Alexander Hamilton was born out of wedlock on the small Caribbean island of Nevis in either 1755 or 1757 (most historians agree on 1755).  His mother, Rachel Faucette, was the daughter of a French Huguenot who fled to the Indies after King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, banning Huguenots (Protestants) in France.  Rachel, after the death of her father, inherited a small sum and, with her mother, moved to the capitol of the Danish West Indies, St. Croix.  There, at the age of only 16, she met her soon-to-be husband, Michael Lavine, and was forced into marriage by her mother.  Though they had a son, Rachel managed to leave, but was accused of adultery by her enraged husband.  She was thrown into jail for several months, and, when she was released, she left St. Croix for St. Kitts, the small island next to Nevis.

Back in Nevis, Rachel met James Hamilton, a Scottish man who, according to Alexander Hamilton, “from too generous and too easy a temper ( . . . ) failed in business.”  Despite his lack of success, Rachel and James fell in love and had two sons, Alexander and his older brother, James. 

In 1765, James abandoned his family and Rachel and the boys moved to St. Croix where they lived for three years until Rachel died of yellow fever in 1768.  After her death, the boys were sent to live with a cousin, but that lasted only just over a year before the cousin committed suicide and James and Alexander were left alone and poor.  Alexander suddenly found himself working as a clerk for a trading company where he learned many skills he would later use as Secretary of the Treasury.