Hamilton: An American Musical began airing on Disney+ on July 3, 2020, in the midst of protests and growing unrest in the United States surrounding the difficult race relations that have plagued the U.S. since before its founding.
This musical is based on the life of the Founding Father of the United States, Alexander Hamilton, and the cast is comprised primarily of actors and actresses who are not white.
When the musical first came out on stage in 2015, it was widely acclaimed and received many accolades, including eleven Tony Awards.
Five years later, people have begun to look at Hamilton in a new way and have leveled new criticisms of the play. Some of these criticisms are:
- The musical seems to be glorifying many people who owned slaves
- Even though the musical’s cast is mostly non-white, they are playing historical people who were white.
- The musical does not tell the story of black people, and though it mentions slavery a few times, it mostly glosses over the issue.
Lin Manuel-Miranda, the creator of Hamilton, addressed these criticisms by tweeting that “all the criticisms are valid,” and that “all was fair game.”
Appreciate you so much, @brokeymcpoverty. All the criticisms are valid. The sheer tonnage of complexities & failings of these people I couldn’t get. Or wrestled with but cut. I took 6 years and fit as much as I could in a 2.5 hour musical. Did my best. It’s all fair game. https://t.co/mjhU8sXS1U
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) July 6, 2020
Below are some of my thoughts on this issue.
The Narrative vs. The Facts
While the story of the American Revolution and the founding of the United States is based upon historical events, there is much more to it than mere facts. The narrative has become the Founding Legend of this country.
One of the things that the musical pointed out was just how instrumental Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton was in helping to shape that narrative, especially with respect to her husband.
In many ways, the Legend is much more important than the historical facts on which it is based. The facts tend to be forgotten and fade away over time. It is the Legend that endures and shapes our values and beliefs and fosters a sense of patriotism in the citizenry of the United States.
In many ways, it is analogous to the story of Romulus and Remus in the Roman Empire.
Honoring and Challenging the Narrative
I think that the importance of Hamilton is that it honors the narrative and challenges it at the same time.
In choosing his cast and using rap and hip-hop music extensively, Lin-Manuel Miranda explained that the musical was “a story about America then, told by America now.”
He specifically cast people of color as the Founding Fathers of the United States. This was not simply black people playing people who were historically white. This was including people of color as part of the Legend of the United States.
He also included people in the narrative that most know very little about, or may have never even heard of. Indeed, before Hamilton, all most Americans remembered about the protagonist was that he died in a duel. Perhaps they might remember that he founded the U.S. Bank. If they had any impression of him at all, it would be that he was an “elitist” who distrusted common people.
It certainly was not well known that Alexander Hamilton was against slavery. The musical also challenged the narrative that Thomas Jefferson was an egalitarian who championed the common people by pointing out that he was one of the colonial elites himself, and that he owned a plantation that was run using slave labor.
I, for one, never heard of Elizabeth Schuyler-Hamilton or most of the other women that were an essential part of the founding of the country before seeing this musical.
Despite these challenges to the narrative, Hamilton also honors some of the most important features of the narrative in a beautiful way. It is hard not to watch the song, One Last Time, without tears. This is the song about George Washington’s decision not to run for a third term, setting the precedent for a two-term presidency and the peaceful transfer of power in the United States.
Below is a performance of this song at the 2015 Washington Prize Dinner.
Relevance to Current Events
As I am writing this, the United States is in crisis. The country is deeply divided, there is a pandemic raging across the country, and the troubled race relations have moved to center stage in the media and in the minds of many, black and white.
In order to get through this time, I think that as a country, the United States needs to take a good, hard look at its founding narrative. In taking this look, it will be important to intentionally preserve that which is good and valuable as well as to change that which is not so good.
I believe that Hamilton is a good launching point for this examination. I don’t know what the answers will be, but I think that this musical asks all of the right questions to start the conversation.
See Main Article:
Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story
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