The Hamilton Affair Book Club Questions
The Hamilton Affair
Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (Eliza)
Eliza did not believe the rumors of her husband’s affair. Why do you think this was? Was she simply naive? Did a woman’s reliance on her husband have an effect? Did the time period play into this?
How and why did Eliza come to accept Alexander’s infidelity and failings? How do you think that you would have responded?
Alexander claims that honor and love were his motivations. What were the Eliza’s motivations? How did they shape her actions or inactions?
Alexander Hamilton
Why did Alexander cheat on his wife?
What role does Alexander’s upbringing have upon his infidelity? On his character as a whole? Upon his relationships with his own wife and children? Do you think that his not having a father had an effect?
Do you think that Alexander is a man of integrity and character? Why/why not?
Hamilton resigned as Secretary of the Treasury at the height of his career. Why do you think that was? Is it consistent with his character? Why/why not?
The Hamilton family as a whole was put into the spotlight as a result Alexander’s writing about the affair. Can you think of modern examples of the family being drug into the media’s attention as a result of an affair?
Hamilton was critic of dueling, yet accepted Burr’s challenge. Why do you think that he did so? Did he honor and defend his family by doing so? Or betray them? Or both? Do you think that his son’s duel had an effect on his acceptance of the challenge?
Ajax/Slavery
Ajax Manly–what role does his character play in the story? What do we learn about Alexander because of Ajax? What do we learn about Eliza because of Ajax? About Eliza and Alexander’s relationship?
Was Ajax foolish to fall in love with a slave? Does it matter if he was foolish? Was the first slave’s unwillingness to run away to freedom believable to you?
Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, John Laurens, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Aaron Burr all endorsed abolition, some to the extent of joining abolition groups. George Washington owned slaves, but freed them upon his death. Why did they not challenge others including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Schuyler family for owning slaves? Time period? Trying to create and keep a union? Or did they not really believe that slavery was wrong?
Native Americans
Why do you think that the author wrote the scene with Eliza’s encounter with Native Americans during her childhood? What does it tell us about her?
Are the Native Americans essential or peripheral to the story?
Other
Parts of this story are well-known (i.e. the Hamilton/Burr duel), yet others are less familiar. What was most surprising to you? Were you familiar with Hamilton’s background? If so, how?
This book is told from the Hamiltons’ perspective? How do you think it would have changed if told from the perspective of someone else? In particular Madison or Jefferson?
Does this book change your perception of the Founding Fathers?
If you were making this book into a movie, who would you cast?