Alexander Hamilton Trivia Quiz Questions and answers

Long Alexander Hamilton trivia quiz with answers

Alexander Hamilton Trivia Quiz Questions and answers

Who was Alexander Hamilton?
A: Alexander Hamilton was an American statesman and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Where was Alexander Hamilton born?
A: In Charlestown, the capital of the island of Nevis in the Leeward Islands (then part of the British West Indies).

Hamilton and his older brother James Jr. were born out of wedlock to whom?
A: Rachel Faucette, and James A. Hamilton.

Speculation that Hamilton's mother was of mixed race, though persistent, is not what?
A: Substantiated by verifiable evidence. She was listed as white on tax rolls.

It is not certain whether the year of Hamilton's birth was in what two years?
A: 1755 or 1757.

Most historical evidence, after Hamilton's arrival in North America, supports the idea that he was born when?
A: In 1757, including Hamilton's own writings.

Hamilton listed his birth year as 1757 when he first arrived where?
A: In the Thirteen Colonies, and celebrated his birthday on January 11.

In later life, he tended to give his age only in what?
A: Round figures.

Hamilton's mother had been married previously to whom?
A: Johann Michael Lavien, a Danish or German merchant.

They had one son, named what?
A: Peter Lavien.

In 1750, Faucette left her husband and first son; then traveled to St. Kitts where she met whom?
A: James Hamilton.

Hamilton and Faucette moved together to where?
A: Nevis, her birthplace, where she had inherited property from her father.

James Hamilton later did what?
A: He abandoned Rachel Faucette and their two sons, James Jr. and Alexander.

After that, where did Rachel move with her two children?
A: To St. Croix, where she supported them by keeping a small store.

She contracted yellow fever and died on what date?
A: February 19, 1768, at 1:02 am, leaving Hamilton orphaned.

He and James Jr. were briefly taken in by whom?
A: Their cousin Peter Lytton.

Lytton committed suicide in July 1769, and the Hamilton brothers were subsequently what?
A: Separated.

James apprenticed with a local carpenter, while Alexander was given what?
A: A home by Nevis merchant Thomas Stevens.

Hamilton proved capable enough as a trader to be what?
A: Left in charge of the firm for five months in 1771 while the owner was at sea.

He remained an avid what?
A: Reader and later developed an interest in writing.

He began to desire a life outside what?
A: The Island where he lived.

He wrote a letter to his father that was a detailed account of a what?
A: A hurricane which had devastated Christiansted on August 30, 1772.

Where did Hugh Knox, a minister and journalist, publish the letter?
A: In the Royal Danish-American Gazette.

The essay impressed community leaders, who collected a fund to do what?
A: Send Hamilton to the North American colonies for his education.

Why did the Church of England deny membership to Alexander and James Hamilton, Jr.?
A: Because their parents were not legally married.

They received "individual tutoring and classes in a private school led by a what?
A: A Jewish headmistress.

Alexander supplemented his education with a what?
A: A family library of 34 books.

In October 1772, he arrived by ship in what city?
A: Boston.

From Boston he proceeded from there to where?
A: New York City.

In 1773, in preparation for college work, where did he begin to fill gaps in his education?
A: At the Elizabethtown Academy.

He came under the influence of whom?
A: William Livingston, a leading intellectual and revolutionary, with whom he lived for a time at his Liberty Hall.

When did Hamilton enter King's College (now Columbia) in New York City?
A: In the autumn of 1773 "as a private student".

Church of England clergyman Samuel Seabury published a series of pamphlets promoting the Loyalist cause in 1774, to which Hamilton responded how?
A: Anonymously with his first political writings, A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress and The Farmer Refuted.

Hamilton was a supporter of the Revolutionary cause at this pre-war stage, although he did not approve of what?
A: Mob reprisals against Loyalists.

On May 10, 1775, Hamilton won credit for saving whom?
A: His college president Myles Cooper, a Loyalist.

What did he save Cooper from?
A: An angry mob by speaking to the crowd long enough for Cooper to escape.

Hamilton was forced to discontinue his studies before graduating when what happened?
A: The college closed its doors during British occupation of the city.

When the war ended, after some months of self study, by July 1782 Hamilton passed what?
A: The bar exam.

In October 1782 he was licensed to what?
A: Argue cases before the Supreme Court of the State of New York.