Today's podcast was written by student Gracie Moore. Gracie utilized this assignment to prepare, with the help of the teacher, a podcast about a person that she is passionate about learning about. This is part of a student-teacher co-teaching model, which utilized student co-teaching methods that support greater learning for the student and their peers.
Portrait of Elizabeth Hamilton -Library of Congress
Podcast Transcript:
Hello! Welcome to today’s episode of our quick history podcasts, where we will be discussing the accomplishments of Elizabeth Schyuler Hamilton. The smash hit Broadway play, “Hamilton”, by Lin-Manuel Miranda, recently resurfaced in popularity after being released to the streaming app, Disney+, this June. The play about America’s founding fathers has the world asking questions about America’s founding mothers.
Eliza -- formally known as Elizabeth -- was born August 9, 1757 to a wealthy family in New York and is most commonly known for her marriage to Alexander Hamilton, a notable founding father. While most of the Hamilton’s fame lies within the political and financial work of Alexander, Eliza dedicated the second half of her life to furthering the growth of social causes that were important to both her and her husband.
Eliza wedded the ambitious politician in 1780, later giving birth to their eight children over the next twenty years. Wrapped up in the heated pits of bloodshed, politics, and pride, Alexander died in 1804, leaving his wife to raise their remaining children.
Out of empathy for her orphaned husband, Eliza was one of several prominent women who helped found the first private nonprofit Orphanage of New York City in 1806; working with the New York Orphan Asylum Society as well, even taking homeless children into residency herself.
Though Eliza was successful in contributing to society's needs, she struggled to financially provide for her own family -- the death of her husband leaving the widow to handle his accumulated debts. Alexander’s army pension had previously been withheld, but after petitioning, a total of thirty thousand dollars and sections of land were specially granted to Eliza through Congress in 1837.
Money trouble was not the only conflict Eliza was faced with. Death made its presence stubbornly known in both the Schuyler and Hamilton family. Margaret “Peggy” Schuyler, Eliza’s sister, was the first family member to pass in 1801 from a chronic illness. Her death was followed by Alexander and Eliza’s eldest son, Philip Hamilton, in November of 1801 at the age of 19 as result of a duel with George Eacker. Alexander fell three years later after also losing a duel to a previous friend and later political opponent, Aaron Burr. Eliza’s father perished later that year in November.
Eliza spent nearly 50 years after Alexander’s death organizing heaps of his letters and papers in attempts to rebuild his dirtied reputation and apprise the legacy he had tried to create for himself. Committed to defending and honoring Alexander, Eliza was determined to tell his story and rebuild his legacy.
Throughout the last year of her life, Eliza worked with Dolley Madison, wife of James Madison, to raise funds for the Washington Monument in D.C., where she resided with her daughter, Eliza Hamilton Holly. Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton died November 9, 1854, at the age of 97. She is buried with her husband and older sister, Angelica, at Trinity Church in New York City.
Despite being a woman in a time where women were not very respected and losing her husband and dealing with many tragedies of death in her family, Eliza hamilton was able to preserve her husbands memory and acheive many great accomplishments, more than many men and women during that time.
I hope you learned a little bit more about Elizabeth Schyuler Hamilton and the contributions she made to our great nation. For sources or more information please look in the description or on the website provided. Be prepared to know this information in class on Tuesday.
Sources and more information: