Hamilton is a hit Broadway show, that captured the attention of millions of people around the world. People have traveled from across the country and the world, just to see the show everyone was talking about. Although the original actors left the show one by one and were replaced, Disney+ recently produced a filmed version of the musical. The reappearance of the original cast got many people talking about it again. As someone who only a week ago watched Hamilton, I was left in awe, blown away, and speechless - I definitely think that it is a brilliant story. Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also stars as the title character, the musical tells the story of one of America's founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton, through a series of songs, raps, and dances.
The musical opens with an ensemble giving a summary of Alexander's childhood, Alexander Hamilton, with one line going "And every day while slaves were being slaughtered and carted away" which is a reference to the slave trade, later playing a role in the continental army as several thousand slaves won their freedom by serving on both sides of the revolutionary war.
In the rap My shot, there is a verse that says "A colony that runs independently/ Meanwhile, Britain keeps sh***in' on us endlessly/ Essentially, they tax us relentlessly/ Then King George turns around, runs a spendin' spree." The first line is a reference to the reason the American Revolution ever happened, the colonies wanting to be independent from Britain, running their own country. "Essentially, they tax us relentlessly" is an allusion to the stamp act, where the British decided to tax the colonists without their representation.
In the song The Schuyler Sisters, there is a direct quote from the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident/ That all men are created equal" which appears in the preamble of the document, Thomas Jefferson inferred that the "Creator" created all men to be equal, not one given the power to rule over another. As the new way of thinking, the people were to create the government that was created to protect the natural rights - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - that people were born with. In the same song, Angelica Schuyler says "When I meet Thomas Jefferson, I'ma compel him to include women in the sequel!" The moment she says this, the audience cheers, as back in the 18th century, women - and people of color - were highly disregarded, and it wasn't until the 19th amendment that women were treated a tad more equally.
One of my favorite songs in the musical, You'll be back, sung by King George III, is about his viewpoint on the revolution. He thinks that the colonies won't be able to run their own country, that they'll be back for him to reign over - "You'll be back, time will tell/ you'll remember that I served you well." "I will send a fully armed battalion" references the Boston Massacre, and earlier in the song, King George III sings "You cry/ In your tea which you hurl in the sea" which is about the Boston Tea Party, the colonists dumping 342 chests of tea into the harbor after the British imposed the stamp act.
There are countless more references and inferred lines to the American Revolution, but from what I gather, Hamilton fans not only love said musical for the catchiness and modernness of the songs but for the trueness and factual side of it. Although the musical premiering on Disney+ is probably the end of the Hamilton era, its legacy and impact that it inspired are definitely one to live on, even in future generations.
Notes: LOVE HAMILTON