Tag: St. Croix

January 2017

St. Croix (pop. about 50,000) is one of three US Virgin Islands in the east Caribbean along with St. John and St. Thomas. It is about 20 miles long and 8 miles wide. The two primary towns are Frederiksted in the west and Christiansted in the east. We visited St. Croix for some warm R&R, good food and the opportunity to experience the environment in which Alexander Hamilton lived through his formative teenage years.

Our memories of St. Croix are colorful; the blue and turquoise sea;the green palm trees bending in the prevalent strong trade winds; and the orange and yellow sunsets.

Below is a view of Christiansted from Fort Christiansvaern which was built in 1738 by the Danish to protect the town and the harbor. St. Croix was governed by Denmark in the years Alexander Hamilton lived there.

Although Hamilton claimed to have been born in 1757, many historians believe his actual birth year was 1755. He lived on St. Croix from 1765 to 1772 or from about age 10 to 17. We did not find much information about his life there during our visit other than a small display somewhat hidden inside the old Scale House on the wharf near Fort Christiansvaern.

Nevertheless, walking the streets of his youth and visiting the area where his learning began was enlightening. Now, rereading Hamilton’s story is much more meaningful and relatable.

Alexander’s mother Rachel Faucette was unhappily married to Johann Lavien, a marriage arranged by her mother in 1745 when Rachel was 16. Lavien later had his wife imprisoned for several months in Fort Christiansvaern for adultery.

In 1750 Rachel fled her husband and left St. Croix for the nearby islands of Nevis and St. Kitts where she met James Hamilton. He was of noble Scottish ancestry and has been described as being proud and lazy. Rachel, whose father was a prosperous physician, was very intelligent and determined. Their son Alexander, born in Nevis while Rachel was still officially married to Lavien, was certainly proud, very intelligent and determined, but the polar opposite of lazy.

Lavien divorced Rachel in 1759 with a legal document preventing her from remarrying. Alexander and his parents moved to St. Croix in 1765.  Soon thereafter James deserted the family and Alexander never saw him again though they did maintain occasional correspondence.

For a woman once hounded from St. Croix in disgrace, Rachel exhibited remarkable resilience upon her return. As she ambled about Christiansted in a red or white skirt, her face shaded by a black silk sun hat, this “handsome,” self-reliant woman seems to have been fired by some inner need to vindicate herself and silence her critics. At this, she succeeded admirably, superseding James Hamilton as the family breadwinner.

Chernow, Ron (2005-03-29). Alexander Hamilton (p. 22). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Rachel and her two sons lived on Company Street about six blocks from where she had been jailed. According to Chernow there were 59 houses on Company Street in the mid 18th Century, none of which are still there.

Scenes from present day Company Street in Christiansted:

Rachel took a two-story house on 34 Company Street, fast by the Anglican church and school. Adhering to a common town pattern, she lived with her two boys in the wooden upper floor, which probably jutted over the street, while turning the lower stone floor into a shop selling foodstuffs to planters— salted fish, beef, pork, apples, butter, rice, and flour. It was uncommon in those days for a woman to be a shopkeeper, especially one so fetching and, at thirty-six, still relatively young… In her enclosed yard, Rachel kept a goat, probably to provide milk for her boys.

Chernow, Ron (2005-03-29). Alexander Hamilton (pp. 22-23). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Visitors to St. Croix today would also assume they had an abundant supply of eggs. Many chickens freely roam the streets. Roosters can be heard crowing as early as 2 am.

The young Alexander likely had no formal education but was a fast learner from tutors and mentors. Though his mother had few possessions she reportedly had a library of some 36 books from which the boy likely learned much about the statesmen of ancient Greece and Rome.

Misfortune again struck 13 year old Alexander when he and his mother both came down with a tropical disease, perhaps yellow fever. Due in large part to mediocre medieval medicine Rachel died at the age of 38. Amazingly, Alexander survived. Now orphaned, he and his brother moved in with Peter Lytton, their much older cousin, the son of Rachel’s sister Anne. Calamity continued when Peter committed suicide. Now 14, Alexander moved in with merchant Thomas Stevens who lived on King Street, parallel to and one block west of Company Street.

Scenes from present day King Street in Christiansted:

This church on King Street was built in 1740 and might have been attended by the young Alexander.

Rumors persisted for more than a century that Thomas Stevens was Alexander’s true father. Chernow provides circumstantial evidence of this conjecture including the fact that Edward Stevens, a son of Thomas, was a lifelong “eternal friend.” In the 1770s Edward resided at the pink building shown above on Company Street.

On King Street is also where Hamilton clerked for Beekman and Cruger, an import-export firm. As a teenager he quickly learned much about business, finance and international currencies without which he later might not have been able to create the foundation for what ultimately became the US financial system. At this time he also developed his amazing writing ability which even included poetry. Nicholas Cruger was from a noted Manhattan merchant family and undoubtedly prepped Alexander about the politics of New York. And when Cruger returned to New York he left 16 year old Alexander in charge of the business.

And then a horrendous event occurred on August 31, 1772 which was to propel Alexander Hamilton onto his path of politics and fame. In the words of Lin-Manuel Miranda:

Hamilton penned an astonishing description of that devastation which he sent to his father. It later was printed in the Royal Danish American Gazette and is available at
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-01-02-0042

Hamilton did not know it, but he had just written his way out of poverty. This natural calamity was to prove his salvation. His hurricane letter generated such a sensation— even the island’s governor inquired after the young author’s identity— that a subscription fund was taken up by local businessmen to send this promising youth to North America to be educated.

Chernow, Ron (2005-03-29). Alexander Hamilton (p. 37). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Shortly thereafter, Hamilton, still a teenager, sailed away never returning to the Caribbean.