Alexander Hamilton was born on the tiny island of Nevis in the Caribbean. Most of the population were either British citizens expelled from their country for various crimes or slaves. Caribbean islands in those days were frequently swept by epidemics of malaria, dysentery, and yellow fever.
His mother Rachel was born about 1729 when there were 4000 slaves on Nevis and 1000 whites.
Rachel inherited a "snug" fortune when her father died in 1745. In those days "snug" meant enough to live on comfortably but not luxuriously. The young lady's mom quickly married her off to a man named Lavien who needed a wife with money to replenish his business losses.
Rachel and Lavien had a son named Peter but Rachel must have been very unhappy in this marriage because she left both husband and son in 1750. Hamilton's grandson later described Lavien as a "coarse man of repulsive personality." On the other hand Lavien described Rachel, in a later divorce decree as "shameless, coarse, and ungodly."
When Rachel left Lavien, he accused her of adultery and had her taken to prison. She endured several months in a 10 by 13 foot cell in a fortress where the diet was salted herring and boiled yellow cornmeal mush and where slaves were often whipped, branded, or castrated.
Amazingly, Lavien thought this punishment would teach Rachel a lesson and make her a good wife to him. Instead, when she got out of prison, she fled to another island to try and start a new life.
As Hamilton wrote years later, "Tis a very good thing when their stars unite two people who are fit for each other, who have souls capable of relishing the sweets of friendship and sensibilities.... But it's a dog of [a] life when two dissonant tempers meet."
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On the island of St. Kitts Rachel met James Hamilton, the impoverished 4th son of a Scottish laird. Alexander later said his mom married James but she never did – she couldn't, because she still wasn't divorced from Lavien.
Rachel and James lived together and had children, James, Jr., and Alexander, and perhaps others who died in infancy. Most sources say Alexander was born in 1757 but the Chernow biography says it was probably 1755, when Rachel was 26.
St. Nevis relied on a brutal slave economy where 60% of all slaves arriving died within 5 years form forced labor in the sugarcane fields under the blazing tropical sun. Some people come to accept injustices they grow up with but Alexander developed a blazing hatred of slavery and was known in his adult years as a fierce abolitionist among the founding fathers of the United States.
In 1759 Lavien got a divorce from Rachel so he could marry again. The divorce documents denied Rachel any rights to her husbands property in the future, still prevented her from marrying again, and referred to Alexander and his brother as "whore-children." As far as I can tell - from the historical records - Lavien does not appear to have been a nice man.
About 1765 the Hamiltons moved back to the island where Lavien lived, and soon Rachel, and her children, suffered another hard blow when James Hamilton abandoned his family and never returned.
Rachel was able to get some financial help from relatives and bought or rented a two-story house. She lived on the upper floor with her boys and opened a shop on the lower floor selling food to the planters on the island, "salted fish, beef, pork, apples, butter, rice, and flour." She also kept a goat for milk.
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Rachel did the best she could for her little household. From a brother-in-law she got six walnut chairs with leather seats. An inventory of her belongings listed "six silver spoons, seven silver teaspoons, a pair of sugar tongs, fourteen porcelain plates, two porcelain basins, and a bed covered with a feather comforter."
Alexander's room had 34 books, probably including poetry by Alexander Pope, Machiavelli's The Prince, Plutarch's Lives, and various collections of sermons and devotional readings.
In 1767, when she was only 38, the final blow came for Rachel. She caught a fever and soon 12 year old Alexander had it as well. They suffered in the same bed – suffered from the disease and from the emetics, enemas, and blood-lettings prescribed by the doctor until Rachel finally died beside her son at 9:00 PM on February 19, 1767.
She had a hard life on that island where so many people suffered injustice and so many people died too soon but I hope Rachel would have been proud to know that her youngest son would grow up to be a very great man - one of the greatest founding fathers of one of the great nations of the world – and also a man who would always remember her and who always tried to protect her memory and her reputation.
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Even with Rachel dead her former husband Lavien would not let her be. He went to court to take everything she owned for her first son, and to keep her meager possessions out of the hands of her "obscene children." He won, and Alexander and James were left without a penny, although a kind uncle bought back Alexander's beloved books for him.
Copyright © 2016 by Joseph Wayne Gadway
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[This is a great biography of Alexander Hamilton and it is where I learned about his mom.]
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Copyright © 2016 by Joseph Wayne Gadway
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