Alexander Hamilton

Born out of wedlock in Charlestown, Nevis, and orphaned as a child, Hamilton landed in New York City on a scholarship to King's College, where he wrote anonymous pamphlets for the Revolution before picking up a musket. He served as Washington's aide-de-camp for four years and fought at Yorktown. After the war he practiced law, founded the Bank of New York, and led the push to scrap the Articles of Confederation for a stronger federal charter - then wrote 51 of the 85 Federalist Papers that secured its ratification. As the first treasury secretary from 1789 to 1795, he created the First Bank of the United States, assumed state war debts, established the Revenue Cutter Service, and laid the architecture for American finance. He resigned in 1795, worked to abolish the Atlantic slave trade, and later backed Jefferson over Aaron Burr in the 1800 election - a slight Burr never forgave. When Hamilton opposed Burr's 1804 run for New York governor, Burr challenged him to a duel in Weehawken; Hamilton was shot on July 11, 1804, and died the next day in Greenwich Village.