Before earning such a glowing acclamation from the French statesman, Alexander Hamilton had a rocky road to travel (USA Hamilton 1). In the first twenty-one years of his life, Alexander Hamilton struggled for a chance to prove himself and gain recognition of his abilities (Hamilton 1). He was also painfully aware that, having no money, family connections, or inherited prestige, nothing would be handed to him. He would have to work harder and excel beyond everyone else in order to make a name for himself, which is what he resolved to do early on (USA Hamilton 1). Even though Hamilton went through a lot of hardships, he grew stronger, and a lot of his experiences shaped him into the man that he came to be. Illegitimacy, abandonment, life in the Caribbean, and a devastating hurricane marked the early years of the highly intelligent young man and undoubtedly did much to supply the urgent drive that characterized his later career.

Urbane and witty Governor Morris was asked to deliver Alexand

Alexander’s amazing letter was the catalyst that decided Dr. Hugh Knox, Nicholas Cruger, and other sympathetic islanders to finance Hamilton’s education. It was decided to send the youngster to the mainland to study medicine (Hecht 14). In October 1772, Alexander Hamilton was sailed to Boston, and from there he was to proceed to New York (Hecht 14). The ambitious young man was on his way, thanks to a hurricane that has been aptly described as having “blown Alexander Hamilton into history” (Hamilton 37). “Along with a passionate desire to succeed, he brought a reserve of brilliance and energy that would eventually startle his new country men” (Hecht 14).

Hamilton’s youthful hardships and tragedies hardened and tempered his character (Roche 92). An illegitimate child, Hamilton had neither family, fortune, nor tradition to call his own (Hamilton 15). His younger years were truly sad and almost heartbreaking, but without them, he wouldn’t have been the man he turned out to be. Without illegitimacy, abandonment, the Caribbean life, and a hurricane, the future American statesman, Alexander Hamilton could have turned out to be a totally different man.

er Hamilton’s funeral oration, and he “confided to his diary the problems that the assignment presented” (Hecht 1). “The first point of his biography,” Morris said, “is that he was a stranger of illegitimate birth; some plan must be contrived to pass over this handsomely” (Hecht 1). It is clear that Hamilton led an illegitimate childhood, but he eventually overcame these hardships for the most part (Hecht 2).

On the night of August 31, 1772, “one of the most dreadful hurricanes that memory or any records whatever can trace” struck St. Croix without warning (Hecht 12). It raged from the north from dust until ten o’clock, then quieted for about an hour before it shifted to the southwest “and returned with redoubled fury,” blowing until three in the morning! (Hecht 12). The destruction was indescribable. “Homes crashed to the ground while the piercing shrieks of the victims were sufficient to strike astonishment into Angels” (Hecht 13). Most of the buildings on the island were damaged. “The agony of the homeless and the injured was increased by the roaring of the sea and wind and the strong smell of gunpowder that permeated the air” (Hecht 13).

Alexander and his older brother, James, had an apparently normal family life. But in 1765 their father decided to go his own way, leaving Rachel Lavien and her two illegitimate sons to fend for themselves (Hamilton 15). Circumstances forced Rachel to apprentice her son, Alexander, to Beekman and Cruger, a commercial firm that hired him as a clerk (Hecht 6). Rachel ended up proving her husband wrong, and for three years she operated a prosperous store on the Danish island of St. Croix (Hamilton 15). Before, and maybe after, Alexander started to work, he helped his mother in the store, thereby obtaining some idea of business (Hecht 6).

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