Hamilton's America Page #2

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Not long afterwards, Rachel

contracted a lethal fever,

which she then communicated

to Alexander.

- In the eye of a hurricane

There is quiet

for just a moment

A yellow sky

I was 12

when my mother died

She was holding me

We were sick,

and she was holding me

I couldn't seem to die

-Hamilton suddenly

found himself,

at the age of 13,

an illegitimate orphan

in poverty,

and so he immediately

had to go to work.

-He worked for a trading charter

as a kid,

so he's getting

firsthand economic education

because the people

who actually own it

are off on ships, trading.

And he's in charge of the books

back home.

- When I was 17,

a hurricane destroyed my town

I didn't drown

I couldn't seem to die

-A hurricane

destroys Saint Croix.

He writes a letter

about the destruction he saw,

and it's so beautifully written

that a newspaper publishes it.

-It was impressive enough

and eloquent enough

that people got together

a charitable fund

to send him to North America,

to the North American colonies,

so he could get

a real education.

-And that's how he

gets off the island.

He literally writes his way

out of his circumstances.

And it's so much the

quintessential immigrant story

of redefining yourself

when you come

to a new place.

And the sense I got,

really early

in Ron Chernow's

Hamilton biography,

was this sense of,

"I know this guy."

The fact that Hamilton

left the Caribbean

to come to New York

to get his education --

I always tell people, "I'm just

playing my dad in the show..."

-[ Laughs ]

-...down to the hair.

Tell me about coming

to New York for the first time.

What brought you here?

-I got a great opportunity

to come and study at NYU.

I left Puerto Rico

when I was 18.

I always thought,

"Puerto Rico is just too small.

I-I got to see more."

I graduated.

Then I was involved in advocacy,

but I realized that I wanted

to do something different,

so I joined

the Ed Koch administration,

mayor of New York City,

in '87.

You know, in my experience,

immigrants are never

the lazy ones.

They're not the stupid ones.

They're the smart, hard workers

'cause they have to work

so much harder

to make sense of their reality

and succeed in that reality.

I always saw my time here

as a temporary thing.

But then I realized

that this is where

I was gonna raise my children.

Then we stay here forever.

-"Bye, Puerto Rico."

And that was it.

And then you were a New Yorker.

-Alexander Hamilton is

in New York

just at the time

as the tremendous ferment

of the American Revolution

is starting.

On the Common,

what is today City Hall Park,

Alexander Hamilton

is delivering fiery speeches.

He also had established

his bona fides

as one of the most feared

polemical writers in New York.

-I really keyed into how much

of a New York story it was.

These blocks

that I've passed all my life

have all along been

these incredible sources

of rich American history.

I don't think a lot

of people know that.

When we think of

the founding fathers,

we think of them

in some room in Philadelphia,

you know, hashing it out.

It's like

a John Trumbull painting.

But they were here.

They were uptown,

like the Grange

in Hamilton Heights

on 141st Street,

which is where Hamilton

and his wife

lived for the last few years

of his life.

-This was Hamilton's study,

and --

-It's the right color.

-Right. [ Laughs ] Money green.

This is a reproduction

of Hamilton's laptop,

or his traveling desk.

He would write

everywhere and anywhere.

He wrote under trees.

He wrote on --

on horseback.

He wrote in carriages.

-I mean, the tonnage

of his writing, it's --

-Exactly.

The sheer amount that he had,

he must have had something

with him all the time

to be writing on

because he never would have

produced the amount that he did.

-Yeah.

Oh, my goodness.

All right.

Can I touch the desk?

-No.

-No.

Okay.

I won't. That's cool.

This just makes me feel like

I have to go home and write.

[ Both laugh ]

I started writing

that first song

that's just about his childhood.

I wanted to sort of

encapsulate that

in two hip-hop verses.

-The strongest candidate

is the candidate

who wins the most elections.

Barack Obama

has won 29 contests.

Hillary Clinton

has won 13 contests.

-And I worked on it for about

a year at "In the Heights,"

while I'm still doing

eight shows a week.

-Lin didn't say,

"I was writing a show."

Lin said, "I'm writing a song."

So, he said,

"I read this book,

and I think

there's something there.

I think I might do

a series of songs."

And I said, "Great. Go. Write."

[ Applause ]

-I'd only written this one song

when the White House

called and said,

"We're doing an evening

of spoken word,

but if you have anything

on the American experience,

that would be great."

I said, "I got a hot 16

about Hamilton."

[ Piano plays up-tempo music ]

How does a bastard, orphan,

son of a whore and a Scotsman

Dropped in the middle

of a forgotten spot

In the Caribbean

by providence

Impoverished, in squalor

Grow up to be

a hero and a scholar?

-The first day Lin

brought the opening number

of the show to me,

I'm like, "It's about history,

but it's rap?

Uh, okay.

Is it serious?

Sure. Whatever."

I remember, it wasn't

till I actually heard it

all the way through,

I'm like, "Wow, this is real."

- There would've been

nothin' left to do

For someone less astute

He would've been

dead or destitute

Without

a cent of restitution

Started workin', clerkin'

for his late mother's landlord

Tradin' sugar cane and rum

and other things

he can't afford

Scammin' for...

When they posted videos

of the evening,

my performance went viral,

and we were sort of

off to the races after that.

We realized,

"There's a show here."

I'm the damn genius

that shot him

[ Final chord plays ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

So, I started writing songs

at the amazing pace

of a song a year.

After two years of working,

I had two songs to show for it.

-"So, you've written two songs

in two and a half years.

We're gonna be very old

by the time

this is actually

gonna be complete,

so why don't we expedite it

a little bit?"

-And so, you know,

I'm writing as fast as I can.

But that's how it gets done.

You know, you set these

deadlines, and you meet them.

-I have more than once

compared Lin to Shakespeare,

and I do it

without blushing or apologizing.

Lin, in "Hamilton,"

is doing exactly

what Shakespeare did

in his history plays.

He's taking the voice

of the common people,

elevating it to poetry --

in Shakespeare's case,

iambic pentameter,

in Lin's case, rap, rhyme,

hip-hop, R&B --

and by elevating it to poetry,

ennobling the people themselves.

He is bringing out what is noble

about the common tongue.

And that is something

that nobody has done

as effectively as Lin

since Shakespeare.

Yeah, I said it.

- ...handle

our financial situation

Are we a nation of states?

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