Which means I’ve been looking for my husband, all along, in the wrong place.
Alexander once wrote, “The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.”
And neither can Alexander Hamilton be.
So, as the Marine Corp band plays “The Star-Spangled Banner,” accompanied by the voices of twenty thousand of my countrymen, I raise up my voice, too. For my perilous fight is nearly over. I believe that all we worked for and built—the benign influence of good laws under a free government—will continue on as our happy reward, forever, never perishing from this earth. Even as I marvel that our starry banner of red, white, and blue still waves.
Note from the Authors
ELIZABETH SCHUYLER HAMILTON’S extraordinary life spanned nearly a century. She strived, struggled, and survived the first turbulent years of our nation’s founding as the wronged wife at the center of America’s first sex scandal. But she was much more than that.
Coming of age in the relative frontier of upstate New York, Eliza—who apparently went by the name Betsy, at least in her early years—was the daughter of one of early America’s most prominent men and ablest generals. As such, she had a front-row seat to the American Revolution. Descended from a line of physically strong and relatively independent New Netherlander matriarchs, Eliza was as well-equipped to entertain famous statesmen at her father’s table as she was to traverse the wilderness to attend Indian conventions at her father’s side.
Eliza saw the chaos of war, the destruction of her family’s country home, her father’s loss of command, and the growing pains of a new nation. She also became the wife of Alexander Hamilton—one of America’s most brilliant soldiers and political minds. Whether as a participant in Hamilton’s astonishing career, helping him with his writings and publications, or as victim of his ambitions, and as an activist in her own right, she demonstrated an admirable strength of character that made her a wonderful heroine for a novel.
And yet, very little primary source material exists about her, much less in her own hand. Most of what is gleaned about her is extrapolated from what we know about the men in her life. The internal struggles she must have faced in the aftermath of betrayal and tragedy remain frustratingly out of reach for historians, who, without all the pieces to put together a portrait of her emotional life, have not tried to paint much of a portrait at all, especially for the fifty years of her life after Alexander died. In fact, at the time of this writing, we are unaware of a single biography written about Eliza Hamilton. Even Ron Chernow’s definitive biography of Alexander pays Eliza relatively little attention and does not always delve enough into her life to offer, in our view, the most considered interpretations of her character, motivations, and contributions.
But, thankfully, fiction can go where historians rightly fear to tread.
And as novelists we were honored to look at the historical pieces of the puzzle and imagine the rich inner life that the historical fragments leave unspoken. We attempted to craft plausible answers to questions about Eliza’s reaction to her husband’s adultery. How she balanced her deep religious faith with disillusionment and worldly practicality. And how she might’ve come to terms with both the man—and the country—that she sacrificed for and which sometimes disappointed her.
We’re now happy to explain our approach, as well as the choices we made and the creative liberties we took.
*
AS WITH MOST works of historical fiction, the most outlandish bits are the true ones. The court martials, battles, duels, and mutinies all happened. The scandals, riots, plagues, and mental illnesses, too. During her extraordinary life, Eliza Hamilton was a belle of both Revolutionary balls and military camps. She did know the doomed British spymaster John André and Hamilton’s letters indicate that Eliza may have argued on his behalf. Washington is thought by some scholars to have been unusually tolerant, by the standards of the day, regarding the sexuality of his soldiers. And the Baron von Steuben was almost certainly homosexual. Eliza’s uncle really was Washington’s physician and a pioneer in the eradication of smallpox. Her mother and her aunt were known for helping at a makeshift hospital. According to the New York State Museum, Mama Schuyler did have an extraordinarily close relationship with her husband’s commanding officer that might have troubled a husband less secure in the sanctity of his marriage. Meanwhile, a less secure Eliza Hamilton may well have put together the fact that Alexander Hamilton’s entanglement with James Reynolds began long before he took Mrs. Reynolds to bed. Eliza did, indeed, assist her husband in his political endeavors—some of his writings, including his economic treatise to Robert Morris, are in her handwriting. The historical Eliza helped to establish two orphanages, was a tireless activist in the name of charity, and made an arduous trip to the wilds of Wisconsin while in her eighties. The Hamiltons did shelter Lafayette’s son as well as the orphaned Fanny Antill. （Though we had to guess at the real reason behind Fanny’s departure from the Hamiltons’ home around the time of the Reynolds scandal, as well as whether Fanny’s later charitable work would have brought her back into Eliza’s life. We certainly hope it did.） Much of Alexander’s dialogue comes from his letters （though we often had to shorten and modernize his famously long and complicated style for readability）， and though most of Eliza’s letters don’t survive, we used them where we could, and the dialogue in her confrontation with Monroe comes from a family description of the event.