\u2019s father-in-law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Philip Schuyler, a Revolutionary War commander and US senator, was indeed a prominent slaveholder in the late 1700s. Last June, as Black Lives Matter protests took place in upstate New York, Kathy Sheehan, the mayor of Albany, ordered a statue of Schuyler removed from outside its city hall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Lin-Manuel
After \u201cHamilton\u201d began streaming on Disney+, critics claimed the musical (created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, left) is overly sympathetic toward its lead character.<\/figcaption>
Disney Plus<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Douglas lobbied the mayor with an idea that, he believes, would help society learn from the wrongdoing rather than erasing it. He suggested Albany replace Schuy\u00adler\u2019s nameplate with citations of the 36 African Americans who fought in the Revolutionary War.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Post, a spokesperson said that Mayor Sheehan is \u201cconvening a committee of local community members to help lead a discussion about .\u2009.\u2009. the appropriate historical context that should accompany\u201d the statue once it is relocated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Douglas readily admits that Hamilton himself deserves closer examination, even if it\u2019s not all positive. \u201cI\u2019ve never said Hamilton was perfect,\u201d he added. \u201cHe certainly made mistakes, such as his scathing writings about John Adams or his own extramarital affair with Maria Reynolds\u201d \u2014 a scandal that ruined Hamilton\u2019s chances of becoming president.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m all for finding out the truth about Hamilton,\u201d said Douglas. \u201cBut Jessie\u2019s research is the opposite of the truth. Hamilton did a lot of good things against slavery but she mentioned none of them. Instead, her method was to take a few select \u2018facts\u2019 and twist them to suit her agenda.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am absolutely convinced he did not support slavery and that Jessie\u2019s research is a lie. I am not going to back down from correcting her distortion of Hamilton\u2019s record,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to keep the past in order to understand it. You can learn from it but, at the same time, look forward and say: \u2018How can we do better?\u2019\u2009\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#’Alexander Hamilton\u00a0not\u00a0a slave owner!’: Descendant duels critics” Douglas Hamilton \u2014 the fifth-great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton \u2014 is ready for pistols at dawn. Figuratively speaking, of course.\u00a0 While statues are being bulldozed and controversies rage over whether schools bearing the monikers of former presidents should be renamed, the 70-year-old Westerville, Ohio, resident told The Post (which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":207236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/03\/Pistols-at-Dawn-Alexander-Hamilton.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[98651,79661,98705,5378,21170],"class_list":["post-207235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-3-20-21","tag-alexander-hamilton","tag-american-revolution","tag-history","tag-slavery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}