Bisexual Baddies Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens

Were these young bucks just really good friends??? Or was something else going on??? 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
School of Humans.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
WHOA, it's season two of American Filth.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Can you believe it?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
We have another season, a whole other one. Yeah, we
got another fifty episodes that we got to cover all
of American history in through the lens of being a pervert.
That's what this show is, American Filth. Welcome back, Welcome
back to me, Welcome back to you listeners, And.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
No, it's exciting.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
So there's a new documentary that just came out called
Lover of Men, and it's about romantic friendships and specifically
it's about how Abraham Lincoln might have been gay.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
But as a Filth listener, you already knew that.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
But anyway, I saw it on Sunday and I felt
like quite a smarty pants in the audience, being like,
I know that, I know that, and I know that too.
But guys, it's the biggest month of the year. It's
Bisexual Visible Ability Month. Wow, So let's talk about someone
who might have been a bit bisexual. As you guys know,

(01:13):
I might have already said this on the pod, but
I am a bisexual supremacist, truly believing that everyone is bisexual.
But in this episode, we're gonna look at a bisexual
battie in the canon of American history. And that guy
is drum roll pew pew pew peop. This is a
drum Alexander Hamilton. And you might be thinking, why is

(01:33):
Alexander Hamilton bisexual? He seems pretty heterosexual because, as we
all know from the rigorous academic work on him, Hamilton,
the musical Alexander Hamilton liked women a lot, Okay, so
much so that he cheated on his wife with another woman.
This is very well documented, so well documented that Alexander

(01:54):
Hamilton himself wrote a pamphlet all about it. He's like,
I'm going to tell the world what happened before my
haters can. I'm an honorable man. And that affair became
one of the first sex scandals of our young country.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
What an achievement.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
And so you might not be convinced of the bisexuality
because it's like, look, he's cheating on a woman with
another woman. Seems like he likes women. Also, biographers and
his contemporaries accused Hamilton of other affairs. His fellow founders
often remarked on his sexual adventurism, and Martha Washington named
her cat after Hamilton because of all that tom catting

(02:32):
he would do, and then some people even accused him
of having an affair with his sister in law. That's
a lot of heterosexual activity. But around the Revolutionary War,
Hamilton did send some letters that seemed a little spicy,
that seemed a little sexual, that seemed a little bit

(02:52):
emotional to not a woman, but a dude. And whomstwas
that dude? Twas a boy from South Carolina named John Lawns.
And when you read those letters, it's not difficult to
be like, hmm, seems like some naughty hanky panky is
going on here. Cue the theme song. This is American

(03:19):
phild and I'm Gabby Watts. Every week I tell you
a filthy story for American history. This week bisexual batties
Alexander Hamilton and John Lawrence. Yeah, we're playing the whole
theme song this time because it's the first episode of

(03:40):
the new season.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Okay, just enjoy it, just sit with it, have a
good time.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Kitty do he geeky do.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
So? I feel like most of us know who Alexander
Hamilton is, but whom's does this?

Speaker 1 (04:03):
John Lawrence? Well?

Speaker 2 (04:08):
John Lawrence was born in Charleston, South Carolina. His dad
was Henry Lawrence, who was super wealthy from his work
as a slave trader and also he owned two hundred
and sixty enslaved people. His mom, Eleanor, also came from
a rich planter family. John was the eldest among his siblings,
and when his mom died in seventeen seventy, his dad,

(04:29):
Henry was like, I'm going to take my boys over
to Europe so they can get a better education. Henry
was like, son, John, you got to study the law.
If you want to be like me, a big rich
slave owner political man, you gotta do the law.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Come on, be a lawyer.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
When they got over to Europe, specifically they were in Switzerland,
John was very studious, but he was also a bit
of a party boy. He blew through his allowance so
quickly that he had to beg his dad for more money.
He was like, please, I promised to be more frugal
this time, and his dad was like, okay, okay, but
remember you're the eldest son.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
You're very important.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Make sure you study the frickin' law. Be a good boy,
don't embarrass me. But you know, it's not John's fault
that he blew through all that money. He was young, handsome,
he had blue eyes, and he was lean and flirty, romantic.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Ooh, he looked good.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
And he was good at provoking stimulating conversations as this.
One biographer of him said, Gregory D. Massey, he had
no difficulty attracting women and men. Whoa, whoa, whoa, Greg,
what are you hinting at there?

Speaker 1 (05:41):
Men and women? What does that mean?

Speaker 2 (05:43):
That sounds a little bisexual, But what it definitely means
is that John Lawrens was so charismatic that everyone found
him irresistible. I mean, probably not everyone, but a lot
of people, but I get it. You know, he was handsome,
he was smart, and he had a genteel manner. Don't

(06:03):
we all love a genteel manner? But greg also said
in that biography of John Lawrence that while John was
in Switzerland, that's when he started a pattern that would
continue for the rest of his life. He developed very
close relationships with men. Women are disgusting, obviously not worth

(06:23):
talking to. What are we going to say, We're going
to talk about our crocheting, We're going to talk about
knitting boring. We're terrible friends, men though wonderful friends. Everybody
loves those, and John seemed to mostly just want to
talk to the boys. This was pretty common at the
time that the sexes were isolated from each other in
this social sort of environment. Historians called these homosocial attachments.

(06:48):
I mean, some people just say friends, but it peers.
The term homosocials intended to be a bit different than friendship.
It's like, hey, John Lawrence, he used these male friendships
as something more. Is also a deep emotional bond, even sensual,
perhaps expressive, boys loving boys.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
Anyway, whilst John was.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Doing his law studies and being all homosocial with other men,
Henry Laurence, his dad, was like, oh, no, America is
falling apart. People are rioting and being like, fuck you England.
I got to get back across the pond to make
sure no one tries to take my property.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
And also I got to go meddle in some affairs.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
So Henry moved his sons from Switzerland to England, still
being like John, you got to study the law, be
a law man, so you can be powerful and serious
and make sure your brothers get educated and don't embarrass
our family with all that parting you do and all
that homosocializing. God Henry Lawrence was a hard man to please.

(07:50):
So Henry Lawrence went back home and he eventually became
the President of the Second Continental Congress. Okay, he's very important.
During this time that they were apart, Henry Lawrence kept
writing to John being like, hey, make sure you're studying.
Make sure you're being a good boy. I've been hearing
that you're hanging out with an ill suited crowd. Boo.

(08:10):
I don't like these men that you're hanging out with. Also,
I hear that you're going to Parliament and listening to
open hearings. And also you're getting into politics. Why don't
you just study? Okay, and don't bother yourself about what's
happening in America.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Calm down.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
But John was like, I want to get involved. I
want to fight in the American Revolution. That's where I'm from, Yasamerica.
I'm going to come back home. And finally, once we
dropped the Declaration of Independence, John Lawrence was like, I'm
not going to sit here in London anymore and do nothing.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
I'm coming back home. And so John wrote his dad.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
He's like, hey, I'm not going to finish my studies
to become a lawyer. I'm coming over. I'm going to
come fight in the Revolutionary War. Also, ps, I am
married now and have a pregnant wife. What what a
casual thing to mention at the end of the letter.
But yeah, John, he now is married, suddenly, truly, all

(09:08):
of a sudden, the most sudden of all suddens you
can be. He suddenly married and his wife is pregnant.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
So who is this wife? Okay?

Speaker 2 (09:18):
So John Lawrence had married Martha Manning, who is the
daughter of a friend of Henry Lawrence. And the thing
about this marriage is it doesn't seem that John wanted
to marry her at all. He wrote to his uncle,
pity has obliged me to marry end quote pity specifically
meaning she was pregnant. That's right, they had some premarital sex. Truly,

(09:39):
that is a pity to be pregnant. He continued in
the letter. The matter has proceeded too far to be
longer concealed, meaning she's six months pregnant at this point,
so I can't pretend she's not pregnant, and then to
be honorable, I guess I had to marry her. So
it does seem that John Lawrence did take a pause
from his homosocializing, and he did heterosocialize with a woman,

(10:03):
but at the same time he seems really upset that
he he had to marry her, and he doesn't even
seem to like her that much. What a great guy.
But he gets on that boat and he leaves his
pregnant wife all alone in December seventeen seventy six and
heads back to America.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
See, he really seems to care about women anyway.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
When John Lawrence arrives, his dad is like, but you're
supposed to be a lawyer, but I guess you're here
so fine.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
You can be in the army.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
I guess since Lauren's dad was pretty high up there
in the Continental Congress, he was able to get John some.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
Good NEPO baby privileges.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
He was like, Okay, if you're gonna be in the army,
I'm gonna get you right. Under George Washington, he's the man,
he's the general, he's the coolest one of them all.
And John Lawrence becomes one of Washington's aide de camp,
basically being part of the inner circle, his little bitch,
part of the army family. Under George Washington. I'm sure
John Lawrence was pretty pumped about it. He's like the

(11:06):
General Washington a hot dog. That's amazing. And yeah, so
far in the story, you might be like, well, John
Laurence doesn't sound that gay. Just because he likes to
hang out with men mostly and doesn't seem to like women,
specifically his wife. That doesn't mean that he has a
streak of bisexuality inside of him. But once he became

(11:27):
Washington's aid, that's when John Lawrens met Alexander Hamilton. We'll
be right back after these soothing advertisements. Oh Alexander Hamilton,
what more can we say about this man? He was

(11:47):
a bastard, orphaned son of a whore lol, who grew
up on an island in the Caribbean, and when he
arrived on the shores of continental America, he was able
to rise through the ranks and a steam of colonial society.
And he did so with his mix of intelligence, good looks, mysteriousness,
and charisma, creating an allure few could resist. Some historians

(12:13):
made the same comment about Hamilton as they did Lawrence,
saying that he was able to attract men and women,
and that's with Hamilton only being five to seven who
love to see a short king succeed. Someone who couldn't
resist Hamilton's skill and allure was General George Washington himself.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Washington had to ask.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Hamilton multiple times to be part of his war family.
You know, another one of those aide de camps. I
don't know, is it supposed to be more French his.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Aide de camp.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
Hamilton refused because he's like, that's not a position I want.
That's not very elevated. I want to have a higher rank.
I want to do other things besides being your little secretary.
But then to sweeten the deal, Washington was like, well,
I'll make you a lieutenant colonel.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Okay? Is that nice?

Speaker 2 (13:03):
That means one day you could lead like a regiment
of soldiers. You could girl boss during the Revolutionary War,
I guess boy boss. So with that offer, Hamilton joined
House Washington in March seventeen seventy seven. And here's a
little spicy side note. There's some historical hubbub about the
relationship between Washington and Hamilton. Some historians, and by some

(13:28):
I mean like very few, have categorized Washington as obsessed
with the young short King Hamilton, even going so far
to say that Washington himself is a gay. What evidence
is there that Washington is gay? Well, obviously he loved
interior design. But then there are also some people who

(13:50):
are convinced that Hamilton is the biological son of Washington.
But that sounds even crazier. Anyway, working under Washington, John
Laurens and Alexander Hamilton become close friends. You know, they're
working day in and day out for the man, sharing quarters,

(14:11):
both being young and hot and interesting. You know, it's war,
there's drama, it's stressful.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
The steaks couldn't be higher.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
There's all these forces drawing these two young men closer together.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Mmmm, so homo social.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
One thing is that when they started working under Washington,
Washington's regiment wasn't doing well. The conditions were terrible. It
was cold, there wasn't much food. They were wearing rags,
and the winters were brutal. You know, maybe on those cold,
cold nights, all you had was body heat from another
young buck to keep you warm. I don't know, it's

(14:53):
extreme conjecture, but it's war, and war makes you crazy.
And also they're just constantly around other men. There's no
ladies anywhere, and both Laurens and Alexander Hamilton have proven
themselves to be horny little rasculls. So all I'm saying
is you might have turned to a friend on those

(15:14):
desperate cold nights. I will also say another one of
their close friends in the Washington cinematic universe was Lafayette,
who is French, and that's obviously given a little bisexual
energy right there. And another person that Laurence and Hamilton
ended up being close to was Baron von Steuben. You

(15:36):
guys remember him. He was the gay Prussian general. I
remember Steuben. He would have those dinner parties where he
was like, hey, you guys aren't allowed to wear pants.
So there's some more gay energy just floating around this regiment.
Another thing is that Alexander Hamilton grew up on an
island that was used by the British to dump off

(15:58):
their sodomites.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
The British were like, ew, butt sex, you guys are
going to an island. So Hamilton he probably knew about
gay sex, knew a thing or two. Of course, sodomy
was a capital offense in the colonies, so you know,
you kind of you don't want to do butt sex
out there in the open. That would be inappropriate and
then you could be killed. But they were fighting for independence,

(16:25):
and sometimes fighting for independence mean you're fighting to have
the independence to do sodomy, right though unfortunately sodomy did
stay illegal in the United States as well in some
states until like two thousand and five.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
Anyway, I'm just again painting a picture.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
Of some forces that could have been at work during
the war. So, yeah, these two young hot men working together,
hanging out, having a good time, having a bad time.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
It's war, etc.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
But now what's hot about both of them? Both Lawrence
and Hamilton did not like the institution of sla Were
they abolitionists, No, not exactly, but they didn't like it,
Laurens more so than Hamilton. Hamilton rarely spoke out against
it in public, but Lawrence did. He was like, it's
very hypocritical of us to fight for our independence when

(17:22):
we hold other people in bondage. So John Laurence came
up with this idea that Hamilton was yes ending, and
the idea was to allow enslaved blacks to earn their
freedom by enlisting in the Continental Army and fighting against
the British. But to put that plan in action, he

(17:42):
first had to appeal to his father, Congress, southern governors
and planters, and most of those, the vast majority of
those people, were like, but if we free our slaves,
what about the economy?

Speaker 1 (17:58):
My money?

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Merr Also, this will just lead to a slippery slope
of more and more enslaved people wanting to be free,
and then we might have a multi racial country. Heaven forbid.
So John Lawrence had his work cut out for him.
And I'm not trying to make John Laurence seem like
he's the best guy ever, because you know, he probably had,

(18:20):
you know, ulterior motives as well.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
This wasn't just about abolition.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
At the time, the Continental Army was suffering and John
Lawrence saw this as a good way to revamp the.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
Number of troops.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
Also, Lawrence and Hamilton both really wanted to lead people
into battle. They wanted to have a notable position in
the army. This was something that Daddy Henry Lawrence accused
John of. He was like, Hey, I feel like the
only reason you want to do this Black regiment thing
is because you want to have your own and you
want to lead them. This is about you, not them.

(18:57):
But anyway, back to John Lawrence and Alexander Hamilton, as
John Lawrence was trying to enact this plan, and also
as Hamilton had more and more ambition. Unfortunately, he and
Hamilton couldn't spend all of their time together. Okay, Lawrence
needed to go to the South, he needed to go
appeal to the Continental Congress, he had a lot of
things he had to do. Hamilton, likewise, very ambitious. So

(19:19):
at this point they started writing.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
A lot of letters to each other.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
And in these letters we start seeing some of this
homo social stuff veering into something that I might call
homo sexual. Finally, the promise of homosexuality. We're getting there. Okay,
we are going to look at the letters, and what
I'm going to say before is that a lot of
historians in the big Alexander Hamilton historical establishment, they're going

(19:47):
to tell you that what you hear in these letters
was typical of men at the time. You know, they
had these romantic friendships, they had this homo social whatever.
And in these letters, the only ones we have are
actually from Alexander Hamilton John Lawrence. His responses have never
been found, which, honestly, that's pretty suss, isn't it. Maybe

(20:09):
somebody in his family found the letters and destroyed them
so no one could find them because of the homo
sexual content. But these letters from Alexander Hamilton to John
Lawrence were first assembled and published to reveal their gay
themes by historian Jonathan ned Katz, And he's done a

(20:30):
lot of pioneering work for queer history. He literally wrote
the book Gay American History. And so these are the
letters that he has assembled, and they're pretty gay.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
But let's let you decide.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
So Laurens age twenty five is in South Carolina, Hamilton's
twenty two, he's up in Philadelphia, sending these.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
Extremely warm regards.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
In April seventeen seventy nine, he says, cold in my professions,
warm in my friendships. I wish my dear Laurence, it
might be in my power, by action rather than words,
to commence you that I love you. How I feel
about that one, he continues. You know the opinion I

(21:20):
entertain of mankind, and how much it is my desire
to preserve myself free from particular attachments and to keep
my happiness independent on the caprice of others. You should
not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into
my affections without my consent. But as you have done it,
and as we are generally indulgent to those we love,

(21:42):
I shall not scruple to pardon the fraud you have committed,
on condition that for my sake, if not for your own,
you will always continue to merit the partiality which you
have so artfully instilled into me. How do we feel
about this one, guys, that's a lot of feelings to
have for your friends. He's saying, I'm trying to preserve

(22:03):
myself free from particular attachments. Does he mean love? And
then he's like, but Laurence, you got me, You got
me love in you. That's what he's saying, non consensually,
You've got me love in you. Then, in this letter,
Hamilton had also forwarded Laurence some letters that had been
sent from Laurence's wife.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
You guys, remember, Lawrence has a wife, and.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Lawrence also has a baby daughter who at this point
he had never met.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
She's like three years old.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
Like, he hadn't seen his wife since he left London
in December seventeen seventy six to take up the noble
cause of American independence. And he doesn't ever seem to
think about her, so Hamilton, and the rest of the
letter he describes to Laurence what kind of wife he
Hamilton wants, and it's kind of as if he's poking
fun at Laurence.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
Being like, Haha, Laurence, you have a wife.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
Remember that's funny because we love each other so much.
Let me pretend that I want a wife, he says.
And now, my dear, as we are upon the subject
of wife, I empower and command you to get me one, Carolina.
Such a wife as I want will, I know, be
difficult to be found, but if you succeed, it will
be the stronger proof of your zeal and dexterity. She

(23:16):
must be young, handsome. I lay most stress upon a
good shape, sensible, a little learning will do, well bred,
chaste and tender. But as to fortune, the larger stock
of that the better. That's right, guys, Hamilton's like, go
find me a rich wife, because that's what women are for,
taking their money. He goes on and on about what

(23:39):
kind of wife he wants, but in a funny sort
of way, and then it gets a little bit juicier again. Okay,
this is what he says towards the end of the letter.
If you should not readily meet with a lady that
you think answers my description. You can only advertise in
the public papers, and doubtless you will hear of many
who will be glad to become candidates for such a

(24:01):
prize as I am. To excite their emulation. Will be
necessary for you to give an account of the lover
his size, make quality of mind and body, achievement, expectations fortune.
In drawing my picture, you will no doubt be civil
to your friend mind you do justice to the length

(24:22):
of my nose, and don't forget that.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
I And then there.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
Are five words that are taken out of the letter.
They're not just scratched out. They have actually been physically removed,
like cut out of the letter. He's being censored. What
could he have said? And here's a little bit of
context about this letter. So Katz, the guy who organized

(24:47):
these letters, said that this part had to be sexual,
this part that was scratched out because even before it,
he's already getting a little spicy. Because apparently the length
of my nose that was a reference to penis size
at this point in history. It wasn't the length of
your feet or your hands or whatever. It was the
length of one's nose that would allegedly indicate penis size,

(25:10):
big nose, big wiener. But what about those words that
were just like taken out of the letter don't forget
that I blank? Is he trying to remind Laurens of
a specific anatomy that Lawrence maybe is familiar with, Like
don't forget that I have a huge slong or don't
forget that I'm a big bisexual slut, or don't forget
that I barely fit in your butt?

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Is that what he was trying to say? And whom's
crossed it out? And why did they do so?

Speaker 2 (25:39):
It was likely Hamilton's son who was going through his
dad's letters and was like, dear God, what is this
and pencil Likely the son wrote on top of this letter,
I must not publish the whole of this.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yep, the whole.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Might expose some hole if you know what I'm saying.
And whoever was censoring this letter, they also crossed out
some of Hamilton's endearments, specifically when he was saying stuff
like and now my dear, And then at the end
of this letter, Hamilton is basically like, do I want
a wife? No? Why would I want a wife I have,
John Lawrence. I have gratified my feelings by lengthening out

(26:18):
the only kind of intercourse now in my power with
my friend. Adieu yours Hamilton. Yeah, that's right, he only
needs intercourse with John Lawrence. But at the time, intercourse
just meant spending time, okay, But Hamilton and Lawrence were
ahead of their time, So maybe they were ahead of
their time in terms of slang. So they were intercoursing,

(26:41):
spending time, spending time doing what, touching each other's private parts.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Then there's these other letters where basically Hamilton is just
complaining that John Lawrence isn't writing him enough. But Lawrence,
you know, he was busy trying to make his black
regiment happen. This is what Hamilton wrote to Lawrence on
September eleventh, seventeen seventy nine, complaining about John Lawrence's writing him.
He says, like a jealous lover, when I thought you

(27:08):
slighted my caresses, my affection was alarmed and my vanity peaked.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
I had almost resolved.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
To lavish no more of them upon you, But you
have now disarmed my resentment, and by a single mark
of attention made up the quarrel. You must at least
allow me a large stock of good nature. Hamilton's a
bit bitchy. He's like, thanks for paying attention to me.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Anyway.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
After this, while Lawrence is in South Carolina, that's when
the British forces pull up and take Charles Sten. Lawrence
is taken prisoner, but he is put on parole in Pennsylvania.
Basically he's on house arrest, but more like state arrest.
He can only stay in Pennsylvania, and Hamilton again is
annoyed at him. He's like, hey, why aren't you writing

(27:53):
me more? You don't have anything else to do except
write letters. You're on house arrest. And then he drops
a bombshell on Lawrence, which is to say, ooh, I
met this lady, one of the Skuyler sisters, and she's
actually not bad. She has good sense enough to be agreeable,
he says, though not a beauty, but she has fine

(28:14):
black eyes. And then it seems that Lawrence at some
point was like, Hey, that's great, get married and get
married fast. And then Hamilton writes him, in spite of
Skuyler's black eyes, I have still a part of the
public and another for you. So your impatience have me
married is misplaced. A strange cure, by the way, as
if after matrimony I was to be less devoted than

(28:36):
I am.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
Now that seems pretty romantic.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Hamilton's like, augh, just because I get married, that doesn't
mean I'm gonna stop doting on you all the time, laurens.
So Hamilton and the Skuyler they get married, and Lawrence
is unable to attend the wedding because it was in
New York, and you know, he's on house arrest in Pennsylvania.
But after he gets off his house arrest, Lawrence continues
his campaign to create a black regiment, eventually succeeding, and

(29:04):
in seventeen eighty two, when victory is on the horizon
for American independence, Hamilton goes to Congress and is like,
this is great, and he writes Laurence, on August fifteenth,
seventeen eighty two, truly weeks before the end of the war,
peace made, my dear friend. A new scene opens. The object, then,
will be to make our independence a blessing.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
To this.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
We must secure our union on solid foundations. It requires
all the virtue and all the abilities of the country.
Quit your sword, my friend, put on a toga. Come
to congress. M We know each other's sentiments, Our views
are the same. We have fought side by side to
make America free. Let us hand in hand struggle to
make her happy. Yours forever, Hamilton, And sadly, it's very

(29:57):
unlikely that John Lawrence ever got this letter, because he dies,
and he dies for really no reason at all. The
fighting was mostly over, the treaties were being signed. He
just got shot in an unnecessary shootout with a British
foraging party. It was so unnecessary. But something about Laurens
is that everyone said that he was reckless in battle.

(30:19):
In fact, he got injured in every single battle he
was ever in, and then finally he was killed. Obviously,
when Lawrence died, Hamilton was distraught as heck. He wrote
in a letter to a friend, I feel the deepest
affliction at the news we have just received at the
loss of our dear friend Laurence. His career of virtue

(30:40):
was at an end. How strangely are human affairs conducted
that so many excellent qualities could not ensure a more
happy fate. The world will feel the loss of a
man who has left few like him behind, an America
of a citizen whose heart realized that patriotism of which
others only talk. I feel the loss of a friend

(31:02):
whom I truly and most tenderly loved, and one of.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
A very small number.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
Some historians also like to say that after Laurence died,
Hamilton was never this affection and forthcoming about his emotions. Again, yes,
Hamilton did write Verbo's love letters to his wife, but
some historians are like, yeah, but they kind of sound
similar to those that he was writing to Laurence. But
definitely no other friend pride this emotionality out of Hamilton.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
So back to the question were they lovers? What do
you guys think?

Speaker 2 (31:40):
What we know about Hamilton is that, as one historian said,
he had a nearly ungovernable libido. Lawrence also seemed to
be horned up. They were young, it was war, they
drank a lot, it was cold. Gay stuff has happened
in much less dire circumstances. So maybe also, what was
Hamilton's son trying to hide in these letters? And what

(32:02):
else is hidden? What happened to John Lawren's letters? What
I'm gonna conclude as the premiere bisexual revisionist historian.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
Is that they both are a little bit bisexual. That's
what I'm gonna say.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
As always, we learn a lesson from American Filth, and
I think the main lesson we learn from this one
is that if you want to tell if the dude
has a big old ding dong, just look at his nose.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
Talk at you guys next time.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
American Field is a production of School of Humans and
iHeart Podcast. This episode was hosted and written by me
Gabby Watts. Our executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Els.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
Croley, and Brandon Barr.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
You can follo along with the show on Instagram at
American Filth Pod and make sure you like, subscribe, leave
a review, help the algorithm, and thanks so much for
joining us for season two.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
More episodes to come. School of Humans