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"Hamilton" is yet another example of "Founders' Chic", an attempt to underscore the increasingly challenged idea that 18th century slaveholders and their acolytes--e.g. Alexander Hamilton--were avatars of democracy and liberty.
This absurd idea has received concrete affirmation in the U.S. Supreme Court with the ridiculous idea that did not die with the unlamented Anton in Scalia--i.e. that we should interpret current reality based on 'original intent' of these 'Founders'.
Of course, ascertaining this 'intent' is more than a notion even for the most diligent of historians given that many constitutional debates did not yield a precise record.
And, secondly, as Whoopie Goldberg asked half-humorously and half-seriously of then GOP presidential candidate, John Mc Cain in 2008, does 'original intent' mean that we Black Folk will have to return to enslavement?
'Hamilton' would do a service if it showed how many settlers fled the Caribbean--e.g. Hamilton's own Nevis--as the African population rose and their ability to launch successful slave revolts rose accordingly, as those that had rocked Jamaica repeatedly.
LIke those fleeing Cuba after 1959 and Vietnam after 1975--not to mention Russia after 1917--those fleeing unrest in the Caribbean in the 18th century helped to bolster a pre-existing conservatism.
This is the real story that 'Hamilton' should tell.
