Hamiltonian Historiography on Slavery over the Years

Several of Ron Chernow’s predecessors depicted Hamilton as a bitter opponent of slavery without conducting adequate research. Among them were such well-known historians and biographers as Nathan Schachner, Broadus Mitchell, John C. Miller, Jacob E. Cooke, and Forrest McDonald. Cooke admitted that as a Federalist Party leader and secretary of the treasury, Hamilton befriended such wealthy slaveholders as South Carolina Congressman William Loughton Smith. The chief evidence for Hamilton’s antislavery objectives was his membership in the New-York Manumission Society, a moderate organization in which he soon showed little interest and that he eventually opposed.