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10 Historical Easter Eggs from Hamilton You Might Have Missed

If it's not clear to us all by now, Lin-Manuel Miranda is a lyrical genius who managed to write an astonishing 20,520 words for a hip-hop musical about a largely underrated figure in American history: Alexander Hamilton.

Hamilton: An American Musical — which became a cultural phenomenon when it hit Broadway in 2015, and won 11 Tony Awards in 2016 — is based on the biography by Ron Chernow, and uses the life of one of the Founding Fathers to teach lessons about everything from blind ambition to forgiveness. Now, more eyes are on the musical than ever after it hit Disney+ over July 4th weekend.

Hamilton may be Miranda's artistic take on historical events, but there are also very small moments that draw from real-life truth that you don't want to miss in your second (or 49th, we're not judging) viewing. Trust us, they make it even more impressive (if that's possible).

SPOILERS AHEAD! Although ... are they really spoilers if they're just plain ol' history?!

The whole "comma after dearest" exchange that happens in "Take a Break" actually happened — albeit a bit differently.

Our hearts were collectively ripped out of our chests when Angelica Schuyler (played by Renée Elise Goldsberry) acknowledged that Alexander Hamilton (played by Lin-Manuel Miranda) put a "comma after dearest" in "Take a Break," but did you know that this little flirty exchange happened in real life?

In the show, she sings, "In a letter I received from you two weeks ago/I noticed a comma in the middle of a phrase/It changed the meaning. Did you intend this?/One stroke and you've consumed my waking days/It says: My dearest, Angelica."

Lin-Manuel Miranda in Hamilton

In real life, the exchange went a little differently. In one letter to her brother-in-law, Angelica called him "my dear, sir," so Hamilton responded by calling her out: "You ladies despise the pedantry of punctuation. There was a most critical comma in your last letter. It is my interest that it should have been designed; but I presume it was accidental. Unriddle this if you can. The proof that you do it rightly may be given by the omission or repetition of the same mistake in your next."

The flirtation is real! Even in 1787!

And when Angelica says "If you really loved me you would share him," to Eliza in "Helpless," what was also a reference to a real-life letter!

In "Helpless," Eliza Hamilton (played by Phillipa Soo) sings, "Laughin' at my sister, cuz she wants to form a harem," to which Angelica replies, "I'm just sayin', if you really loved me, you would share him." Thought that was just a cheeky line snuck in to show the audience that Angelica Schuyler also loved Alexander Hamilton? Think again!

Though already married at this point in history, Angelica wrote to her sister in 1794, “I love him very much and if you were as generous as the Old Romans, you would lend him to me for a while.”

When Eliza Hamilton sings, "Do you know what Angelica said/When she read what you'd done?/She said, "You've married an Icarus/He has flown too close to the sun," that's also true.

In Chernow's biography, there is a letter from Angelica that Eliza received after the Reynolds Pamphlet was published. In it, she wrote, "All this you would not have suffered if you had married into a family less near the sun."

In summary, Miranda somehow managed to make real-life letters fit into a hip hop musical and, well, blow us all away.

Lin-Manuel Miranda made sure to include George Washington's oft-used Bible verse.

In "One Last Time," George Washington quotes scripture to Hamilton, telling him, "Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree/And no one shall make them afraid." As it would have it, Washington used that scripture in actual correspondence, according to the Mount Vernon Museum. According to their records, "George Washington used this phrase multiple times in correspondence throughout his life, and one can find Washington reference it almost fifty times."

The song lyrics in "Dear Theodosia" where Hamilton and Burr sing of their children, "You'll blow us all away," have a heartbreaking meaning.

Miranda annotated the lyrics of the song on Genius, writing, "Theodosia [Burr's daughter] died in a storm at sea, and Philip [Hamilton's son] was fatally shot in a duel (depicted later in “Blow Us All Away”). In a sense, both were literally or figuratively blown away in the prime of life, instead of surviving to inherit the world their fathers hoped to build for them. Even a sweet and tender song like this one must have its note of irony."

Alexander did give Philip Hamilton pistols to duel with, but there's more to the story.

Disney+ Walt Disney Studios Hamilton

In the musical, Hamilton hands over dueling pistols to his 19-year-old son (played by Anthony Ramos), advising him to throw away his shot to avoid bloodshed in a duel against George Eacker. That, unfortunately, did not happen: Philip Hamilton was killed in the duel, and I think I speak for all of us when I say we sobbed watching Eliza Hamilton see her son for the last time.

According to Joanne B. Freeman, who wrote the book Affairs of Honor, Alexander Hamilton did give his son the dueling pistols that he used in the duel that resulted in his death, but he "assumed that the matter would end without gunplay," and after finding out his son had even attended the duel, "Hamilton fainted dead away."

This "history check" even hurt Manuel.

When Alexander sings "Best of Wives and Best of Women" to Eliza before leaving for his final duel, that's based in truth.

In the show, Hamilton tells Eliza she's the "best of wives and best of women" before heading off to Weehawken, New Jersey to duel with Aaron Burr. In reality, he wrote this in his last letter to her, which reads:

"This letter, my very dear Eliza, will not be delivered to you, unless I shall first have terminated my earthly career; to begin, as I humbly hope from redeeming grace and divine mercy, a happy immortality.

If it had been possible for me to have avoided the interview, my love for you and my precious children would have been alone a decisive motive. But it was not possible, without sacrifices which would have rendered me unworthy of your esteem. I need not tell you of the pangs I feel, from the idea of quitting you and exposing you to the anguish which I know you would feel. Nor could I dwell on the topic lest it should unman me.

The consolations of Religion, my beloved, can alone support you; and these you have a right to enjoy. Fly to the bosom of your God and be comforted. With my last idea; I shall cherish the sweet hope of meeting you in a better world.

Adieu best of wives and best of Women. Embrace all my darling Children for me.

Ever yours."

Let the crying commence!

Aaron Burr really did say "The world was wide enough for both Hamilton and me."

After shooting and killing Hamilton, Aaron Burr (played by Leslie Odom Jr.) sings, "I should have known/ The world was wide enough for both Hamilton and me."

In real-life, this quote really is attributed to Burr, who is rumored to have said, "Had I read Sterne more and Voltaire less, I should have known the world was wide enough for Hamilton and me.”

Eliza Hamilton really did start the first private orphanage in New York City.

Now known as Graham Windham, Eliza Hamilton really did have a part in founding New York City's first private orphanage in 1806, two years after her husband's death. Phillipa Soo, who played Eliza Hamilton in the original cast and in the movie even volunteered there, continuing her character's legacy.

There's a moment in "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" where Christopher Jackson as an actor acknowledges that George Washington owned slaves.

Miranda based the musical on Hamilton's life, but naturally falls short in some ways, namely when it comes to acknowledging that most (if not all) of the Founding Fathers featured in the musical were involved in the slave trade and owned or traded enslaved people themselves. Miranda himself tweeted after the movie garnered some criticism, "All the criticisms are valid. The sheer tonnage of complexities & failings of these people I couldn’t get. Or wrestled with but cut. I took 6 years and fit as much as I could in a 2.5 hour musical. Did my best. It’s all fair game."

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Christopher Jackson, who plays George Washington said that it took him some time to "reconcile being in this man's skin" as Washington was a slave owner himself. When Phillipa Soo sings (as Eliza Hamilton), "I speak out against slavery," you can see Jackson making the choice as an actor to step out of the spotlight and hang his head in shame behind her.