My Dear Hamilton

by Stephanie Dray

  P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*

  About the Author

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  Meet Stephanie Dray

  Meet Laura Kamoie

  About the Book

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  Dicussion Questions

  Walking in Eliza Schuyler Hamilton’s Footsteps: A Conversation with the Authors

  Telling Her Story: How My Dear Hamilton Differs from Hamilton: An American Musical

  About the Author

  Meet Stephanie Dray

  STEPHANIE DRAY is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of historical women’s fiction. Her award-winning work has been translated into eight languages and tops lists for the most anticipated reads of the year. Before she became a novelist, she was a lawyer and a teacher. Now she lives near the nation’s capital with her husband, cats, and history books.

  Meet Laura Kamoie

  LAURA KAMOIE is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. She holds a doctoral degree in early American history from the College of William and Mary, has published two nonfiction books on early America, and most recently held the position of associate professor of history at the U.S. Naval Academy before transitioning to a full-time career writing fiction. Laura lives among the colonial charm of Annapolis, Maryland, with her husband and two daughters.

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  About the Book

  Discussion Questions

  What do you think of Eliza’s declaration that she was someone before she met Alexander Hamilton? Why do you think she feels it’s important to remember that?

  A young Eliza wonders how a daughter can make a difference in the revolution. Does she make a difference? In what ways?

  How does Eliza view herself in the novel and how does that change over the course of her life?

  Does seeing Alexander Hamilton through his wife’s eyes make him more relatable as a Founding Father? How so or why not?

  Martha Washington tells a newly married Eliza that achieving independence will require the support of women, and one way women can offer that support is by advising their husbands. What did you think of her advice? Does Eliza take it? How and when? How effective is Mrs. Washington’s advice?

  The Schuyler family’s motto was Semper Fidelis. Always loyal. How does this play out in the book for Eliza?

  Was Hamilton a good husband? Was Eliza a good wife? How did they change in those roles over the course of the novel?

  What were the most important choices that Eliza made throughout her life and in her marriage? Do you agree with why she made them? Could or should she have chosen differently?

  What did you think of the relationship among Eliza, Angelica, and Alexander? What do you make of the open flirtatiousness between Angelica and Alexander? How and why does Eliza’s relationship with Angelica evolve over the course of their lives?

  What did you think of Eliza’s reaction to learning about Alexander’s infidelity with Maria Reynolds? What did you think of the reconciliation they found after suffering from yellow fever?

  How do Eliza’s thoughts about slavery evolve? What factors influence her thinking? How do the depictions of slavery in New York differ from or meet your expectations and understanding of American slavery?

  What did you think of Aaron Burr’s characterization in the novel? How does Alexander and Eliza’s relationship with him change over time?

  How much was Alexander to blame for the challenges he faced in his political career and attacks launched by his enemies, and how much was he the victim of others’ political machinations?

  Though Thomas Jefferson is not often on the page, he looms large in the Hamiltons’ minds and lives. Why was that?

  In our portrayal, Eliza believes that “they” murdered her son, Philip, and her husband. Who are they? Why does she believe her loved ones were murdered? Do you agree—why or why not?

  What did you think of Eliza’s reaction to learning about Alexander’s possible infidelity with her sister, Angelica, and his intimacy with John Laurens? What did you think of Lafayette’s advice to Eliza about it? What does Eliza conclude in her attic trials and why? What does she conclude in her conversation with William in Wisconsin?

  In what ways is the family story in this book relatable to modern families? To your family?

  What did you think of the relationship between Eliza and James Monroe? How did it change over time? Why did Monroe represent such a touchstone for Eliza’s feelings about Alexander? What did you think of their confrontation in 1825?

  Eliza argues that the United States is Alexander’s country, and that the country itself is the monument to him that she’d been searching for and wanting. What does she mean by this? Do you agree? Why or why not?

  What did Eliza and her family sacrifice for the sake of the nation?

  In what ways did Eliza shape Alexander Hamilton’s legacy? In what ways did she shape that of the United States itself?

  Walking in Eliza Schuyler Hamilton’s Footsteps

  A Conversation with the Authors

  While undertaking this project, the authors visited sites connected to the Hamilton and Schuyler families, and oh, the adventures they had!

  Stephanie: The idea for this book started on a trip to New York City, where we had the opportunity to see Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton: An American Musical when it first came to Broadway and the buzz was only starting. As a work of historical fiction, the musical is absolutely astonishing. And as historical fiction authors, we were humbled. But we were also curious about Eliza—the woman who first told the story of this Founding Father. Her list of accomplishments was so impressive that we had to learn more, which we immediately set about doing in the back of a taxicab—both of us searching like mad on our smartphones and exclaiming with each new discovery. We knew, straightaway, that we wanted to tell her story.

  Laura: We also knew that reading the historical letters wasn’t going to be enough. Walking in the footsteps of our characters has become just as important to our process. Yes, it’s important to spend time in libraries buried under microfiche, trying to decipher yellowing pieces of paper. But we like to touch what our characters might have touched, smell what they smelled, and view the world from their vantage points. It’s always illuminating! That’s why we took not one field trip for this project, but two.

  Stephanie: We sort of had to, because our very first foray was a bit frustrating. If you’re not familiar with America’s revolutionary history, you might not realize just how important the Revolutionary War was to the history of New York City—and visiting the city doesn’t make it much easier because most of the old landmarks have been replaced by new buildings. Most of the fabric of the eighteenth-century city is long gone. That progress stops for no man, or woman, is a rather Hamiltonian idea, but I was crestfallen to realize that we couldn’t actually visit most of the places where Eliza lived. Instead, we wandered about Wall Street and Broadway trying to imagine what Eliza’s view might have been of the river, and if she’d have smelled fish, or seen a forest of masts in the harbor. Fortunately, a few landmarks still exist. Trinity Church, where the Hamiltons worshipped and are buried. The Museum of American Finance building, which housed Hamilton’s Bank of New York. And Fraunces Tavern, one of my favorite places to visit in the city, where Hamilton frequently socialized and George Washington said a farewell to his officers. Our favorite finds at Fraunces were in the museum above the tavern where we were able to see amazing artifacts such as Lafayette’s sash, still stained with the blood he shed in our cause at Brandywine.

  Laura: From there we made the trek out to Harlem to the one house in which we are certain Eliza Hamilton lived—the Grange. Hamilton spent a fortune building this country estate for his family and it’s where he tried to reconcile himself to life in a garden instead of in the political arena. Thanks to the heroic efforts of the U.S. National Park Service, we were able to imagine
all those rooms filled with Eliza’s many children, and we stared at the bust of Hamilton just as she did, longing to meet him again. And yet—perhaps because the house has been moved a number of times to preserve it, and because the Hamiltons only shared that home for a few years before the infamous duel that shattered their lives—even as we appreciated the tall windows, the French-mirrored walls, and the restored woodwork, neither of us felt a strong emotional impression.

  Stephanie: That’s true. But the place that absolutely left a strong emotional impression was Trinity Church. I remember how much time we spent there and how it changed our entire idea of what Eliza’s story might be. I’d expected some sort of grand monument to the architect of American government. Instead, we found Hamilton’s relatively humble gravestone hilariously and horrifically positioned directly across the street from a bank and some shops, one of which had a sign that said, “We are probably the lowest priced in the city.” Maybe Hamilton would have liked the way time—and the city—just marched on without him. But when Lafayette visited in 1824, his secretary complained of the indignity of this sacred graveyard being separated from the gaiety and commerce of the city by only an iron railing. And it was hard not to see that as a metaphor for Eliza’s struggle. She spent her life fighting a war against time and the indignities threatening to swallow her family’s rightful place in history . . .

  Laura: That was sobering to realize in that moment. And to wonder if it was a war that she won. I lingered a long time with my hand pressed to Eliza’s gravestone. Then I remember that we both sat together a long time by the root sculpture just outside the church commemorating an old sycamore that used to be there before it was destroyed by the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11. It was the first time we both began to envision her life story as one so intrinsically rooted in the darkest days and greatest triumphs of the country. I think we both felt sad as we reckoned with how many losses she really faced, even before the duel that took her husband’s life. That graveyard is where our original idea for a plucky historical heroine turned into something darker and deeper. Where we began to hope our words could be another sort of monument for Eliza.

  Stephanie: Another place that affected me deeply was Morristown, New Jersey, where a local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution lovingly maintains the so-called Schuyler-Hamilton house where Eliza visited her Aunt Gertrude and was wooed by Alexander Hamilton. Given the beautiful little churches, the town square, and tales of winter balls, it was easy to imagine a charming winter courtship between the two of them. At least until I visited Jockey Hollow, where old military cabins still dot the forested hills. The realization that ten thousand men were freezing and starving to death—just out of sight of Washington and his officers—made a powerful impression. And given Eliza and Alexander’s lifelong dedication to charity and public service, it doubtless made an impression on them, too. In fact, the visit to Jockey Hollow forced us to rewrite the original lighthearted romance between them, and we reimagined their attraction as one between two very earnest young people in a very dark hour, both of them desperate to make the world a better place.

  Laura: Our second research trip occurred later that year, and once again began in New York City, where we undertook research at the New-York Historical Society and New York Public Library. We got to handle one of Eliza’s letters, and getting to hold something she once held and seeing her signature across the page was another powerful moment. But first, we started at Weehawken, New Jersey, standing on that cliff’s height, looking down into the forested slope where Alexander Hamilton dueled Aaron Burr, lost his life, and left his devoted wife impoverished and alone to raise their seven surviving children. We wanted to see the city as Hamilton might have seen it, and to experience the sights and sounds that might have filled his mind in those fateful moments. But in the end, we knew that our novel was not a novel about Alexander Hamilton. It was about his wife. We wanted to understand her journey. And that’s what took us to upstate New York.

  Stephanie: I was a little skeptical at first that we needed to visit the battlefields of Saratoga, because we have no evidence that Eliza was ever there. We had a great day in the museum, acquainting ourselves with the battles and trying on Revolutionary War costumes before walking the fields where Benedict Arnold was so fatefully injured in our cause. And the trip ended up being an important piece of our understanding of Eliza as a general’s daughter and a girl raised at the frontier. Understanding her world and the way the war was literally on her doorstep gave us a richer understanding of who she came to be, and how she might have envisioned herself as part of the struggle of the soldiers around her. She lived all her life on the Hudson River and that river turned out to be the key to winning the war.

  Laura: Our last stop, and in some ways, the most meaningful, was in Albany. We attended a little festival at Fort Crailo where Eliza’s mother, Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler, came of age and acquainted ourselves with New Netherlander food, traditions, and customs. One thing that certainly stood out for us was the relative strength and independence of New Netherlander women. It was a reminder to us that the roles and rights of women in early America varied significantly amongst the colonies. Because of their cultural heritage, Eliza and her sisters had more options and autonomy than many women of the time period—certainly more than the women in Virginia we portrayed in America’s First Daughter. The Schuyler sisters knew women in Albany who remained unmarried by choice and lived as property holders without any man to rule over them. Even without the revolutionary ideas swirling about their dinner table, they may have come to expect to have a choice in who they married and how they lived their lives. Perhaps that’s why so many Schuyler daughters eloped against the wishes of their parents.

  Stephanie: Our last stop was the Schuyler Mansion where Eliza and her family made their home. And that was only right, because Eliza spent much of her married life with Alexander there, too. In our research field trips we often get a feeling of a place. An impression or a mood. When we visited Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello while writing America’s First Daughter, we were overcome with a sense of bittersweet majesty. The Schuyler Mansion, a gorgeous Georgian mansion overlooking the Hudson River, had a feeling of quiet tranquility to it. We could easily imagine why Eliza spent so many summers there with her children. It must have been a relief to get away from the hustle and bustle of political life in the city. Nevertheless, there is no getting around the fact that it was a plantation where more than a dozen enslaved persons toiled for the happiness of the family, and though little evidence of their presence remains on the site, our guide Danielle was a wealth of information about their lives. We were fascinated by tales of Prince, whose presence was important enough to General Schuyler that he actually used his name as a code word. And we knew that even though the historical evidence was sparse, these people deserved their rightful place in our novel just as they do in the American experience as a whole.

  Laura: Visiting the house was also useful for us in trying to sort fact from legend. Like the historians at the mansion, we suspect that the historical account of Loyalists breaking in to capture Philip Schuyler and Peggy rescuing her baby sister from tomahawk-wielding invaders may have been embroidered. However, because the source of the tale is a member of the family, and because the incident betrayed the risks revolutionary women like Eliza Schuyler faced, we included it. But first, we spent quite a long time meandering around the main hall trying to figure out from which angle a hatchet could have been thrown that would account for the gouge in the railing. Ultimately, we couldn’t find one, so we opted to have the man simply chop at the banister instead!

  Stephanie: As interesting as the house were the exhibits of family artifacts, some of which came to play a role in the book. British General Burgoyne’s shoe buckles, which we used to show an interesting facet of Peggy’s character. Eliza’s sewing box, which helped us develop a theme about sewing that we—pardon the pun!—stitched into her character. And especially Eliza’s lo
cket necklace containing a clipping of George Washington’s hair, which became a touchstone for her throughout the novel. Those were details that added real authenticity to the book, and we wouldn’t have known to include them without visiting the site.

  Laura: I agree. When you read a novel, you want it to be an immersive experience. As a writer, one of the best ways to create that experience is to have it yourself. And the best of both worlds is reading the book and visiting the sites, so we encourage you to go to them all! We hope you enjoy learning more about Eliza Schuyler Hamilton’s life and journey in My Dear Hamilton.

  Learn more at DrayKamoie.com.

  Telling Her Story