Most of the men who established the new U.S. government after the Revolutionary War were born in one of the 13 American colonies. Nearly all were rich and came from important families.

Alexander Hamilton was an outsider to this world. He was born on a small Caribbean island. His parents had not married before his father left them. Hamilton's mother died when he was 13, and he had to go to work to support himself. However, Hamilton had big dreams for his future. In this lesson, you will learn about some of Alexander Hamilton's accomplishments—the great things he did—and how his childhood struggles helped make them possible.

Goals
Here are the big ideas you will learn about in this lesson:

• Alexander Hamilton played a key role in helping establish the U.S. government after the Revolutionary War
• Skills people learn in their youth can help them achieve their goals when they are adults

Strategies
You will be using many reading and writing strategies to complete this lesson. The key strategies that you will focus on are:

• Making inferences
• Determining important information
• Sequencing events
• Constructing summaries

• establish
• trade
• treasury

Alexander Hamilton had a difficult early life. But he was able to use what he learned growing up to guide his adult life. This video describes Hamilton's early struggles. As you watch it, think about the skills and lessons he learned that might have helped him later in life.

Click "View" on the left to watch the video.

As you have seen in the video, Alexander Hamilton worked for a trading company when he was a teenager. There he learned about trade, business, and working with currency—money. He wrote newspaper articles and poetry. He also read many books about the great leaders of Greece and Rome.

Write down two to three things that Alexander Hamilton accomplished—did with success—in his youth. Then write down one to two skills he learned from his early experiences that would have been useful to him when he helped create the new U.S. government.

When the Revolutionary War began in 1775, Alexander Hamilton had only been in the American colonies for two years. Although he was going to college, he wanted to get involved in the events of the day. He joined a New York artillery company—a military unit that used large weapons, like cannons.

George Washington, who led the Continental army, saw that Hamilton was intelligent and skilled at organization and writing. He asked Hamilton to join his small circle of staff. Hamilton wrote some of Washington's best-known documents. He also successfully led men into battle before the end of the war.

In one to two sentences, describe how Hamilton used his skills during the Revolutionary War.

Alexander Hamilton grew up differently from many of the other men who helped establish the new U.S. government. Unlike those born in the colonies, Hamilton did not have strong ties to any particular state. He did not believe that state governments should have more power than the new federal government.

Click "View" on the left to read a passage about how Alexander Hamilton used his early experiences to push for approval of a stronger national government.

After you have finished reading, write down two to three contributions that Alexander Hamilton made to the creation of the new U.S. government.

Now, show what you've learned so far by answering these four questions. Be sure to save all your answers before you go to the next screen.

You will now check your understanding of the vocabulary words for this lesson by placing them in sentences. Click "View" on the left to begin the activity.

Before moving to the next screen, choose two words from the vocabulary list and write a new sentence for each word.

Vocabulary words: accomplish, approve, currency, establish, trade, and treasury

As you saw and read on the previous screens, Alexander Hamilton faced many struggles and achieved great things in his life. In this activity, you will sort information on a concept map according to when different events happened in Hamilton's life.

Click "View" on the left to begin the activity. Your teacher will review the answers with you.

Then, before moving on to the final assignment, you may want to watch this lesson's video again or reread the passage.

Alexander Hamilton's Early Life

Video: 2m 50s

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A Belief in Strong National Government

Document

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In this lesson, you have learned about Alexander Hamilton's early years, and how he used the skills that he learned then throughout his life. You will now write an essay that demonstrates what you have learned and what you think about it.

Begin by reviewing your notes. Click "review my work" above and view or print out the screen that pops up.

Final Assignment Instructions

• Click Who Was Alexander Hamilton?—Final Assignment (PDF).
• Choose one of the topics in the PDF and write an essay.
• Organize your response so that it includes at least three supporting details that you have learned from the reading passage, video, and other materials in this lesson.
• Use at least three vocabulary words (or form of the words) as part of your supporting details. For example, for the word jump, you could use jumps, jumped, or jumping.