CARIBBEAN-L Archives
Archiver > CARIBBEAN > 2004-05 > 1083782657
From:
Subject: Re: [Carib-L] Review of book on Alexander Hamilton (born in Nevis) by Ron Chernow
Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 14:44:17 -0400
From what I have read, his mother was officially a "poor white" of French extraction and no one has been able to trace her ancestry. His father was white, from Scotland. But during his lifetime it was rumored that he had African ancestry (He was the subject of a lot of other rumors, including that he was really an illegitimate son of George Washington, who did actually visit Nevis as a young man but not quite at the right time; he had a lot of enemies and the provision in the Constitution requiring the President to be native-born was written with him in mind; in those days in white society it was of course not meant as a compliment to speculate that someone was of mixed ancestry), and it certainly seems possible. He certainly was a more committed abolitionist than most of the "founding fathers," and there may have been a personal reason.
This thread: