How does
Hamilton’s treatment of slavery (play and film) compare with
1776? As a revolutionary historian, I was struck upon first seeing
Hamilton by what to me was a rather odd phenomena: the older production of
1776 seems to have dealt more head-on with the impact of slavery and the slave trade on these historical events than the later production of
Hamilton. In
1776 slavery was central to the story; the plot turns on three major conflicts, two of them centered on slavery.
Hamilton, by contrast, throws in a few references to slavery mainly to make Jefferson and Madison lappear, if not the bad guys, the clueless, less modern foils to Hamilton. As David Waldstreicher and Jeffrey Pasley note in
Historians on Hamilton: “Where the old musical
1776 used the problem of slavery as a sobering third act crisis, emphasizing the degree to which the sin fell on everyone present and threatened the new nation, the logic of Founders Chic instead seeks and highlights antislavery sentiments where it can be found, and looks to burnish those founding characters who qualify by association with a cause most Americans now admire.” (David Waldstreicher and Jeffrey L. Pasley, “
Hamilton as Founders Chic: A Neo-Federalist, Antislavery Usable Pat?” in
Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical is Restaging America’s Past, ed. Renee C. Romano and Claire Bond Potter (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2018).) Popular works on the American Revolution often retain a deeply conservative and hagiographic message; as Andrew Schocket notes, this trend has actually intensified in works made since 2000, including
Hamilton. (Andrew M. Schocket, “The American Revolution Rebooted,”
Journal of the Early Republic 37, no. 2 (Sum 2017): 264-267.)
There is a curious symmetry to the two works. 1776, debuting in the middle of the Vietnam and Nixon era (1969 play; 1972 film), was also a bipartisan hit in an era of deeply divided politics. Everybody from hippies to conservatives loved it; and both sides saw what they wanted to see it in. The reason seems to be the same for both films: for many Americans, the Revolutionary and Constitutional period are mythical and uncontested—so folks see what they want to see in them.
The poster will feature images from both plays and films, as well as short excerpts from both lyrics and discussions, as well as other relevant artifacts such as the full-page advertisement 1776’s cast published opposing the Vietnam War. It will particularly feature excised material: the 25 minutes removed from the 1776 play when it was made into a film at the instigation of conservative producer Jack Warner (possibly prompted by President Nixon), and Hamilton’s “Cabinet Meeting No. 3” song, which addressed slavery directly. I want to engage with contemporary commentary and criticism of each work as it appeared in both theatrical and film format, as well as address the creators’ and casts’ perspectives on the issues of race and slavery raised by the works.
