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TIL 32 years after Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, Burr's wife left him. Her divorce attorney was Alexander Hamilton Jr.
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Aaron Burr also ended up being the divorce lawyer for Mariah Reynolds, Hamilton Sr.'s mistress.
Were there only like 12 people living in New York City back then?
The entire state had 340,000 people in 1790. So yeah, 12 is a good guesstimate I'd say.
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Three per law is a good number. Lets you have a for, an against, and a person in the middle to break ties.
Fun fact: when the Framers gave the President the power to pardon people convicted of federal crimes, there were three: treason, piracy, and counterfeiting.
Better than in Jersey. Everything was legal in New Jersey.
Wonder how they handled bird law; it isn't governed by reason, you know.
Objection!
People or white people?
Good question...
So it was counting everyone.
Edit: This doesn't include Native Americans, for those wondering.
what's the difference?
/s
[Pulls out three fifths conversion slide rule]
maybe just 12 lawyers
I always think it’s funny that even then New York was described as a bustling city. But by our modern standards it was a small town of about 35,000. So yeah, there probably weren’t a ton of lawyers to choose from. It was constantly growing by leaps and bounds though. In 10 years the population doubled. In 20 years it was already what we would consider a mid size city. People just kept pouring in.
Well it was a bustling city, because all those 35,000 people lived between Water Street and Wall Street which is something like 60 city blocks. Everything below Water Street was built on landfill later on, and everything except Greenwich Village above Wall Street was farmland.
That's why it's described as "bustling" from the very beginning. Those blocks in the Financial District are very compact. And people began pouring in faster than real estate development could keep up and there was something like a half million people all living in the Lower East Side by the middle of the 1800s.
“There’s only like 40 people who do anything around here.”
Consider that both men were basically celebrity-level lawyers (and likely founders of their firms) and it starts to make more sense.
Yes, and half of them were played by Daveed Diggs and Okieriete Onaodowan.
Burr's father ordained the minister that collected the money to send Hamilton to the U.S.
Wow, all these connections. Someone should make a Broadway musical about it. How about that guy who did the Moana music?
Stone Cold Steve Austin?
That’s the one.
IF YOU WANNA SEE ME BE WASHINGTON'S SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, GIMME A HELL YEAH
Your welcome
Hamilton ended it's run in Austin earlier this month (June).
Alexander Hamilton Jr.'s career in the New York State Assembly ended in (June) 1819.
Hamilton, Austin, June!!
I'm not making any of this up.
Nah, island music wouldn't work for that story. We need someone who can spit fire.
How about the guy who used to rap about letters on the Electric Company?
Omfg. I had no idea that was Lin. I remember watching that all the time with my little sister!
I hear he’s busy writing a show about Washington heights or something like that
6 foot 20 weighs a fucking ton?
I'm convinced that Lin is Hamilton reincarnated, because WHO ELSE would make a musical about Alexander Hamilton?
Seriously who would've have cared for the ten-dollar founding father w/o a father?
The Rock? Good idea!
I was thinking more like Jermaine Clement.
There were basically, like 10 people alive back then. They ran into each other a lot.
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Fuck it, that would be a young adult TV series I'd actually watch.
That ministers name? Albert Einstein.
And everyone clapped
Hello, my name is Alexander Hamilton, Jr. You killed my father. Prepare for an inconvenient divorce.
Our Mrs. Reynolds?
Upvote for firefly reference.
I bet there were some sick rap battles in the court room.
Nah that was saved for Cabinet meetings
"My husband killed your dad, would you help me screw him over?"
That’s a nice little gift that plopped onto Jr.s’ lap.
PHRASING!
If phrasing is an issue there, what does that say about where your head is?
this coming from a bag of dicks
The obvious
The lap
Looked like she divorced him in his last year of life at 80. Is there more to this story?
My great grandmother had a stroke when she was in her 80s. When she woke up in the hospital she decided she wasnt going back home to her husband’s bullshit.
From what I can find, his second wife was very wealthy but four months into their marriage he began to eat away at a good portion of her money so they separated shortly after.
That line has the perfect amount of syllables to be in the Hamilton Jr. musical.
And Burr died on the day that his divorced was finalized. Alexander Hamilton Jr. avenged his father by lawyering his father's killer to death.
Isn't that unfortunate for the wife though? If they'd been married when he died she'd have gotten the whole estate instead of just her portion from the divorce.
But that was Aaron Burr’s super power. He was immortal as long as he was married.
Huh. Your hypothesis IS scientifically sound. He did survive as long as he wasn't divorced (control), but died as soon as he was (ind variable).
Not without more trials. We need more Aaron burrs
Assuming there isn't a valid will, you are right.
Not exactly. Assuming he had no issue and died intestate, if they were still married at his death she would get half his separate property estate and the other half would be split among his first parentela. If he had issue, his separate property just goes to his issue through intestacy and she would get 1/2 or 1/3 of his depending on whether he had one or more issue respectively. If the divorce was finalized and he had no issue, it'd go to his 1st parentela. If he had issue, they'd get it all. If he died testate, then any property devised to her by will would be void and go into the residue.
She would still be entitled to any community property acquired during marriage however. Based on modern rules of course.
For the simple country hyperchickens like me out there who ain't no fancy big city pay lawyer
children
having died without a will
having made a valid will before one dies
A parentela is a set of the decedent's family tree:
1st parentela: the decedent and his/her descendants;
2nd: x's parents and their descendants (siblings)
3rd: x's grandparents and their descendants (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc)
4th: x's great-grandparents and their descendants
person who's died
Community property is everything a husband and wife own together. This typically includes all money earned, debts incurred and property acquired during the marriage.
Burr was stealing money from HER. That’s why she divorced him.
She had all the money.
She was already a wealthy widow when she married him,and one cause for the divorce was that his land speculation was causing her fortune to swindle.
ie She was rich and divorce allowed her to keep more ofher money than if they had stayed married.
Also, he had a will, so she would not have gotten all the money.
Actually she was the wealthy one. She sued for divorce because he was spending all her money.
Sure, but it took 32 years. Revenge is a dish best served before the person you're taking revenge on is going to die of old age anyway
I mean, you have to acknowledge Hamilton's responsibility in his own death, considered he agreed to the duel, shot first, and missed.
There's a lot of debate about that. I read somewhere that when he came to in the rowboat on the way back to the city, he was very panicked in telling them to be careful with his pistol because it was loaded. I think some believe the force of Burr's shot caused him to shoot and hit that branch. But who really knows.
That only happened in the re-release. In the original he shot first.
Even Burr said Hamilton shot first and had aimed so high he probably did it on purpose (if I'm remembering the Hamilton biography that inspired the musical correctly). Burr just wanted to kill him.
It's speculated that the shock from the shot may have given Hamilton amnesia about the last few seconds before he was shot.
But he still won, because before the duel Hamilton wrote a letter explaining that he wasnt going to try to kill Burr, making Burr look like a huge douche, and the recently murdered Hamilton look like a great guy. Hamilton got the 10 dollar bill, and Burr got remembered alongside Booth, Benedict Arnold, and the rest of early American douche nozzles.
I mean, technically he didn’t get murdered if he agreed to the duel
My name is Alexander Hamilton Jr. You killed my father. Prepare to divorce.
Hamilton Jr: Offer us money!
Burr: Yes!
Hamilton Jr: Power, too. Promise us that!
Burr: All that I have and more! Please!
Hamilton Jr: Offer me everything we ask for!
Burr: Anything you want.
Hamilton Jr: I want my father back, you son of a bitch.
Well, to be honest, Hamilton was killed in a duel. People would occasionally die, it's not like Aaron Burr killed him like a stone-cold murderer.
EDIT: Even presuming that Hamilton missed on purpose (which isn't supported by any reputable sources), gun duels consisted of two idiots, twenty paces apart, with guns aimed at each other's general vicinity. Incidents happened. People died.
He was disgraced afterward, though - it's not like he was actually expected to kill him. Not as crazy as it would be nowadays, but also not socially acceptable.
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That threw me for such a loop because I have one cadence in my head for “my name is Alexander Hamilton” and then had to switch mid-sentence to another when I realized you were going for the Princess Bride ref not the Hamilton one
My name is Barry Allen
My name is Barry Allen. You framed my father. Prepare to kill several more people before I detain you even though I could have saved most of the people you killed by ending your life extremely quickly.
Morals are good, but you know they'll kill again, and you have the power to stop an innocent person dying.
My name is Oliver Queen
B-But I have to be the bigger man!
This is my problem with Batman and the Joker.
Batman makes such a point out of capturing the Joker alive and returning him to Arkham. Each time the Joker escapes, he kills more innocent people. And he's ALWAYS capable of escaping.
At a certain point, if you are continuing to allow innocent people to die, you're not the good guy.
and im the fastest man alive
Garden path references
Goodness, the examples in the wikipedia for garden path sentences really put pretzels in my head.
The papers were served, vigorously.
Inconceivable!
Am really tired. Sang it wrong in my head: My name is Alexander Hamilton, you divorced my father prepare to die
"Well, if it isn't Aaron Burr."
Sir!
I didn't think that you would make it!
cause the comments started the wrong chain
To be sure!
Burr!
That depends. Who's asking
Oh, sure, sir.
My name is Alexander Hamilton im at your service sir
Alexander!
You've created quite a stir, sir.
There's no need to call me sir, Professor.
Hamilton, Princess Bride, and sassy Harry all in one comment section? Am I dreaming?
r/expectedhamilton
https://i.imgur.com/7jCgmap.gifv
Wow, that's a m. night shyamalan plot twist.
Turns out that it wasn't Hamilton's son, but a security guard instead.
He can smell crime!
The twist the twist!!
He NOSE the truth.
From #Ham4ham: The Hamilton Children Lyrics
I’m Alex Junior, I’m on a journey, I grow up to be a famous attorney. But revenge is a sweet final course, I rep Aaron Burr’s second wife when they divorce!
BTW, I can't help but read this like The Fresh Prince would rap it.
If you haven't seen the play, Hamilton, look up the songs on YouTube. The show has a very Fresh Prince feel to the songs.
IIIRC it’s because Lin Manuel Miranda was looking to emulate the beats and flow of 80s and 90s New York Rap when he was writing the music.
This was the first thing I thought about when I went to open this article, and I'm so glad it's the top comment.
God bless Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Context. Start at 2:35 if you want to skip to Alex Jr., as played by the adorable original "Fun Home" Broadway cast member, Oscar Williams.
Bonus: The same cast of kids performing at Broadway Cares begging Lin-Manuel to write more for kids.
This is awesome
Interesting that the Hamiltons merge with JP Morgans family. And JP Morgan (the company) merges with Bank of Manhatten Co, founded by Aaron Burr. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPMorgan_Chase
Hamilton also founded the Bank of New York (now Bank of New York Mellon). JP Morgan actually owns the pistols used in the duel and occasionally puts them out on display.
I didn't know about the Hamilton/Morgan connection, that is fascinating
YOU DONE FUCKED UP A-A-RON.
WELL YOU BETTER BE SICK,DEAD OR MUTE,A-A-RON!!
I love this comment
"you can call us Aaron Burr from the way we're dropping Hamiltons..."
To be sure Red Vines and Mr Pibb is a damn good movie snack.
= Crazy Delicious
it's the chronic what?
cles of Narnia
The Hamiltons send their regards
A Hamilton always settles his debts.
My first thought here was "wasn't Aaron Burr black?" Well done, Lin Manuel.
As a brit, watching Hamilton with no understanding of the actual history was incredibly confusing. I thought the whole point was to tell the untold stories of these black people who helped found America, until black George Washington rocked up!
Our George Washington for the performance in Vegas was Asian lol
The pride of mount vernon himself?
He didn't rock up. He carved up
“Hello for $10,000 who shot Alexander Hamilton?”
awon buhh
Fun fact, that commercial was directed by Michael Bay. I still don't believe it, and I just double checked that.
What’s crazy is Burr and Hamilton Sr. Put their feud aside years earlier to work on a defense team of an accused murderer years earlier. Obviously it didn’t last long though since they still ended up having a duel.
Weirdly, he probably was innocent but their theory that the victim fell into the well on accident is less likely than it is she was killed by the other boarder who was later convicted of a couple other horrible murders.
Our client, Levi Weeks, is innocent, call your first witness!
I always heard lemmiwinks and never questioned it
That's all you had to say!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Weeks
awon buhhh
Got milk?
I still love the fact that Leslie Odom Jr. recreated that commercial
awon buhhh...
Literally the first thing I thought of
I’ve been reading a lot of biographies of the Founding Fathers lately. There’s only one constant. George Washington loved Alexander Hamilton...everyone else hated him. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were at odds for many years, but they always agreed on their hate of Hamilton. He was a snake. And that’s saying something with what what going on with politics at that time.
Hamilton was a bastard. Both in birth and character. They REALLY didn’t like him because he was foreign, heavily self educated, dirt poor and had a serious chip on his shoulder to prove himself. Adams was from a solid family and a distinguished lawyer before the revolution. Jefferson was rich to start with and could afford to just read and further his education, he was also bollocks with money.
Hamilton kind of barged in and expected people to follow along, if they didn’t he would go write under a pseudonym to the papers and tear them down. He didn’t play by the rules and was considered a foreign, uncultured upstart. Washington seemed to love him like a son though. That also made them hate him, Washington loved Ham better than the rest and they did not like it.
It must be nice, it must be nice
To have Washington on your side
Southern Mother****** Democratic Republicans!!!!
CALL ME SON ONE MORE TIME
Not all the Founding Fathers hated Hamilton - Gouverneur Morris is one I can recall who was a close friend, and was at his bedside when Hamilton died, grieving him deeply.
It must be nice to have Washington on your side.
Let's all be honest here. They were salty because he was good looking.
Jefferson's no great man either. Dude had major issues.
John Adams just isn't notable enough for me to remember the complaints about him.
John Adams tried to kill free speech with the Sedition Act. Weirdly enough, he wasn't that bad otherwise.
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He probably did it pro bono
I'd do it without Bono that guy is full of himself
he is also credited with inventing a regional version of baseball that involved smaller baseballs and wider bats called boseball
Yeah but who invented Baseketball?
Me? I'm the damn fool that shot 'im.
"Oh, so you discuss me"
I'm a trust fund baby, you can trust me
His mistress and new wife? Alexandra Hamilton
Burrn
When Burr shot Hamilton, Burr was the serving Vice President of the United States.
One of only two times a sitting vice president has shot someone.
The second was Dick Cheney.
Yeah, but Cheney's victim apologised to him. Hamilton didn't apologize to Burr.
32 years seems quite a detached amount of time for the two thing to be related.
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You don't really forget the man who murdered your father, so I'd say they're related.
Idk if 32 years heals someone killing your dad
It wasn't implying that she left him because of the duel. It just mentioned the timeline. How would you have worded this? You want to mention the killing in a duel (you can't assume that everyone knows this), and you need to mention that it was 32 years later.
I think OP did a fine job, and I'm picky about titles.
I mean, technically this is still a shot fired by Alexander Hamilton that eventually damaged Aaron Burr.
Hamilton was playing the long con on Burr. Checkmate, bitch
There’s actually a theory that Hamilton was doing suicide-by-Burr with the end goals of 1) ending his depression after Philip’s death and 2) screwing over Burr forever.
http://www.historynet.com/hamilton-burr-duel.htm
The Smithsonian proved years ago that Hamilton or someone in his camp tampered with burrs gun because they thought he would shoot to kill...both had dualled or almost duelled many times. Usually they got too drunk or the seconds negotiated a settlement " you will publicly declare later today at the tavern that the girl you debauched had red hair and Mr smedleys daughter has brown so it wasn't her" or they both would miss and satisfy their honor. Burr aimed for the tree behind Hamilton and because the gun was tampered with it but Hamilton. One of the supporting facts for this is that the actual guns were unusual and burrs second and several others wanted to switch but someone in Hamilton's camp insisting on using these guns. Burr was a veteran combat leader and war hero who had spent much of his life hunting but Hamilton was a scholar banker and aide to Washington. If burr wanted to kill Hamilton at that distance he would have drilled him.
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/145184
His fellow soldiers would tell you that he's a terrible shot.
It goes further than that. One of the mysteries of their duel was the question of whether or not Hamilton purposefully missed with his gun. Ham was a known petty bastard, and it's theorized that he did this knowing that if word got out, Burr's life would be ruined. Hamilton was always a step ahead.
Well, it was also the unspoken agreement for most duels at the time.
Were duels the equivalent of bar shouting matches where 2 guys yell "hold me back bro"?
If they held up guns and shot at each other while purposefully missing, yes. Exactly the same lol.
"Before I spit my last breath on you, let it be known, my progeny will have the last laugh, and will fuck your wife" - Alexander Hamilton
I just wanted to point out, this paints a very misleading picture - it makes it sound like Aaron Burr's wife stuck around for 32 years following the duel, then suddenly left but that's not actually so.
Burr's first wife Theodosia Bartow Prevost (who was 10 years his senior and a very cunning political confidante) was married to him from 1782 until her death in 1794 and Burr later remarried to Eliza Jumel in 1833, the same day they divorced was also the day Burr died, September 14, 1836.
Source: BA in American History.
P.S. Aaron Burr is in my humble opinion remembered as a villain for one single act in his life which I think is pretty unfair considering Alexander Hamilton essentially put him in a position where he could either challenge him to duel over insulting his honour or let the slander pass and be remembered as a coward which at the time would have ruined him as the vice president and ended his political career.
For more, read "Fallen Founder" by Nancy Isenberg.
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I also vaguely remember reading about an occasion where he started a company to provide clean water to New York, and then just turned it into a bank once had had money.
You mean where he was tried for treason and the only physical evidence was of a document that was basically fake? No one really knows his true intent with his armed farmers.
Slightly garbled
He married Jumel in 1833 and officially divorced her on the day of his death in 1836. Though she had separated in 1833, within 4 months of marriage.
You killed my father, prepare to die
I only remember the base facts here because of that milk commercial. Am dumb and watch too much tv.
Nah that was an iconic 90s “Got Milk” commercial - and TIL it was directed by Michael Bay lmao
Lies. I saw no exploding peanut butter sammiches.
Got milk?
I'm starting to think like 4 people lived in America around that time.
I worked for a direct decedent of Aaron Burr and that guy was the kind of asshole who would shoot you in a duel. Great contract manager though.
"My name is Alexander Hamilton Jr. You killed my father. Prepare to go through a lengthy divorce proceeding due to your lack of humanity and poor choice in women!"