How Alexander Hamilton’s Widow, Eliza, Carried on His Legacy

After Vice President Aaron Burr killed Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804, Hamilton’s widow, Elizabeth Schuyler “Eliza” Hamilton, had to find a way to continue without her beloved husband. One of the ways she found comfort – and honored her memory – was to found two institutions in New York that support low-income children.

Hamilton Free School, located in north Manhattan (not far from where the couple lived), provided education for students from families who could not afford private education for their children. She also became the founder of the Orphan Asylum Society, the city’s first private orphanage, which built a facility in Greenwich Village that provided homes for hundreds of children.

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