George Washington, the famed general and first President of the United States, owned over 300 enslaved people by the time he died in 1799. “It's highly likely Hamilton did legal work for slaveowners (including his father-in-law), and of course he was a close friend of George Washington.” However, he did retain links with slavery and some of the society’s members were themselves slaveholders.Ĭutterham highlights how slavery featured in Hamilton’s personal life: “Hamilton's close family relations, such as his father-in-law Philip Schuyler, owned dozens of enslaved people, and I've never seen any evidence Hamilton criticised him about it. Hamilton himself was a member of the New York Manumission Society, a group which provided financial and legal assistance to the abolitionist cause. He furiously accuses Thomas Jefferson of using slave labour to pay off the South’s debts and keep the economy afloat. In the musical, Hamilton is portrayed as being a firm abolitionist, someone who wanted to end slavery. Hamilton wasn’t as anti-slavery as he first appears
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