SO in musical world when Eliza and Angelica respectively call Hamilton out for his disregard of how society sees them all, I hear it as more than them being personally wounded. Best example: Madison could NEVER have been who he was if Dolly hadn’t made up for society’s problems with his physical and social shortcomings. This other half of politics, more distinctly it’s own arena in that time, deserves more attention. Because women didn’t have the vote they had their own, different (yes, lesser) political roles where highly intelligent social butterflies like Angelica and Dolly Madison were queens. Namely I love the ladies calling Ham out specifically for being politically stupid on top of emotionally harmful…Not only because it feels good to have them hit him where it hurts, but because it shows their political intelligence. I absolutely love Hamilton: An American Musical exactly as is, but I’ve always been sad that “Congratulations” wasn’t in there, AND I’m sad that elements of “First Burn” aren’t there.

All historic quotes within this post are taken from this chapter. If you want to read Ron Chernow‘s take on Eliza and Angelica’s reactions to the Reynolds Pamphlet it can be found within the chapter “Flying Too Near The Sun,” pages 526-545.

I’ve also included some John Barker Church (i.e., Angelica’s forgotten husband with whom Alexander and Eliza were very close…The world needs more JBC, and hopefully this blog will eventually help with that). This song got me fired up, so I made a few Angelica and Eliza visuals/pairings.

Quotes about angelica