WESTERVILLE, Ohio — He goes by different names; a founding father, a title character in a worldwide phenomenon on stage.
To him, though, he calls Alexander Hamilton something different.
“He was my fifth great-grandfather,” Douglas Hamilton said.
To Hamilton, who lives in Westerville, Alexander Hamilton, who was an immigrant who became the right-hand man to George Washington and later went on to shape the country’s financial system, was his great, great, great, great, great grandfather.
Retired now, Douglas Hamilton attends a lot of events for his famous heritage. He belongs to different groups associated with the American Revolution. Today, he says it’s an interesting present for our country’s past.
“Right now, we’re kind of at an age where a lot of this history is either being pushed to the side or they’re trying to re-write it,” Hamilton said.
In the last few weeks, statues across the nation have been torn down or removed, he says, for racist, sexist or selfish pasts. Just last week the Christopher Columbus statue outside Columbus City Hall was removed after 65 years. It was one of two Columbus statues removed in the city. Another is still under discussion.
“None of us are perfect,” Hamilton said. “None of them were perfect, but there’s this feeling that if they’re going to destroy the culture of this country, they got to start somewhere.”
A couple weeks ago it was announced a statue in Albany, New York, of Hamilton’s sixth great grandfather, Philip Schuyler, would come down because he was a slave owner. Hamilton says he understands the sensitivity and expresses it was not right, but he views the statue for hundreds of thousands who fought in the American Revolution to allow independence. Hamilton suggested taking Schuyler’s name off and replacing it with the 36 African Americans who fought in the war.
“I think the people that want to destroy the culture of this country, they want to paint these people as not very nice people,” he said.
Hamilton doesn’t know if history can be re-written, but he hopes it isn’t. Not for society to praise the wrong-doings, but to learn from them.
“I think you do need to keep the past,” he said. “You do need to understand it. You do need to learn from it. But, at the same time, you need to look forward and say ‘How can we get better’?”
Just days after it was released on Disney Plus, Douglas says some people are already calling for “Hamilton” to be removed because Alexander Hamilton traded slaves. Douglas says Hamilton purchased three slaves for his brother-in-law and they were all freed in a couple of years. Alexander Hamilton also fought to end international slave trade. Douglas fears society, today, will never be fully satisfied.
“Are we there yet, no,” he said. “Will we ever be there? I don’t think so. I think this is going to continue.”
As for the play, which was crafted by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Douglas Hamilton says there are scenes that hit right in the heart, but it’s important for history, for the key players involved in the American Revolution and, ultimately, America’s future.
“If nothing else, ‘Hamilton’ has helped do more education than any of us individuals could possibly have hoped for,” Hamilton said.
Keeping heritage alive to hopefully have a say in who tells his grandfather’s story.