The Schuyler Sisters

Burr’s flow and delivery here, with the subject of observing people in the hustle and bustle of the city, is reminiscent of Melle Mell’s on the verses of “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

Historically, “slummin' it with the poor” meant that the elites and middle classes would descend on urban slums to gawk at and observe the poor in their seemingly “natural habitat.” Though “slumming” as a social and philanthropic phenomenon developed in earnest in the mid- to late-19th century, especially in the slums of New York City (Five Points, etc.) and London (Whitechapel, Spitalfields, etc.), Miranda’s use of “slummin'” nonetheless points to cross-class encounters in 18th-century urban spaces.

Those cross-class encounters continue today, in various taste levels. At its most crass, “slum tourism” can go further than just going to the poor neighborhoods in your city—people can stay in “authentic” (and 5 star) shantytowns and favelas, and even experience the life of the homeless.

Carriages were used as an elegant way to get around back then, and since the poor didn’t have enough money to buy and maintain one, the stereotype was fixed on the richer.

In addition to providing a faster, more comfortable means of transport, carriages created a physical barrier between wealthy people and the people outside – just like modern cars, within which people will say the most god-awful things, believing nobody will hear them (or at least won’t be able to do anything about it).

Gawking is the act of hanging your jaw open to expose your inner mouth because of something interesting or shocking. It is considered rude, and visible gawking could lead to a confrontation. However, from within a carriage, wealthy people can gawk without fear.

Columbia University (what King’s College would become) was still in downtown Manhattan at the time. It was right by City Hall. At City Hall’s Park, then known as the Commons, the Sons of Liberty and other revolutionary groups would meet for public protests and debates. King’s College was the only American college to remain loyal to the crown during the Revolutionary War, so the debates must have been fiery indeed.

Incidentally, Columbia didn’t move to Midtown until 1857 and, subsequently, to Morningside Heights in 1897.

Interestingly, despite the fact that Aaron Burr proved over the course of his life to be an advocate for the education of women (at the very least for the education of his own daughter), in this scene we see him grossly underestimate the wits and confidence of the “rich folks” downtown. He thinks the sisters are here to “watch [the students] talk”, but little does he know that they’re about to take over this song, dazzling the audience with their wordsmithery.

Schuyler’s family had deep roots in the province of New York, with large, diverse landholdings and business interests. By the time of the Revolution, his business interests had achieved an intense level of vertical integration:

his business involved the harvesting of farm and forest products on his extensive Hudson Valley estates and shipping them to New York on his own sloops and schooner.

Schuyler was also deeply involved in the commercial development of New York. He oversaw the construction of saw mills, gristmills, and New York’s first flax mill, exported timber and other products of his estates via his Hudson River fleet, and took a leading role in the development of better transportation. As president and leading force in the creation and incorporation of the Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company and the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, he constructed the canals that would form the basis of the great Erie Canal system.

Philip Schuyler and his wife Catherine were said to have had 15 children. One daughter missing here is Cornelia, born in 1775. She may not have been quite old enough for her older sisters' NYC hijinx, but it’s fun to imaging a toddler backing up the “WORK!"s.

There are actually two other Schuyler sisters: Cornelia Schuyler Morton and Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler Cochran. Cornelia was born 1775 and died in 1808—she was the fourth sister. Catherine, named after her mother, was the fifth and youngest sister. She was born in February 1781 and died August 1857.

The Schuyler sisters are introduced in this order only once, to fit the upcoming rhyme with “guys at.” Everywhere else, the Schuyler sisters are announced from oldest to youngest (Angelica, Eliza and Peggy). Perhaps coincidentally, this order is the order in which they died: Peggy in 1801, Angelica in 1814 and Eliza in 1854.

It seems possible the repeated “Work, work” lines are inspired by similar ones in the Contours' 1962 song “Do You Love Me”:

This was not a song that was written chronologically, I had written “Helpless” and “Satisfied” and director Tommy Kail said to me, “These women are awesome I wish we could meet them sooner…I wish we could meet them before Hamilton meets them.”

That was the impetus behind the Schuyler sisters, which was 1) we get to see them in kind of a non-romantic place, just as these rich educated daughters of one of the richest dudes in New York and 2) it’s sort of our love letter to New York.

The fact that these women were wealthy meant that they read Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. They were read up on the politics of their era; yet they couldn’t participate in the same way that men could.

Original Angelica and Goldsberry as Angelica

The original casting call for Angelica:

ANGELICA SCHUYLER: Mezzo-soprano, must be able to sing and rap well. Fierce, dazzling, brilliant, can read a room and everyone in it instantly. Deeply in love with Hamilton, who is married to her beloved sister Eliza. Nicki Minaj meets Desiree Armfeldt.

In the original Broadway cast, Angelica was played by Renée Elise Goldsberry.

Angelica is the first sister to introduce herself to the audience. She quickly becomes the driving force behind the whole song, which presages her eventually becoming an influential force behind Alexander. Her immediate prominence sets the tone, in contrast to Peggy (who comes in last). The separation also emphasizes Angelica’s influence over her sisters and her forward-thinking attitude towards life in general.

Also, note that this is the first time the sisters' name motifs are used. This sets the stage for the repetition of these interjections throughout the show.

In the age of the internet, the word “work”(or, rather, “werk”) is generally used to encourage/praise people, but it is also used to say “work harder.” The double meaning of this phrase, not to mention the multiple dictionary definitions, allows us to peel back the curtain into the mindset of the very independent Angelica, who wants someone who appreciates her and her intellect.

Original Eliza and Soo as Eliza

The original casting call for Eliza:

ELIZA HAMILTON: Soprano. Fiercely loyal, self-possessed, proud. Evolves from lovesick, wealthy young woman to the sole keeper of her late husband’s legacy. Alicia Keys meets Elphaba.

In the original Broadway cast, Eliza was played by Phillipa Soo.

Eliza was also sometimes called “Betsey.”

Original Peggy and Jones as Peggy

The original casting call for Peggy:

PEGGY SCHUYLER/MARIA REYNOLDS (dual role.): Mezzo-soprano. PEGGY SCHUYLER: sweet, shy, youngest of the three Schuyler Sisters. The Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child.

In the original Broadway cast, Peggy was played by Jasmine Cephas Jones.

Margarita “Peggy” Schuyler is often overlooked by historians because her sisters were so much more involved in politics. Here she bursts in to make sure she’s remembered despite being of less historical importance.

Though it’s not noted in the show, Peggy ended up marrying Stephen Van Rensselaer III, a powerful landowner, the last patroon in New York, and the tenth richest American ever as of 2007. She died at 42 in 1801.

Eliza and Angelica, like many major characters in the show, are almost always spoken of with their own introductory motifs. Individually, Angelica’s name and accompanying motif will frequently be sung with a note of wistful longing by Hamilton (see “Non-Stop”). Eliza, as the ultimate heroine of the story, gets the company cheering her by the finale. Angelica and Eliza perform each other’s motifs when greeting each other in “Take A Break,” with Hamilton chiming in with a bittersweet “the Schuyler sisters” after a respectful pause for the absent Peggy. The interconnectedness of the sisters' motifs is used in a particularly heartbreaking way at Hamilton’s death.

Unlike the other characters, these women’s motifs are part of the whole that is the “Schuyler Sisters.” The three sisters' names are sung in a way that reflects their family structure as well as their importance in the show. They’re introduced in order of age (oldest to youngest), and in the order in which they meet Hamilton (Angelica first, then Eliza when Angelica introduces them, and Peggy presumably later on, though that’s not shown in the show itself). But it’s not as simple as 1-2-3. When the three motifs of their names are put together, the music begins low with the first syllable of Angelica’s name, peaks a minor tenth higher at the middle syllable of Eliza’s name, and drops back down to the same low note for the last syllable of Peggy’s name. This places them in a musical triangle with Eliza at the apex, appropriate for the sister who is most prominent in the show.

Notice how no matter what order they announce their names in, Eliza is always after Angelica. Angelica herself admits (when she later recounts meeting Alexander) that Eliza would have given him up if she’d told her younger sister about her feelings for him. Angelica has to choose to put Eliza first before herself, because she’d never do it on her own.

Here, Peggy plays a somewhat stereotypical youngest sibling—the cherished baby of the family who is much more nervous than her sisters about attracting their parents’s disapproval. In the show, the actress playing Peggy is dual cast as Maria Reynolds (see “Say No To This”), so Peggy’s excessive demureness acts as an ironic contrast to Maria’s louche come-ons.

Musically, Peggy sings at the higher end of the mezzo-soprano range, reflecting her character’s nervousness and youth. As we’ll see in the second act, Maria sings at the low end, dipping into the contralto range to bring out that character’s sultry, mature qualities.

Continues the theme of independence throughout the song. The sisters don’t need any man’s approval, not even their father’s, to do what they want.

“Like I said, you’re free to go” could also be Eliza telling Peggy that if she is uncomfortable with disobeying their father, that she can go back home.

A prelude to the introduction of Eliza’s theme below:

Look around, look around at how
Lucky we are to be alive right now!

Angelica sings the first fragment of the melody which is later completed by Eliza, and will become one of her principal motifs.

Very similar to the way these words are sung in “Empire State of Mind” by Jay Z and Alicia Keys.

Miranda makes frequent use of this song. He performed it at Broadway on Broadway in 2010 and Lincoln Center in 2012. He adapted it for NPH’s closing rap at the Tony Awards in 2013. He also makes a reference to it in another one of his musicals.

Major General Philip Schuyler served in the war underneath Washington, and later as a senator of New York, even though he would eventually be replaced by Aaron Burr.

There’s an ambiguity in what Peggy says here, having to do with the interpretation of “it’s bad enough.” One could interpret the line as “the situation has gotten so bad that it has made daddy want to go to war,” or “the fact that daddy wants to go to war is bad enough.” Certainly the former interpretation is factually accurate, but given Peggy’s goody two-shoes character, it could easily be that she intends the latter.

As a little internal-rhyme bonus, “bad e-” here rhymes with “Daddy” in Peggy’s first lines. Peggy’s not shown as very intelligent, but this little complexity to her otherwise simple rhymes shows that she, as well, might be more complex than she seems. She is, after all, a Schuyler.

Here we see the three Schuyler sisters writ large. Eliza is excited by the fervor and passion of the budding revolutionaries, Peggy is worried about the conflict this revolution portends, and Angelica is excited by the intellectual revolution that comes along with the political one. While Peggy is scared, Angelica brushes it aside – she’s not afraid of change.

The metaphor here is that each character represents the different schools of thought at the time: Angelica is leading the charge as a voice of dissent, like the other revolutionaries of the time, Eliza is willing to join in, but Peggy embodies the old views that the colonies should maintain the status quo. It is no great surprise then that the character of Peggy must effectively “die out” at the same point in the show where the colonies gain their independence – there’s no place in “world turned upside down” for those old ideas.

A prelude to the introduction of Eliza’s theme below:

Look around, look around at how
Lucky we are to be alive right now!

Angelica sings the first fragment of the melody which is later completed by Eliza, and will become one of her principal motifs.

Note that while Eliza asks what we, in the plural, are looking for, Angelica replies with the singular I. Though her sisters seem to share her feminist ideals, Angelica, in particular, is known for her intelligence and seeks the same in a future partner.

Clearly, Eliza wasn’t paying such close attention to the pronouns. She takes Angelica’s response as advice and finds herself a man with a mind at work, the brilliant Hamilton—unaware that Angelica might otherwise have claimed him for herself.

You wish, boys.

The men aspire to marry into the affluent Schuyler family. The sisters' beauty and intelligence is just a nice bonus. As Burr says in “A Winter’s Ball,” “Yo, if you can marry a sister, you’re rich, son.” Sadly for them, the girls aren’t much interested in fortune hunters.

Lin-Manuel Miranda borrowed this phrase from The West Wing:

“Work” is in the same tone as at the beginning of the song, but at this point Angelica is disagreeing with Burr (before they’re even in conversation), saying that she’s looking for “a mind at work”, rather than “guys at work.”

The lyrics here have very similar word choice to The Lovin' Spoonful’s “Summer in the City.”

Burr, as narrator, reprises this line later in “Say No To This,” a summer some years later when Alexander begins another romance.

This line may be referencing any (or all) generations in this family of smooth talking pick-up songs: Luther Vandross’s “Take You Out,” Jay Z’s “Excuse Me Miss,” and Chris Brown’s “Yo (Excuse me Miss)”:

“I know it’s not funny” may be Burr’s excuse for the bluntness of his approach; he’s not trying for anything clever, just saying straight out that he’s interested in Angelica for her father’s wealth. Unfortunately for him, Angelica has higher standards. Though Burr doesn’t see Hamilton’s later flirtation with Angelica, the audience does, and knows it’s just one more way that Hamilton completely outclasses Burr, even though Burr thinks of himself as a smooth dude and Hamilton as a brash upstart.

The use of perfume as a status symbol dates back as far as Ancient Egypt. The enlightenment brought delicate scents in vogue, especially among the well-heeled noble classes. In particular, Louis XV, who had died two years earlier in 1774, loved perfume. His court was known as “la cour parfumée,” and used fragrance extravagantly. The work of the best perfumers were only available to those who could afford it, and so served as an important marker of class. It wouldn’t be until the late 1800s, when synthetic compounds were discovered, that perfume could be mass-produced. Even so, the cachet of certain scents remained well into the 20th and 21st century.

Heels were popular in Western fashion in the mid-to-late eighteenth century for both women and men.

The back and forth banter that starts this section is reminiscent of Positive K’s 1992 hit “I Got a Man.”

Also, the line “searchin for an urchin who can give you ideals” invokes a Humans-of-New-York vibe where rich people gawk at the lives of the poor / wealthy students go to a developing country for a summer and “volunteer” to develop “ideals.” Burr mistakenly sees the (rich) Schuyler sisters as no more than these voyeuristic wealthy kids in the slums, using poor people as inspiration.

According to Burr, Angelica wants an urchin to give her ideals. Angelica’s disgust here may be partly inspired by the fact that she already has ideals. It’s Burr, we find, who doesn’t.

Anyway, whether she wants an urchin or a mind that’s workin', she doesn’t want Burr.

Using a homophone to evoke the philosophy of “all publicity is good publicity,” Burr employs wordplay to slip around a blatant turn-down. Sheesh.

This particular wording could be a reference to Eminem’s “Without Me,” which contains the lyric, “Everybody only wants to discuss me / so this must mean I’m disgusting.”

Wordplay is conveyed here almost entirely through a choice in phrasing:

The line should be written “I’m a trust fund baby, you can trust me,” with the baby referring to Burr himself.

However, it is actually written and sung as “I’m a trust fund, baby, you can trust me,” with the baby seeming to refer to Angelica. Given Angelica’s later realization that she’s expected to “marry rich,” here Burr seems to imply that he actually is what she’s looking for.

Thus, we get an early (failed) instance of someone wooing Angelica through #commasexting.

In reality, later in life, Burr would incur large enough debts that his second wife, wealthy widow Eliza Jumel, left him four months after marrying him because he was losing all her money on land speculation.

Common Sense (Genius version) was a political pamphlet published in early 1776 at the start of the Revolution that clearly enumerated for the public the reasons why the Colonies should no longer be subject to British rule. George Washington had it read aloud to his troops, and it was widely circulated throughout the Colonies, enjoying huge popularity thanks to its use of “common sense” language and Bible references that even laypeople could understand. It has become the best-selling American title of all time.

Paine originally published Common Sense anonymously because of its treasonous content, but his identity was revealed about three months later. He ended up donating all his royalties to Washington’s Continental Army.

As is true throughout the beginning of the play, the timeline is a little bit confused. Common Sense, like the Declaration of Independence (quoted a few lines down), was released in 1776, but The Farmer Refuted, the subject of the next song, was published in 1775. Since Aaron Burr, Sir announces the date as 1776, the simplest explanation is that Miranda used artistic license to push back the publication of The Farmer Refuted.

Miranda had this to say in Hamilton: The Revolution:

When this was still an album in my head, I really wanted the rapper Common Sense to read a selection of “Common Sense”. I am nothing if not literal.

Angelica’s pronunciation and intonation in “I’m insane” is evocative of Nicki Minaj’s iconic verse on Kanye West’s “Monster.” This is not the only Nicki Minaj reference in Angelica’s material; see “Satisfied” for a more direct reference to her “Super Bass.”

In 1776, the education of women was considered unnecessary, and indeed inappropriate. Women were meant to stay in feminine domestic spheres. Their chief personality traits were expected to to be ‘demure,’ ‘pious,’ and maybe ‘motherly.’ In colonial America, girls were given a basic education, but could only attend master’s schools if there was room, and were frequently relegated to summer classes. For a woman to have an interest in politics and to debate on equal footing with men was very unusual for the time. To pursue these topics and offer opinions in the face of social taboo would have been a disconcerting sign of an intense mind, and we all know how men can react to intense female minds.

It wouldn’t be until 1792 that Mary Wollstonecraft (mother of Frankenstein author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley) would write the foundational document of first-wave feminism, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, declaring that “my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if [woman] be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common to all”.

At this line, the three Schuyler Sisters begin to revolve on stage as the company orbits them.

The first half of the line recalls the opening of The Beatles‘ “Revolution 1” and “Revolution.”

Whereas the Beatles' objection to others' calls for revolution were about the violence they exhorted (“But when you talk about destruction, / Don’t you know that you can count me out”), Angelica is saying while the men want a “revolution,” or a change of who is in charge, she wants a revelation.

A revelation is by definition a disclosure of (usually surprising or enlightening) information, generally through an act of speech. After this line, she immediately goes on to declare that she is proudly pushing for the nationwide realization of true liberty and equality, particularly between the sexes. Her declaration is literally (and figuratively) a revelation.

The sisters quote one of the most famous lines in the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, and then proceed to challenge Jefferson for the document’s androcentric language.

Additionally, this could be referencing numerous early feminist works on women’s rights. The Seneca Falls Conference crafted a “Declaration of Rights and Sentiments” which was modeled after the Declaration of Independence. It included a line, “… that all men and women are created equal…” Similarly, after Jefferson helped Lafayette write the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, women would eventually come forward with their own counterpart, the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen.

Angelica and her sisters show that they are educated, well-read, and on the pulse of the current political movement, and also declare themselves to be feminists. WERK!

Not only is she a confident, educated feminist, but Angelica doesn’t know yet that she’s also apparently psychic. She would go on to meet Thomas Jefferson in the late 1780s, and they’d write letters to each other for the rest of their lives.

He flirted with her in letters. It was most likely she who told Alexander Hamilton of Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings. In The Hemingses of Monticello, Annette Gordon-Reed speculates that Jefferson preferred demure, domestic-focused women (like Hemings) to “Amazons” like Angelica. Thomas Jefferson, in a super-classy and unsurprising move, shared with her that he was of the opinion that women should be less involved in politics.

Eliza’s theme is introduced here, and it recurs in both word and melody several times throughout the show. Eliza and Alexander both sing this phrase to each other at different points in the story. Musically this recurs in “Schuyler Defeated” as “Further down, further down.”

This line is also an important tie between the past being depicted on stage, and the present being experienced by the audience. In a sense, Miranda is saying to the viewer/listener: look at what these people experienced, and the actions they took, and try to understand how lucky we are to live in the country they created for us.

At this stage of the musical, Eliza is referring to being lucky because of the progress and enlightenment in this time period. In “That Would Be Enough”, she repeats it in reference to surviving the war, when so many have died.

Miranda’s anthem to New York has a series of internal (false) rhymes: “History”, “happening”, “[Man]-hattan and we”, and “happen to be”. This meter mirrors the hustle and bustle of the city that the sisters are tuning into during this song.

It’s also a bit anachronistic, as the New York of the time comprised less than 25,000 inhabitants. In the 1770s, New York wasn’t even the “greatest” city in the Colonies. Philadelphia and Boston were both more populous and both had more trade passing through their ports. Philadelphia was the headquarters for the Continental Congress. Still:

… the city already had a history as a raucous commercial hub, a boisterous port that blended many cultures and religions. Fourteen languages were spoken there by the time Hamilton arrived. Each year, its congested wharves absorbed thousands of new immigrants—mostly British, Scotch, and Irish—and Hamilton must have appreciated the city’s acceptance of strangers carving out new lives.

New Yorkers have never been accused of modesty, and this is little bit of anachronism plays straight to the theater’s home crowd loyalties.

Still, Hamilton and the Schuyler sisters are picking up on something in New York’s character that was there even in the mid-18th Century. Compared to other Colonial cities, New York was grittier, with more prostitution and drinking. At the same time, it was more focused on commerce, more open to people of different cultures, and culturally more open to “self-made men”. (Much of this can be traced back to its history as the Dutch New Amsterdam.) This openness and the competition it spawned were major factors behind New York’s ascension to greatness. By the end of the 18th Century, New York was America’s population center, financial center, and even the first national capital.

Angelica has the intellectual capabilities to compete with the intelligence of men in society, however, because of her societal role as a female, she cannot make anywhere near the same impact as men.

This song is the first time (of many) that we see this word used as a mating call.

The fact that men are yelling it at women who don’t seem interested in them probably isn’t a coincidence.

Angelica has the intellectual capabilities to compete with the intelligence of men in society, however, because of her societal role as a female, she cannot make anywhere near the same impact as men.

This song is the first time (of many) that we see this word used as a mating call.

The fact that men are yelling it at women who don’t seem interested in them probably isn’t a coincidence.

From the Declaration of Independence:

This shows that the sisters have heard the news about the Declaration of Independence. There are 26 known copies of the Declaration of Independence still in existence. On July 4, 1776, multiple copies of the original document were made with the intent of “going viral” and being read aloud in town squares, so that even people who couldn’t read would know what was happening.

This song is the first time (of many) that we see this word used as a mating call.

The fact that men are yelling it at women who don’t seem interested in them probably isn’t a coincidence.

This song is the first time (of many) that we see this word used as a mating call.

The fact that men are yelling it at women who don’t seem interested in them probably isn’t a coincidence.

‘Nuff said.

This song is the first time (of many) that we see this word used as a mating call.

The fact that men are yelling it at women who don’t seem interested in them probably isn’t a coincidence.

The bombastic vocal run at the end of this line is reminiscent of the vocal acrobatics in Beyonce and Destiny’s Child records: