Was Alexander Hamilton black

Answer 1

No, and neither was Beethoven. This answer is incorrect Beethoven was indeed black.. historical accounts describe as such. As stated by " Frederick Hertz, German anthropologist, used these terms to describe him: "Negroid traits, dark skin, flat, thick nose." or Emil Ludwig, in his book "Beethoven," says: "His face reveals no trace of the German. He was so dark that people dubbed him Spagnol [dark-skinned]." There are several historical documents that clearly describe his as black.

Yes Alexander Hamilton was black. Hamilton was born as the illegitimate son of Rachel Fawcett Lavien on a Carribean island the size of the town of Kirkland called Nevis. John Adams described him as a "creole bastard". Although James Hamilton was rumored to have been his father that is uncertain since his was legally married to another man at the time of his birth. History demonstrates she was jailed for several months for cheating.

Answer 2

As with anyone long dead, the best we can do is look at the evidence. Genetic testing wasn't a thing at the time.

What we do know: Hamilton was born out of wedlock in the West Indies. His mother was Rachel Faucette, who was married but not living with her husband at the time. Who she WAS living with was James Hamilton, the son of a Scottish laird. We can't definitively say that there was no trace of "black blood" in James Hamilton's descent, but it doesn't seem especially likely.

That still leaves a couple of open questions, one of which is: was Rachel part black? She may have been. There's some evidence that she was at least accused of being a "mustee", which at the time was the word for someone who was mostly white but had a black grandparent. If this is true (there's really not much evidence one way or or the other), then Hamilton would have been at least 1/8 black. The other thing that's not absolutely certain is that James was Alexander's father. Judging by portraits of Hamilton (in which he looks pretty darn white), it seems unlikely that his father (if it was someone other than James) could have been black, but it is possible that he may have been partly black. He was living with Rachel at the time, and did appear to allow the child to be called "Alexander Hamilton" (which was also James' father's name). While that's not absolutely definitive proof that he was the father, it does indicate that he may have at least thought he was. However, there's also the fact that James dropped Rachel like she was on fire. He seems to have claimed that it was to protect her against charges of bigamy since she was technically still married at the time. However, against that we have to put the fact that he doesn't seem to have had much contact with Alexander, even after Rachel died. Alexander was eventually adopted by a man named Thomas Stevens. Stevens' son Edward Stevens was Alexander's close friend and has been been reported as looking a lot like Alexander, so it's at least possible that Thomas Stevens (about whose ancestry I have been unable to find any information) may have been Hamilton's biological father.

All told, the best answer is probably "we don't really know." Most of the the people making this claim that I can find pretty clearly have some kind of axe to grind about it. The less offensive variety is those who seem to just want to be able to claim that one of the Founding Fathers was part black (and, I guess, that therefore if you're racist against black people but don't have a problem with Hamilton you're also a hypocrite); the more offensive variety comes from very definitely racist people who have a problem with Hamilton's political ideology and want to be able to discredit him "for being black;" a fair number of these also add "and a Jew," with even less justification.

Actually, no, I take that back: the best answer is "What possible difference does it make?"

Answer 3

There is some evidence that Alexander Hamilton's mother was half African American. However, there is no conclusive proof that this is the case.

Answer 4

No. Alexander Hamilton was Caucasian, very small and pale, standing only about 5'6" and possessing a delicate frame. He had a huge ego, though.

Answer 5

No, Alexander Hamilton was not black or a slave. He was part Jewish, part English, part Danish. See the related link for a photo.

Answer 6

Yes...

Answer 7

Yes