Based on Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton , Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton aims to answer the question it poses in its opening lines: “How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman… grow up to be a hero and a scholar?” . Chronicling the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, from his difficult upbringing in the Caribbean to his death at the hands of his friend and rival Aaron Burr, Hamilton has received critical acclaim, 11 Tony Awards , and 7 Olivier Awards , amongst other accolades. This essay will focus on how Miranda represents race within the musical, though his decision to cast people of colour as most of the main roles, and his engagement with the narrative of actual people of colour during the American …show more content…
In the original Broadway cast, George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson are played by African-American actors Christopher Jackson, Okieriete Onaodowan, and Daveed Diggs respectively; Hamilton’s wife, Eliza, is played by Chinese-American actress Philipa Soo; and Hamilton himself is played by Puerto Rican Miranda. This casting decision, described by a Hamilton spokesperson as ‘essential to the storytelling of Hamilton’ , is meant to represent what ‘America looks like now’ . Hamilton was written during President Obama’s term as the first black president of the United States, and the casting of people of colour as the white founding fathers reflects the changing nature of America: Chernow described the musical as having ‘“Obama’s America” written all over it’ . Lyra Monteiro, however, argues that ‘the idea that this musical “looks like America looks now” in contrast to “then” … is misleading and actively erases the presence and role of black and brown people in Revolutionary America, as well as before and since’ . Furthermore, it can be argued that the casting of people of colour as the founding fathers, some of whom were slaveholders , is problematic, as it overly focuses on the deeds of “great white men” whilst erasing the contributions of people of colour . On the other hand, the …show more content…
John Laurens, originally played by Puerto Rican actor Anthony Ramos, raps ‘Wait till I sally in/On a stallion with the first black battalion’ in the song “My Shot” , but the black battalion are never seen. Similarly, the character of Sally Hemings, a slave who Thomas Jefferson is believed to have fathered children with , is played by a chorus member for a few bars of Jefferson’s introductory song “What’d I Miss?” (‘Sally be a lamb, darlin’, won’tcha open it?’ ), but this is only recognizable by audience members who know of this relationship, as it is not mentioned again. On the other hand, Hamilton does engage with the narrative of slavery. It is frequently mentioned in the lyrics of songs, from Hamilton and Laurens’ declaration that ‘we'll never be free until we end slavery’ to Hamilton’s impassioned address to Jefferson in the first Cabinet battle: ‘Your debts are paid cuz you don’t pay for labor… Yeah, keep ranting/We know who’s really doing the planting’ . However, Miranda’s portrayal of Hamilton as an ardent abolitionist is arguably overstated; there is some evidence that Hamilton tolerated slavery or even owned slaves himself (a letter from Hamilton to George Clinton, for example, contains the line ‘I expect by Col Hay’s return to receive a sufficient sum to pay the value of