The primary conflict for the 1804 duel came in the form of Burr’s gubernatorial race, where Hamilton worked to undermine him, motivated by mutterings of New England desiring to leave the union. By 1800, Hamilton’s political influence had waned and his endorsement was not likely to swing the election one way or the other. However, the details and involvement surrounding Hamilton and the election results are different according to history. As Diggs says in a piece published for Time, where he discusses Jefferson’s legacy, “ History is about who tells it, and I feel like I’ve been given this opportunity to like, re-imagine and retell the story.” Despite this, the only glances we see of Jefferson are adversarial, surely in order to create additional dramatic tension for the hero of the story. Jefferson even advocated Hamilton’s nomination for the American Philosophical Society, a prestigious organization made up of the most prolific scholars of the day. In addition, there were several instances in which Hamilton and Jefferson agreed, especially during the first years of their appointment to Secretary of Treasury and Secretary of State positions, respectively. However, the show creators take great liberties with Jefferson’s characterization.īy most accounts, Jefferson was actually a fairly quiet, thoughtful Founding Father, who confronted political obstacles with sensitivity and careful thought, rather than head-on and aggressively.

One could argue that in terms of Hamilton’s antagonists in the show, Jefferson could be ranked as one of his greatest rivals, second only to Aaron Burr. Played by Daveed Diggs with an electricity and the spirit of one having the time of his life, Thomas Jefferson is presented in Hamilton as a sharp-tongued, flamboyant, and confrontational figure, prone to political infighting. The compromise troublingly stated that slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person, thus bolstering the power of the uneasy southern states. Hamilton was also in favor of the 3/5 Compromise, an agreement made between the nation’s Founding Fathers in order to ratify the U.S. Records also show that Hamilton was directly involved in the purchase of slaves on behalf of his father-in-law and, in 1784, assisted Angelica in her search for a slave previously in her service. His marriage to Elizabeth Schuyler is particularly telling, seeing as she belonged to a very wealthy slave-owning family, who had 27 enslaved people in their service. While it is true that Hamilton is among the Founding Fathers most opposed to slavery (he was, for example, a proponent of John Laurens’ 1799 plan to enlist slaves into the Continental Army), he often sacrificed those beliefs in the name of political expediency. However, the truth is far more complicated and nuanced. While the musical paints a picture of an abolitionist Hamilton, calling out political rivals, namely Jefferson and Madison, for their ownership of slaves.

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