Hamilton, a Junior’s View

Hamilton, a hit show, written by Lin-Manual Miranda was conceived in 2009, first premiering on Broadway in 2015. It was an instant hit to the American people. Drawing heavy inspiration from hip-hop music, it told the story of Alexander Hamilton, a founding father of America.

To continue to support kids' interests in theater and creating entertaining literature, the Hamilton Education Program was created. Starting in 2016, the program offered Title 1 high schools the chance to see Hamilton. It explored creating literature in an entertaining way–be it humorous or artistic it taught them how to use primary sources in a play, inspired by Lin-Manual Miranda's path to writing Hamilton. East Side Community HS has been part of the program since 2016, led by Kate Jensen, 11th-grade History teacher, she described as, “an incredible experience to work with students as they create their own creative performance pieces after doing primary source research on the Founding Era [...] The content that they explore is relevant and important, and they are able to use their own creative talents to make art from the content.”

My experience, both creating a performance piece and watching Hamilton has been incredible just as Kate had described. I took a more humorous approach in writing my piece about King George III's reaction to the Declaration of Independence. While taking a different approach to King George’s reaction, I felt there was an explicit demonstration of his insanity both educationally and for the audience.

Overall, the actors played true to the expectations of my peers, it was truly a once in a lifetime experience for all students involved. However, as an individual of history, the only criticism is the accuracy. Although, Hamilton is a musical set rather than an educational play. Take for example, Hamilton had slaves like Washington who had slaves as well, many instances in literature or films have portrayed these historical figures as people who opposed slavery or had no slaves. While Hamilton is about the life of Alexander Hamilton in the performance industry it's expected some details are to be left out, but even if Hamilton opposed Slavery, not including the fact that he had slaves is incredibly misleading.

Not to discredit Hamilton, it is still a work of art and literature that has made an impact on America and history.