Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) was born on the Caribbean island of Nevis and immigrated to New York as a young man, fighting as an officer in the Continental Army and serving as an aide to George Washington. He wrote more than half of the eighty-five Federalist essays, and as the first Secretary of the Treasury under Washington built the young nation's financial system — a national bank, assumption of state debts, funded public credit. He was fatally wounded in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr in 1804.