Comparing Hamilton: An American Musical And 1776

Hamilton: An American Musical and 1776 both cover identical time periods but with varying zeal. Each show has been met with positive reviews, and both contain their fair share of historical inaccuracies. Both are immensely worthy and beautiful pieces of art. Hamilton: An American Musical and 1776 are both critically acclaimed musicals; however, despite covering the same historical period, they do so with differences. To begin, Hamilton and 1776 each contain a handful of historical inaccuracies to either further the plot or to make writing more convenient for the playwright. The main point where Hamilton strays from history is that every lead character in the show is played by a person of color, whereas, historically all of the people portrayed were white. Also, Angelica Schuyler, Alexander Hamilton’s sister-in-law with whom he had an emotional affair with, was already married when the two met. In the show, Angelica gets married after her sister, Eliza Schuyler, and Hamilton are already married. In the song “Satisfied”, Angelica sings “I’m a girl in a world in which/my only job is to marry rich/my father has no sons, so I’m the one/who has to social climb the one/so I’m the oldest and the wittiest.” The Schuyler family actually had two older sons and three younger daughters. So Angelica wasn’t the

Hamilton and 1776 are both set in the Northeast of the United States around 1776 CE. Though, Hamilton chronicles Alexander Hamilton’s life, so it spans from the summer of 1776 CE through the summer of 1800 or 1804 CE. Aptly named, 1776 focuses just on the events that occurred in that year which lead up to the signing of the Declaration of Independance. However, both plots heavily focus on political events. Portrayed in both shows are the struggles concerned with creating and running a brand new country. But, Hamilton serves more as a biopic rather than the documentary 1776 acts