The mother of Alexander Hamilton

[Diane Awen]

I was very interested in Alexander Hamilton and was researching him. I was told that I was the reincarnation of his mother, Rachael Faucette Lavien. At first I was skeptical about this. I was asked to write a book about the life of Alexander Hamilton and, like many before me, started with his mother's story. Writers including Ron Chernow knew that her husband John Lavien had thrown her into prison for having twice committed adultery but they weren't sure if she had actually done it or if her husband was just being cruel to her. I felt strongly that Rachael had left her husband for another man because he had been abusive to her. It came to me, as with a sort of information download that Lavien had been an alcoholic and drug user (laudanum) who had sxxually abused his slaves and also abused his wife in all ways. She had known a kind man who had taken her and her son Peter in to his house after Lavien rxped her one night after getting very drunk. I wrote these things down.

After that, I found a website called discoveringhamilton.com by Michael E. Newton who revealed that he had found a court document that showed that Rachael had been found twice by Lavien living and sleeping with a surveyor/mapmaker named Johann Jacob Cronenberg. The two were arrested whilst in flagrante delicto and thrown into prison for 7 months at Fort Christiansvaern on the island of St. Croix. I was amazed to find that I had somehow known much of the story before reading this article. I started to believe.

Other things have come to me since then. Things about Hamilton I knew before reading about them have proved to be true. Unfortunately, there is very little written about Rachael that could confirm things and sadly I have not found a true portrait of her. What is apparent is that she taught her son Alexander how to read, write, do math, accounting, dance, sing, and play a keyboard. Hamilton's son John C. Hamilton, wrote that his father “recollected” his mother “with
inexpressible fondness, and often spoke of her as a woman of superior intellect, highly cultivated, of elevated and generous sentiments, and of unusual elegance of person and manner.” John added that Hamilton was “indebted” to her “for his genius.”

In my current incarnation, I have much in common with Alexander Hamilton. I have been tested to have a high IQ and I am very skilled at writing and accounting (I have a bachelor's degree in Accounting). I have very definite political opinions that I frequently express on social media. I have contempt for those who disagree. I am generous and have opened my home to those in need. I have a very passionate nature in this lifetime as well and my romantic relationships with men have been very fraught as they were in that lifetime. I have met the reincarnations of people close to Hamilton and his mother including his father James Hamilton.

Well, that's more than plenty for now. Thank you if you've read this far.

Rachael

 

[AlteSeele]

Alex was born on the island of Nevis, which is adjacent to St Kitts. So, somewhere along the line the mother ended up on a different island and made a new life for herself. I believe he was born out of wedlock and ended up orphaned. Suffice it to say, you/she passed away on the island of Nevis. But you probably came across this already in your research. Part of you has to feel a sense of relief to know that your young son ended up just fine and accomplished many good deeds. Have you had an opportunity to visit that part of the world?

 

[Diane Awen]

He was born on Nevis on January 11, 1757 (not 1755 and not on St. Eustatius as some have speculated). I had been married to John Lavien years before who abused me so bad that I had no choice but to leave him (long and sad story short). I met James Hamilton on St. Kitts and we had several children together. Lavien obtained a divorce in 1759 which freed him to marry again but not me, thus causing Alex and his brother to be condemned to illegitimacy.

We moved about the islands, wherever James' work took him, and we had to go to St. Croix ultimately. Shortly thereafter, James made the decision to leave the family. I had family living on the island, my sister Ann Lytton's husband James and their children were fairly well off although their means had diminished to some degree (such was the capriciousness of prosperity on the sugar islands). James knew that they would be willing and able to take care of me and our boys absent a man in the household, so he left us hoping to make a success of his business affairs unencumbered, after which he would return to us. Alas, this was not to be.

My relatives loaned me money to establish a business venture and open a victual shop. It was moderately successful and, along with money we received from hiring out inherited domestic slaves, we made ends meet by living modestly. Alex also gained employment as a clerk for Beekman and Cruger, an import/export trading firm.

In February 1768, I fell ill with a fever. The medical treatments given to me by Dr. Heering such as bleeding were more harmful than helpful. Alex also fell ill. I died in his arms as he was starting to recover. I was buried at the Grange plantation on St. Croix, which had been owned by my sister and her husband.

I watched over my son, witnessing his triumphs and failures, very proud of his industriousness, bravery, intelligence, and, most of all, the love he showed to his family. He came back to me all too soon on July 12, 1804.

 

[Diane Awen]

I actually haven't had a chance yet in this life to visit the islands but that is definitely on my bucket list. When I was a child I had this odd memory of having been in a tropical environment with lots of colorful birds in the trees but I couldn't remember exactly when or where that had happened in this lifetime. I shrugged it off as a mystery. But sometimes when I'd see a movie set on an exotic tropical island it would evoke a strange kind of longing in me. Thank you for your comment and questions.