While most of America’s notable founding fathers hailed from Virginia, due to the colony’s affluence and influence in the 17th and 18th centuries, one important figure spent his childhood more than 1,500 miles away on a tiny island. Alexander Hamilton was born on Nevis in the British islands sometime between 1755 and 1757.
In 1765, he moved with his parents to St. Croix, an 84-square-mile Caribbean island 154 miles northwest from Nevis. It was there that he learned essential finance and business skills that put him on the path to becoming a prominent figure in the development of the United States.
A Historic Island Hamlet
Because of Hamilton, a must for any history enthusiast traveling to St. Croix is a visit to the Christiansted National Historic Site. There, in the north-central crook of the shoe-shaped island, is St. Croix’s largest town, named Christiansted by the Dutch; it means “Christian’s Place.” Considered a U.S. territory since 1917, St. Croix thrived for many years—especially during the 18th century—as a grower and exporter of sugar and cotton.Visitors today to Christiansted can embark on a group-led (for a fee) or an individual (free) walking tour to learn how Hamilton lived in this port town. Maps are at Fort Christiansvaern or the Scale House, where imports and exports were weighed.
Many of the stucco and pastel-paint colored 18th- and 19th- century buildings are preserved. It’s easy to picture what Hamilton viewed daily as he ventured in and out of the home and store his mother owned on Company Street. Although it no longer stands, the Steeple Building on Company Street does. Built in 1753, it was originally a Lutheran church. Hamilton would have walked past the building before it obtained its steeple in the late 18th century.
Hamilton and his family attended St. John’s Anglican Church on Strand Street. On that same site today is a Gothic-style St. John’s Anglican Church, built in 1868, which replaced the wooden church that stood during Hamilton’s time.
When Hamilton’s father, James, left him and his mother in 1766 to return to Nevis, Hamilton went to work as a clerk for an import/export mercantile firm called Beekman and Cruger. There, this young clerk absorbed the idiosyncrasies of international trade. The future founder of the American system of economics considered his clerkship the “most useful part of his education.”
The actual warehouse where Hamilton worked is no longer on King Street, but he would have regularly conducted business in the buildings that still exist there, like the wharf and weighing house currently within the Christiansted National Historic Site.
A preserved building with which Hamilton most certainly was familiar—and might have visited—was the circa 1749 Danish West India and Guinea Company Warehouse on the corner of Company and Church streets. The structure’s pale-yellow stucco walls and wooden shutters are indicative of the Danish colonial architectural style on the island.
Hamilton also traversed existing cobblestone walkways, laid out in front of homes, shops, and businesses in Christiansted.
In this tropical environment, Hamilton read everything he could get his hands on, according to Ron Chernow’s book “Alexander Hamilton,” which inspired the hit Broadway musical, “Hamilton.” Like Benjamin Franklin, Hamilton was self-educated.
After his mother, Rachel, died from yellow fever in 1768, 13-year-old Hamilton continued to work for the import and/or export firm and did so through his teenage years. Due to his disciplined focus on reading and writing, he became a talented writer. His descriptive account of a 1772 hurricane hitting the island caught the attention of a local businessman. A fund was established, enabling young Hamilton to embark in 1773 on a new life in the burgeoning 13 American colonies. This simple letter—a copy of which is in the National Archives—opened untold doors for the young man.
One of the last structures Hamilton would have seen when he was sailing away from the island town where he spent his boyhood was Fort Christiansvaern, a bright yellow fortification constructed between 1738 and 1749. It was primarily used by the Dutch to defend Christiansted and St. Croix from marauding pirates.
Today, visitors who stroll along the rooftop of Fort Christiansvaern can peer out at the horizon over the Atlantic Ocean. But they can also look over the town of Christiansted and realize that over 250 years ago, Hamilton walked its streets.
But they can also look over the town of Christiansted and realize that over 250 years ago, Hamilton walked among its streets.
