Alexander Hamilton

by Ron Chernow

she could never be satisfied.”

Let us pause briefly to tally the grim catalog of disasters that had befallen these two boys between 1765 and 1769: their father had vanished, their mother had died, their cousin and supposed protector had committed bloody suicide, and their aunt, uncle, and grandmother had all died. James, sixteen, and Alexander, fourteen, were now left alone, largely friendless and penniless.

“The gay trio to which Hamilton and Laurens belonged was made complete by Lafayette,”

who fired a ball through Conway’s mouth that came out the back of his head.