What's so cool about Alexander Hamilton?
Born a penniless bastard in the Caribbean, he would become a Revolutionary War hero and the genius behind much of America's government, all before dying in a duel at the age of 49.
Playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda saw it right away after reading Ron Chernow's "Alexander Hamilton." The biography inspired Miranda to create the hip-hop musical"Hamilton!"— a global phenomenon that is sold out on Broadway nearly through 2016 and about to go on national tour.
After listening to the album obsessively, we wanted to share some of the magic. Keep reading to see our guide (pulling from Chernow, Genius, and more) to key lines from the best musical ever.
How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a/ Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a/ Forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence/ Impoverished, in squalor/ Grow up to be a hero and a scholar?
Alexander Hamilton was born on January 11, 1755, in the West Indian capital city of Charlestown, located on the Caribbean island of Nevis.
His parents were unmarried, his father rejected him, and his mother died when he was 13.
By that point, many people would have given up. Not Hamilton ...
HAMILTON: I’m 'a get a scholarship to King’s College/ I prob'ly shouldn't brag, but dag, I amaze and astonish
Hamilton had talent and dreams.
The orphan clerked for a trading company, read every book he could get his hands on, and honed his skills as a writer. After publishing a gripping essay in a local paper, community leaders paid for him to go to America to continue his education.
In 1772 he enrolled at Elizabethtown Academy in New Jersey. By 1773 he had impressed enough people to get a scholarship to King's College (later known as Columbia University).
That's when he really started making noise.
HAMILTON: Why should a tiny island across the sea regulate the price of tea?
Hamilton, age 19, anonymously published his first political essay in 1774 in defense of the Boston Tea Party, where Americans destroyed British tea to protest taxes.
The young firebrand gave a speech that summer that turned him into a hero of the cause.
In 1775, his anonymous essay "The Farmer Refuted" not only made the best case yet for revolution but explained how the colonists could win.
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