“Essentially, they tax us relentlessly, Then King George turns around, runs a spendin’ spree. He ain’t ever gonna set his descendants free, So there will be a revolution in this century”
“Essentially, they tax us relentlessly, Then King George turns around, runs a spendin’ spree. He ain’t ever gonna set his descendants free, So there will be a revolution in this century”
In school, American students are taught that the American Revolution was caused by a greedy king who exploited the colonists for his own gain. However, it is always important to remember that the victor writes history, and the story is rarely as cut and dry as they paint it.
The period between the end of the Seven Years’ War and the beginning of the Revolutionary War was a critical time. It was a time that moved the colonists from one war to another and a time in which we can name both the causes and the effects. The cause of the Revolutionary War lies at least partially within the Seven Years’ War and its aftermath. The war that England fought with their colonies was a costly one.[1] After the end of this war, England found itself in massive debt. It was only then that the colonists found themselves being taxed.
The supply bills of Great Britain had risen from 14.5 euros to 245 million euros because of the war.[2] No precedent had been set in Parliament or the colonies regarding what to do. No one knew precisely what powers lay where. This new complication was decided upon when Parliament’s George Greenville laid out his plan to tax the colonies. As the leader of Parliament, Greenville hoped that taxing the colonies would do a couple of things. Firstly, he hoped to show colonial figures, like Benjamin Franklin and Richard Jackson, that Parliament was the end all be all power and that they and their influence could do little about it.[3] Greenville was also aware that the colonies would be against Parliament. However, he hoped the colonists’ response would have the power to unite Parliament against them since the various factions of Parliament were fighting among one another.[4]
It is often said that taxation by Parliament is what brought along the American Revolution. Although this is true, it is also important to mention that governing a body from three thousand miles away was going to be difficult no matter what. The Seven Years’ War simply added to these difficulties and boiled things to a breaking point. Historian Charles M. Andrews once wrote, “that certain differences existing between England and her colonies in mental attitudes and convictions proved in the end more difficult to overcome than the diverging historical tendencies or the bridging the three thousand miles of the Atlantic itself.”[5] Colonists and Englishmen were forced to fight a war side by side. Their different attitudes and knowledge proved their partnership to be a rough one.
Colonists were forced into a rude awakening when the British troops came over to help them fight in the Seven Years’ War. Not only did the soldiers not want to fight alongside them, but colonists were ashamed to find that their fellow Englishmen did not see them as actually being English. Although these colonists saw themselves as British, they were also greatly influenced by the Dutch, German, French, and many other cultures.[6] This realization that their supposed brothers did not see them as equals helped push the two factions apart. Colonists began to feel unsupported by their motherland, and this feeling only continued to grow as time went on.
First, it was their attitude, and then it was the taxation they levied with very little care for the human beings that would be affected by it.
“Scratch that this is not a moment, it’s the movement. Where all the hungriest brothers with something to prove went?”
“Scratch that this is not a moment, it’s the movement. Where all the hungriest brothers with something to prove went?”
Lin Manuel Miranda’s play, Hamilton, bends time quite extensively. Alexander Hamilton entered King’s College in 1773. Samuel Seabury’s pamphlets, discussed in Miranda’s Farmer Refuted, were published in 1774. The real Alexander Hamilton met Burr in 1776, Lafayette and Laurens in 1777, and Eliza in 1780. It is safe to say that all parties were significant to the revolutionary cause. Nevertheless, let us familiarize ourselves with some of the “hungriest brothers with something to prove.”
“I dream of life without a monarchy, The unrest in France will lead to anarchy?”
“I dream of life without a monarchy, The unrest in France will lead to anarchy?”
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, also known as Lafayette, was a French aristocrat born on September 6, 1757.[7] The Lafayette family was well known for their chivalry. His father, Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Paulette du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, was killed in the Battle of Minden on July 9, 1759.[8] Subsequently, the toddler Marquis was raised by his paternal grandmother.[9]
When Lafayette was eleven, he was summoned to Paris to study at the College du Plessis, part of the University of Paris. From there, his grandfather put him in a program so that he would be trained as a Musketeer. In May 1771, he was commissioned as an officer in the Musketeers; he was just shy of his fourteenth birthday.[10]
At the age of fourteen, the Marquis de La Fayette’s family arranged his marriage. He was set to marry twelve-year-old Marie Adrienne Francoise. However, Marie’s mother believed they were too young to get married. The two families agreed to keep the arrangement quiet, even from Lafayette and Marie, for two years. They proceeded to put the pair together in casual settings. The pair fell in love and were married in 1774.[11]
When Lafayette was eleven, he was summoned to Paris to study at the College du Plessis, part of the University of Paris. From there, his grandfather put him in a program so that he would be trained as a Musketeer. In May 1771, he was commissioned as an officer in the Musketeers; he was just shy of his fourteenth birthday.[10]
At the age of fourteen, the Marquis de La Fayette’s family arranged his marriage. He was set to marry twelve-year-old Marie Adrienne Francoise. However, Marie’s mother believed they were too young to get married. The two families agreed to keep the arrangement quiet, even from Lafayette and Marie, for two years. They proceeded to put the pair together in casual settings. The pair fell in love and were married in 1774.[11]
When Lafayette was eleven, he was summoned to Paris to study at the College du Plessis, part of the University of Paris. From there, his grandfather put him in a program so that he would be trained as a Musketeer. In May 1771, he was commissioned as an officer in the Musketeers; he was just shy of his fourteenth birthday.[10]
At the age of fourteen, the Marquis de La Fayette’s family arranged his marriage. He was set to marry twelve-year-old Marie Adrienne Francoise. However, Marie’s mother believed they were too young to get married. The two families agreed to keep the arrangement quiet, even from Lafayette and Marie, for two years. They proceeded to put the pair together in casual settings. The pair fell in love and were married in 1774.[11]
In 1775, Lafayette met Charles-François de Broglie, Marquis de Ruffec, the Army of the East’s commander. At a dinner the two discussed the American Revolution.[12] From then on, Lafayette was convinced that his “heart was dedicated” to the cause.[13] In 1776, Silas Deane traveled to France to negotiate an alliance with Louis XVI. Lafayette met with Deane, and despite his youth, Deane enlisted him as a major general. Unfortunately, the plan for French troops to be sent to America was soon abandoned.[14] Nevertheless, this did not mean that the young man abandoned his cause. His reaction was quite the opposite.
In early 1777, he bought the ship Victoire. He prepared to leave for the colonies on it. However, he soon got word of how his family took his disappearance, including letters from his wife. This caused him emotional turmoil, and he canceled the trip. However, De Broglie, who was on the ship with him, convinced him that the French government wanted him to go so he relented and sailed off to America. De Broglie lied.
“And but we’ll never be truly free, Until those in bondage have the same rights as you and me”
“And but we’ll never be truly free, Until those in bondage have the same rights as you and me”
John Laurens was born in Charleston, South Carolina on October 28, 1754. His parents, Henry Laurens and Eleanor Ball Laurens, both came from prosperous families. John and his brothers were tutored at home. However, after their mother died, Henry Laurens took his male children to England to be educated.
Laurens moved with his father to England in October 1771. He lived and was educated there from the ages of sixteen to twenty-two. In November 1774, John began his law studies at the prestigious Middle Temple.[15]
When the American Revolution broke out, John Laurens became determined to join the Continental Army. He left for Charleston, South Carolina in December 1776. He left behind his pregnant wife.[16]
John Laurens was born in Charleston, South Carolina on October 28, 1754. His parents, Henry Laurens and Eleanor Ball Laurens, both came from prosperous families. John and his brothers were tutored at home. However, after their mother died, Henry Laurens took his male children to England to be educated.
Laurens moved with his father to England in October 1771. He lived and was educated there from the ages of sixteen to twenty-two. In November 1774, John began his law studies at the prestigious Middle Temple.[15]
When the American Revolution broke out, John Laurens became determined to join the Continental Army. He left for Charleston, South Carolina in December 1776. He left behind his pregnant wife.[16]
John Laurens was born in Charleston, South Carolina on October 28, 1754. His parents, Henry Laurens and Eleanor Ball Laurens, both came from prosperous families. John and his brothers were tutored at home. However, after their mother died, Henry Laurens took his male children to England to be educated.
Laurens moved with his father to England in October 1771. He lived and was educated there from the ages of sixteen to twenty-two. In November 1774, John began his law studies at the prestigious Middle Temple.[15]
When the American Revolution broke out, John Laurens became determined to join the Continental Army. He left for Charleston, South Carolina in December 1776. He left behind his pregnant wife.[16]
“Geniuses, lower your voices. You keep out of trouble and you double your choices”
“Geniuses, lower your voices. You keep out of trouble and you double your choices”
Aaron Burr Jr. was born in 1756 in Newark, New Jersey. He was the second child of the Reverend Aaron Burr Sr. and Esther Edwards Burr. Aaron Burr S. was a Presbyterian minister and the second president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. Ester Burr was the daughter of theologian Jonathan Edwards.[17]
In 1757, Aaron Burr Sr. passed away. Johnathan Edwards became the new president of the College of New Jersey. He went to live with Burr and his mother. Unfortunately, Edwards died in March 1758. Burr’s mother and grandmother also died that same year. Burr and his sister, Sarah, were now orphans. The children were originally put in the care of William Shippen. However, the next year, 1759, the children’s guardianship was passed on to the now twenty-one-year-old Timothy Edwards, Burr’s maternal uncle. The two had a strained relationship. This was due mostly to the fact that Edwards physically abused Burr. Burr attempted to run away from home several times as a child.
Burr first applied to the College of New Jersey at the age of eleven. He was rejected but not deterred. For the next two years, Burr studied. He was admitted to the school at the age of thirteen where he started as a sophomore. He graduated in 1772 but continued to study theology at the school for another year.
In 1757, Aaron Burr Sr. passed away. Johnathan Edwards became the new president of the College of New Jersey. He went to live with Burr and his mother. Unfortunately, Edwards died in March 1758. Burr’s mother and grandmother also died that same year. Burr and his sister, Sarah, were now orphans. The children were originally put in the care of William Shippen. However, the next year, 1759, the children’s guardianship was passed on to the now twenty-one-year-old Timothy Edwards, Burr’s maternal uncle. The two had a strained relationship. This was due mostly to the fact that Edwards physically abused Burr. Burr attempted to run away from home several times as a child.
Burr first applied to the College of New Jersey at the age of eleven. He was rejected but not deterred. For the next two years, Burr studied. He was admitted to the school at the age of thirteen where he started as a sophomore. He graduated in 1772 but continued to study theology at the school for another year.
In 1757, Aaron Burr Sr. passed away. Johnathan Edwards became the new president of the College of New Jersey. He went to live with Burr and his mother. Unfortunately, Edwards died in March 1758. Burr’s mother and grandmother also died that same year. Burr and his sister, Sarah, were now orphans. The children were originally put in the care of William Shippen. However, the next year, 1759, the children’s guardianship was passed on to the now twenty-one-year-old Timothy Edwards, Burr’s maternal uncle. The two had a strained relationship. This was due mostly to the fact that Edwards physically abused Burr. Burr attempted to run away from home several times as a child.
Burr first applied to the College of New Jersey at the age of eleven. He was rejected but not deterred. For the next two years, Burr studied. He was admitted to the school at the age of thirteen where he started as a sophomore. He graduated in 1772 but continued to study theology at the school for another year.
At nineteen years old, Burr moved to Connecticut to study law with his Tapping Reeve, brother-in-law. In 1775, news reached Litchfield of the clashes with British troops at Lexington and Concord. At that point, Burr put his studies on hold to enlist in the Continental Army.[18]
MY SHOT
MY SHOT
[HAMILTON]
I am not throwing away my shot
I am not throwing away my shot
Hey, yo, I’m just like my country
I’m young, scrappy and hungry
And I’m not throwing away my shot
I’ma get a scholarship to King’s College
I prob’ly shouldn’t brag, but dag,
I amaze and astonish
The problem is I got a lot of brains, but no polish
I gotta holler just to be heard
With every word, I drop
knowledge
I’m a diamond in the rough, a shiny piece of coal
Tryin’ to reach my goal,
my power of speech unimpeachable
Only nineteen, but my mind is older
These New York City streets get colder, I shoulder
Ev’ry burden, ev’ry disadvantage
I have learned to manage, I don’t have a gun to brandish
I walk these streets famished
The plan is to fan this spark into a flame
But damn, it’s getting dark, so let me spell out the name
I am the—
[HAMILTON/LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN/LAURENS]
A-L-E-X-A-N-D
E-R—we are—meant to be
[HAMILTON]
A colony that runs independently
Meanwhile, Britain keeps shittin’ on us endlessly
Essentially, they tax us relentlessly
Then King George turns around, runs a spending spree
He ain’t ever gonna set his descendants free
So there will be a revolution in this century
Enter me
[LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN/LAURENS]
(He says in parentheses)
[HAMILTON]
Don’t be shocked when your hist’ry book mentions me
I will lay down my life if it sets us free
Eventually, you’ll see my ascendancy
[HAMILTON & LAURENS]
And I am not throwing away
My shot (My shot)
I am not throwing away
My shot (My shot)
Hey, yo, I’m just like my country
I’m young, scrappy and hungry
And I’m not throwing away my shot
And I’m not throwing away my shot
[HAMILTON/MULLIGAN/LAURENS/LAFAYETTE]
I am not throwing away my shot
I am not throwing away my shot
Hey, yo, I’m just like my country
I’m young, scrappy and hungry
And I’m not throwing away my shot
It’s time to take a shot
[LAFAYETTE]
I dream of life without a monarchy
The unrest in France will lead to ‘onarchy?
‘Onarchy? How you say, how you s-oh, ‘anarchy!’
When I fight, I make the other side panicky
With my—
[HAMILTON/LAURENS/LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN]
Shot
[MULLIGAN]
Yo, I’m a tailor’s apprentice
And I got y’all knuckleheads in loco parentis
I’m joining the rebellion ’cause I know it’s my chance
To socially advance, instead of sewin’ some pants
I’m gonna take a—
[HAMILTON/LAURENS/LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN]
Shot
[LAURENS]
But we’ll never be truly free
Until those in bondage have the same rights as you and me
You and I, do or die, wait ’til I sally in
On a stallion with the first black battalion
Have another—
[HAMILTON/LAURENS/LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN]
Shot
[BURR]
Geniuses, lower your voices
You keep out of trouble and you double your choices
I’m with you, but the situation is fraught
You’ve got to be carefully taught
If you talk, you’re gonna get shot
[HAMILTON]
Burr, check what we got
Mister Lafayette, hard rock like Lancelot
I think your pants look hot
Laurens, I like you a lot
Let’s hatch a plot blacker than the kettle callin’ the pot
What are the odds the gods would put us all in one spot
Poppin’ a squat on conventional wisdom, like it or not
A bunch of revolutionary manumission abolitionists?
Give me a position, show me where the ammunition is
Oh, am I talkin’ too loud?
Sometimes I get overexcited, shoot off at the mouth
I never had a group of friends before
I promise that I’ll make y’all proud
[LAURENS]
Let’s get this guy in front of a crowd
[HAMILTON/LAURENS/LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN/ENSEMBLE]
I am not throwing away my shot
I am not throwing away my shot
Hey, yo, I’m just like my country
I’m young, scrappy and hungry
And I’m not throwing away my shot
I am not throwing away my shot
I am not throwing away my shot
Hey, yo, I’m just like my country
I’m young, scrappy and hungry
And I’m not throwing away my shot
[LAURENS & HAMILTON/LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN]
Ev’rybody sing
Whoa, whoa, whoa (Whoa, whoa, whoa)
Hey
Whoa (Whoa)
Woo
Whoa (Whoa)
Said, let ’em hear ya (Yeah)
Let’s go
[LAURENS & COMPANY]
Whoa, whoa, whoa
I said, shout it to the rooftops
Whoa
Said, to the rooftops
Whoa
Come on
Yeah
Come on, let’s go
[LAURENS]
Rise up
When you’re living on your knees, you rise up
Tell your brother that he’s gotta rise up
Tell your sister that she’s gotta rise up
[LAURENS AND ENSEMBLE & COMPANY]
When are these colonies gonna rise up?
Whoa, whoa, whoa
When are these colonies gonna rise up?
Whoa
When are these colonies gonna rise up?
Whoa
When are these colonies gonna rise up?
Whoa
Rise up (Rise up)
[HAMILTON]
I imagine death so much, it feels more like a memory
When’s it gonna get me?
In my sleep?
Seven feet ahead of me?
If I see it comin’, do I run or do I let it be?
Is it like a beat without a melody?
See, I never thought I’d live past twenty
Where I come from, some get half as many
Ask anybody why we livin’ fast
and we laugh, reach for a flask
We have to make this moment last, that’s plenty
Scratch that
This is not a moment, it’s the movement
Where all the hungriest brothers with
Something to prove went?
Foes oppose us, we take an honest stand
We roll like Moses, claimin’ our promised land
And? If we win our independence?
Is that a guarantee of freedom for our descendants?
Or will the blood we shed begin an endless
Cycle of vengeance and death with no defendants?
I know the action in the street is excitin’
But Jesus, between all the bleedin’ ‘n’ fightin’
I’ve been readin’ ‘n’ writin’
We need to handle our financial situation
Are we a nation of states? What’s the state of our nation?
I’m past patiently waitin’
I’m passionately smashin’ every expectation
Every action’s an act of creation
I’m laughin’ in the face of casualties and sorrow
For the first time, I’m thinkin’ past tomorrow
[HAMILTON AND COMPANY]
And I am not throwing away my shot
I am not throwing away my shot
Hey, yo, I’m just like my country
I’m young, scrappy and hungry
And I’m not throwing away my shot
[HAMILTON/LAURENS/LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN & ENSEMBLE]
We’re gonna rise up, time to take a shot
Not throwing away my shot
We’re gonna rise up, time to take a shot
Not throwing away my shot
We’re gonna
We’re gonna
[HAMILTON & ENSEMBLE]
Time to take a shot (Rise up)
[HAMILTON/LAFAYETTE/LAURENS/MULLIGAN & ENSEMBLE]
Time to take a shot (Rise up)
Time to take a shot (Rise up)
Take a shot, ri— ri— ri—
Shot
Shot
A-yo, it’s
Time to take a shot (Time to take a shot)
Time to take a shot (Time to take a shot)
And I am— (And I am)
[HAMILTON/LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN/LAURENS]
Not throwin’ away my—
[COMPANY]
Not throwin’ away my shot
[1] Lawrence Henry Gipson, “The American Revolution as an Aftermath of the Great War for the Empire, 1754-1763,” Political Science Quarterly 65, no. 1 (n.d.): 86.
[2] Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly : From Troy to Vietnam (Ballantine Books: Ballantine Books, 2013), 177.
[3] Tuchman, 204.
[4] Tuchman, 159.
[5] Charles M. Andrews, “The American Revolution: An Interpretation,” The American Historical Review 31, no. 2 (1926): 221, https://doi.org/10.2307/1838259.
[6] John Ferling, A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic (Oxford University Press, 2003), 25–26.
[7] David Clary, Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship That Saved the Revolution (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 2007), 7-8.
[8] Gottschlk, pp. 3–5
[9] David Clary, Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship That Saved the Revolution, 11–13.
[10] Marc Leepson, Lafayette:Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 8–10.
[11] Marc Leepson, Lafayette:Lessons in Leadership from the Idealist General, 10–11.
[12] Louis Gottschalk, Lafayette: Between the American and the French Revolution (1783–1789) (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago, 1950), 12–13.
[13] David Clary, Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship That Saved the Revolution, 28.
[14] Harlow Giles Unger, Lafayette (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2002), 604–682.
[15] Massey, Gregory D. (2000). John Laurens and the American Revolution. Univ. of South Carolina Press. p. 48
[16] Massey, Gregory D. (2000). John Laurens and the American Revolution. Univ. of South Carolina Press. p. 68.
[17] Nancy Isenberg, Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr (Penguin, 2007), 3-5.
[18] Nancy Isenberg, Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr,. 9–16.
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