This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

On this episode of News World, the lives of these men are essential to understand the

American form of government and our ideals of liberty.

The founding fathers all played key roles in securing American independence from

Great Britain and in the creation of the government of the United States of America. And now,

the life of Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, in a sense, has had a new burst of fame, but he's somebody who really never should have disappeared.

First of all, he was extraordinarily bright.

Hamilton may have been, in sheer IQ, the smartest of all the founding fathers. He was just

deeply admired by Washington. He was invaluable to Washington as a staff officer. He was endlessly

competent. And I think that's a key part of this, is that Hamilton was a person who was very ambitious,

but he was also a person who worked very hard and who applied his considerable intelligence

to whatever job he had.

Now, he actually had not gotten to the U.S. very much before the revolution began.

He was born, we think, either in 1755 or 1757 on Nevis.

His father was a Scottish trader named James Hamilton.

His mother, Rachel Fossette Levienne, they were not married at the time.

Rachel, in fact, was married to another man at the time of Hamilton's birth, but had left her

husband after he spent much of her family fortune, and he had had her imprisoned for adultery.

Now, you may be curious why James Hamilton settled in Navas.

The British gained control of the island in 1713, and Nevis and St. Kitts soon were the leading areas of sugar production in the Caribbean.

The colonists and others wanted sugar to sweeten their tea and coffee.

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