In August of 1772, a powerful hurricane devastated much of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean. On the island of St. Croix, the town of Christiansted was virtually leveled. An impoverished 17-year-old clerk, who worked for a local merchant, wrote a letter to his long distant father describing the storm. That letter would influence the history of a nation not yet born. The young clerk’s name, of course, was Alexander Hamilton   

In addition to vividly describing the horrors of the hurricane, the letter also suggested that the storm was a “divine rebuke to human vanity and pomposity.” The letter passed through the hands of Hugh Knox, a minister, and journalist, who published the letter in the Royal Danish-American Gazette. The newspaper’s readers were so impressed by the eloquence and skill of the 17-year-old letter writer that they raised money to send him to be educated in New York.

Alexander Hamilton would go on to fight in the American revolution, to be the first Secretary of the Treasury, principal author of Federalist Papers, and founder of the nation’s financial system, as well as the US Coast Guard. He is also the unlikely inspiration for a major Broadway musical. 

The musical, Hamilton, opens with a provocative question — “How did the bastard, orphaned, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”  Some writers have suggested that Hamilton was carried to America by a hurricane, while the musical says that he “wrote his way out.” There is an element of truth in each.

Now, 246 years after the Great Storm of 1772, Hamilton is returning to the Caribbean, because of a hurricane. In September 2017, the Category 5, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the worst natural disaster on record to befall the island. Nearly 3,000 people died. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the author of the musical Hamilton, has close family ties to Puerto Rico and has been active in the recovery, raising millions of dollars in aid. 

Miranda is bringing the musical Hamilton to Puerto Rico, reprising his premiere role on Broadway. The musical opens at the Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center and runs from January 12th to the 27th. The 23 performances are part of a $15 million fundraising effort that Miranda is leading. Proceeds from the show will go to supporting the arts on the island.

It is possible that those who contributed to the sending the young clerk to the mainland for an education in 1772 hoped that he might return to help the Caribbean islands. Perhaps, now more than two centuries later, that promise is being fulfilled.

Hurricane