...a slave!
Other than John Adams all of our founding fathers owned at least one slave. It was considered perfectly normal in those times.
I think now it's time for that horrible "musical" to be done away with.
Alexander Hamilton could not be President because he was born in Jamaica, and yeah it's highly likely he (or his father) owned slaves in Jamaica.
BTW my kids love listening to those songs on YouTube from the musical. Total crap IMO.
Actually Americans who became citizens with the Constitution's adoption, including Hamilton, were eligible to be president.
shareWow. I can't be the only person who was taught that in school. But it is wrong!
https://www.biography.com/news/why-alexander-hamilton-never-became-president
A popular misconception is that because he was born in the British West Indies, Hamilton could not legally have become president. That’s not the case. The Constitution states that to become president, a person must be either a natural-born citizen or a citizen of the United States at the time of the Constitution’s adoption, which Hamilton certainly was. In fact, the first seven U.S. presidents were born British citizens. Martin Van Buren, born in 1782, was the first to be born an American citizen.
...well, certainly a majority of everyone alive in the new USA was born a British citizen...
Interesting article. Makes me wonder if there was a FOX news at the time that propagated the whole "born in the West Indies" story to restore his reputation...
Makes me wonder if there was a FOX news at the time that propagated the whole "born in the West Indies" story to restore his reputation...
Fake news isn't anything new.
How did the "born-in-West-Indies" story become a "popular misconception?"
The true story of why Hamilton didn't become President is that he was a very bad boy.
I've consumed Fox News since the late 1990s and I'm the one who just corrected your false claim ("fake news"). If anything the fake news outfit in your scenario should be whatever (probably more leftist) source you heavily consume, or more accurately given your explicit admission, our dumbed down, leftist controlled education system. Not the primary tv news source for the guy who just corrected you.
You're welcome for the tuition free education, btw.
Edit: Oh, and the main reason Hamilton didn't become president is that he was killed during just the third presidential administration.
"the first seven U.S. presidents were born British citizens"
That's irrelevant because the United States was not a separate country when they were born. All of the presidents were born in the United States even though the country had not yet won independence from Britain.
A naturalized citizen (foreign born) cannot become president which is different from natural born.
Section 1 of Article Two of the United States Constitution:
"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.["
More important, he had a Republican mindset, opposite of Jefferson.
shareYou mean he opposed slavery? Jefferson supported it?
shareConservative and liberal ethos
The role of a federal government in a man's affairs.
Oh, but what were their views on slavery?
shareMost learned white men of the day had a paternalistic attitude toward slaves and the African race.
The common thinking of most was that Africans lacked the intellectual capacity to govern themselves. There were a few who thought different, but they were rare.
It was the group-think of the times.
To hold our forefathers accountable for this thinking is a mistake.
Every generation is exposed to social pressures of group think.
The French in the 1700's- 1800's did not bathe but rarely because of the thought that the skin produces 'oils' that prevent people from being sick.
To break and have independent thought on subjects that have a strong group-think can be rare thing.
Based on what we have seen, maybe they were right.
shareIt's worse than that. The entire story they wrote for the musical, including Hamilton's character, is entirely fictional. I knew it was BS from the start when they had the nerve to have a black man play the lead role (or the entire cast for that matter), but to hear that the play doesn't reflect an accurate account of his life or his actual character is even worse.
shareJFK, Pocahontas, how often is there a movie or play about a historical figure that is historically accurate. It is generally safe to assume it is mainly fiction.
shareI was so ahead of my time.
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