This raised tantalizing questions. Just how long had it been since James Monroe met Eliza Hamilton? What was the nature of their meeting? What sort of relationship did they share that might motivate such an unprecedented visit—and such a hostile reception? And what sort of power did she hold as a historical figure in her own right that he would prize a reconciliation with her?
It’s most probable that Eliza met James Monroe when he came to New York City to serve in Congress in 1785. Possibly sooner, but we ruled out a family account published in a missionary pamphlet that places Eliza Schuyler at Valley Forge, because if she’d met Monroe there, she’d have met Hamilton as well. Yet, we noticed that after Monroe’s heroics at Trenton, he became aide to Lord Stirling, who served in the Hudson Highlands during 1777.
In that, we saw an opportunity.
Because Lord Stirling tried to guide Lafayette successfully to Albany, where he conferred with Eliza’s father, Philip Schuyler, we invented the notion that Lord Stirling sent Monroe to help, and that Monroe dined thereafter at Schuyler Mansion, where Eliza took a shine to him. Whether or not Eliza Hamilton would later have any cause to speak to Monroe either on the night he came to Hamilton’s house to investigate the Reynolds matter or shortly before the publication of the Reynolds Pamphlet is not known. And as for any romantic feelings between them, we only know that Monroe was coy and secretive about his fondness for Dutch girls, one of whom turned him down when he asked for her hand after the war because she was already pledged. And of course, though Eliza assuredly was acquainted with Elizabeth Kortright before she married Monroe, the notion that Eliza introduced them is our fabrication.
We have no historical evidence that Eliza was present with Lafayette at the Six Nations convention at Johnstown where the Oneida formally allied with the nascent United States. There is even some question as to whether or not Philip Schuyler personally attended that meeting. However, Eliza accompanied her father to at least one other Indian convention and was adopted by the Iroquois—something important enough to her that she mentioned it to an interviewer near the end of her life. Moreover, an Iroquois assembly with Schuyler took place just prior to Lafayette’s visit in the woods near Eliza’s family home in November of 1777, so we rolled the experiences together so the reader might get a better view of the milieu in which Eliza became an adult and so that we could demonstrate the revolution’s impact on Native Americans.
We thought it was important to do this because the American Revolution is too often seen as a struggle between white marbled men in powdered wigs spouting fine sentiments about liberty; the truth was more complicated and the participants far more diverse. The Iroquois nations were drawn into both sides of the conflict.
So were black people, both free and enslaved. And because Eliza’s father was a plantation-owning slaveholder, she had opportunities to witness and, ultimately, empathize with their struggles. Our readers might recall that in America’s First Daughter, the story of Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph, we had the unique opportunity to portray the enslaved families at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello because quite a bit is known about the people who lived there. Unfortunately, not as much is known about the approximately thirty enslaved human beings on Philip Schuyler’s property. Consequently, in this novel, we hesitated to put too many words into their mouths or feelings in their hearts, but tried to honor them by using some of their names and vocations.
We also confronted the probability that Eliza’s entanglement with slavery did not end when she left her father’s household.
That Alexander Hamilton opposed slavery is absolutely true; so did Jefferson, though to a less efficacious degree. That did not stop either man from compromising his moral beliefs in pursuit of personal or political goals. In short, despite his antislavery stance, there is historical evidence that Alexander Hamilton did borrow, hire out, and possibly even own enslaved persons. Which is why we decided to employ the character of Jenny to demonstrate the ambiguities surrounding this particular question, and Eliza’s evolution in thinking on the matter.
Unfortunately, because little survives in Eliza’s own hand, it’s difficult to discern what her relationships were with enslaved persons; we know from one letter that she was distressed by one of her servants dying of yellow fever. And that she eventually spoke with contempt about the institution of slavery itself and its corrupting influence on the body politic.
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ELIZA HAMILTON’S FRIENDS, relations, and acquaintances are a veritable Who’s Who of American history, including many fascinating figures we didn’t have room to introduce, such as Ben Franklin, the Vicomte de Noailles, the Marquis de Chastellux, Talleyrand, Martin Van Buren, James and Sarah Polk, and many more. She personally knew at least twelve of the first sixteen presidents, and was present with Congressman Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of Washington’s monument.