You're listening to an airwave media podcast.

Ben Franklin's world is a production of the

Omaha Institute and is sponsored by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. and welcome to episode 335 of Ben Franklin's world.

The podcast dedicated to helping you

learn more about how the people and events

of our early American past

have shaped the present day world we live in. And I'm your host, Liz Kovart.

Alexander Hamilton played important roles in the founding of the United States.

First, Hamilton helped the United States secure its independence with his service in the Continental Army.

Second, he played an active role in helping to shape and frame the new United States Constitution.

And third, Hamilton placed the United States on a strong economic footing when he crafted his

debt assumption and economic development plans as the first Secretary of the Treasury.

But how did Hamilton come to know so much about the United States

as economic future and the systems that could help provide the new nation with a

strong and secure economic footing? And how did Hamilton come to work for and believe that the

new United States should be a nation that welcomed all religions and religious

worship? Andrew Poorwanger, the Wickkary Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma, and the Ernest May Fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center, joins us to investigate the Jewish world and upbringing of Alexander Hamilton.

Now during our investigation, Andrew reveals details about Hamilton's

childhood in the Caribbean and how he came to be educated at a Jewish school.

Hamilton's work as a clerk for an internationally focused to be educated at a Jewish school.

Hamilton's work as a clerk for an internationally focused mercantile firm,

and information about the many ways Hamilton worked to enact an internationally focused economy

...