Alexander Hamilton's Atlantic World Event

Alexander Hamilton's Atlantic World (16 March 2016, 6 p.m., Lecture Theatre B)

Co-sponsored by the Centre for Imperial and Postcolonial Studies and the Southampton Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies .

‘How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore, and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?’ So opens Lin-Manuel Miranda's hip-hop musical chronicling the life and death-by-duel of America’s first Secretary of the Treasury. Although historians acknowledge that Hamilton: An American Musical veers at times away from the historical record, it’s hard to deny that the show captures the essence of Revolutionary America and the Early Republic—and even harder to ignore that acclaim which the show has won from the public. This event will be less of a ‘Hamilton: True or False’ evening, and more of an attempt to place Hamilton's world into a wider Atlantic context. Come for the songs—and stay to hear about Hamilton’s imperial Caribbean roots, the Native American policy of Philip Schuyler, the supposed transatlantic love affair between Hamilton and his sister-in-law, Angelica Schuyler Church, the scandalous context that allowed Hamilton to carry on a protracted affair with Maria Reynolds, and the ongoing battle between Jeffersonians and Hamiltonians from the eighteenth century to the present. Don't throw away your shot by missing the night!

For more details, contact Dr Rachel Herrmann ([email protected])

Programme:

Rachel Herrmann, University of Southampton

Welcome

Christer Petley, University of Southampton

‘Dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot’: Hamilton, the Caribbean and teaching the British Atlantic world

Tom Cutterham, New College, Oxford

The ‘Amiable’ Angelica Schuyler Church

Rachel Herrmann, University of Southampton

Philip Schuyler’s Indian Policy

Daniel Peart, Queen Mary University of London

Alexander Hamilton and Maria Reynolds: The First American Sex Scandal

Adam Smith, University College London

What happens next? Hamilton today