It might be some of Broadway's finest under-the-stage lights in the filmed version of Hamilton, but it's the musical's leading man who's under the microscope.
After the release of a cinematic version of the US musical at the weekend, the hip-hop-inspired production has come under renewed scrutiny due to its protagonist.
The musical, created by actor, composer and singer Lin-Manuel Miranda, charts the life of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the US.
Largely inspired by Ron Chernow's 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton, the Tony Award-winning musical charts the politician's arrival in New York in 1776 until his untimely death in 1804.
Hamilton, who was orphaned after being born out of wedlock in the Caribbean, went on to become the first Secretary of the Treasury, the right-hand man of the first US president George Washington, and was widely credited with helping ratify the US Constitution.
However, the politician's links with the slave trade have resurfaced following Hamilton's release, with the hashtag #CancelHamilton this week gaining traction on social media.
While Hamilton, portrayed as a scrappy young immigrant in the eponymous musical, is not believed to have directly had enslaved people in his service, he managed slave sales for his wife’s family, the Schuylers, according to historians.
As Annette Gordon-Reed, professor of history and law at Harvard, told the Harvard Gazette: "He was not an abolitionist. He bought and sold slaves for his in-laws, and opposing slavery was never at the forefront of his agenda."
In light of the Black Lives Matter movement, social media commenters have called out the musical, which first debuted in 2015, for its links to slavery.
"Can we cancel Hamilton for glorifying our racist founding fathers and painting America as a good country," one Twitter user wrote.
"Can't believe Disney is showing a show about a slave trader in times like this. Also the actors aren't the same colour as the people they are portraying. How dare they," posted another.
The show has previously been championed for its diverse cast, with Miranda defining the musical as the "story of America then told by America now".
Miranda, 40, this week acknowledged Hamilton's timely release amid ongoing anti-racism protests in the US and beyond.
"When you write a musical that brushes against sort of the origins of this country, it's always going to be relevant," he told NPR. "The fights we had at the [country's] origin are the fights we're still having ... I've always said that slavery is the original sin of this country."
The actor added that slavery is a "system in which every character in our show is complicit in some way or another".
"Hamilton – although he voiced anti-slavery beliefs –remained complicit in the system."
Results
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Match info:
Real Betis v Sevilla, 10.45pm (UAE)
The Breadwinner
Director: Nora Twomey
Starring: Saara Chaudry, Soma Chhaya, Laara Sadiq
Three stars
Jawan
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The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
Multitasking pays off for money goals
Tackling money goals one at a time cost financial literacy expert Barbara O'Neill at least $1 million.
That's how much Ms O'Neill, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in the US, figures she lost by starting saving for retirement only after she had created an emergency fund, bought a car with cash and purchased a home.
"I tell students that eventually, 30 years later, I hit the million-dollar mark, but I could've had $2 million," Ms O'Neill says.
Too often, financial experts say, people want to attack their money goals one at a time: "As soon as I pay off my credit card debt, then I'll start saving for a home," or, "As soon as I pay off my student loan debt, then I'll start saving for retirement"."
People do not realise how costly the words "as soon as" can be. Paying off debt is a worthy goal, but it should not come at the expense of other goals, particularly saving for retirement. The sooner money is contributed, the longer it can benefit from compounded returns. Compounded returns are when your investment gains earn their own gains, which can dramatically increase your balances over time.
"By putting off saving for the future, you are really inhibiting yourself from benefiting from that wonderful magic," says Kimberly Zimmerman Rand , an accredited financial counsellor and principal at Dragonfly Financial Solutions in Boston. "If you can start saving today ... you are going to have a lot more five years from now than if you decide to pay off debt for three years and start saving in year four."
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The%20Specs
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Intercontinental Cup
Namibia v UAE Saturday Sep 16-Tuesday Sep 19
Table 1 Ireland, 89 points; 2 Afghanistan, 81; 3 Netherlands, 52; 4 Papua New Guinea, 40; 5 Hong Kong, 39; 6 Scotland, 37; 7 UAE, 27; 8 Namibia, 27
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
More on animal trafficking
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
MATCH INFO
Sheffield United 3
Fleck 19, Mousset 52, McBurnie 90
Manchester United 3
Williams 72, Greenwood 77, Rashford 79
Women & Power: A Manifesto
Mary Beard
Profile Books and London Review of Books
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press