Video play along link: https://youtu.be/JvWFiZPvbps
The Broadway play, Hamilton, is a musical dedicated to telling the story of, well, Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the United States. This website aims to teach history using historical references from songs in the musical, but to get started, we need to first understand the context in which the musical takes place.
Vocabulary clarity: The colonies refers to English colonies in America. Britain refers to the non-sovereign island in Europe. England refers to the colonies and Britain as a whole.
American history started in 1492, when Cristopher Columbus landed in America from Spain. For the next few hundred years, 4 countries: France, Spain, England, and the Netherlands competed against each other for land resources in this brand new world.
Painting of first interactions between the Spanish and Indigenous in America
Then came a war between England and France for territory, which was fought on American soil. England won in 1763, and kicked France out of America. However, soon after the relationship between the colonies and Britain would take a turn for the worse.
Because Britain spent so much money fighting the war against France, they wanted to tax the colonies as a way of repaying them for fighting for the colonies, because England was fighting France for the sake of the colonies. Britain introduced many taxes on the colonies, which led to riots and boycotts among the colonists.
Illustration of colonists rioting and protesting against British stamp taxes
At first, the colonies were just unhappy with the taxes. However, soon after, many colonists didn't want to be governed by Britain, and started looking towards independence - these colonists are called patriots. On September 3rd, 1783, America officially declared war on Britain for independence, also called the American Revolutionary War.
The first song in the musical talks about Hamilton's childhood life without a set date, and so the official starting date of the musical is 1776 with the song Aaron Burr, Sir. In that time in history, the revolution is in full swing and ideas of independence are widespread.
Whew, that was a long introduction, but now we can finally start discussing the musical. Starting with the first song, of course, is Alexander Hamilton.