Hello, and welcome back to my blog!

Throughout the last 8 blogs, I have discussed several different people that greatly influenced Alexander Hamilton’s life. As these blogs get to an end, it is now time to learn about the man that ended Alexander Hamilton’s life: Aaron Burr. Prior to watching the musical, I had absolutely no idea who Burr was, and much less how he impacted Hamilton’s life. However, his role in the musical is so excellent, Burr immediately became one of my favorite characters. He captured my attention from the very beginning, and since he serves mostly as a narrator in the musical, I paid very close attention to him the entire time. Hopefully, by the end of this blog you will have a new perspective of him and next time you listen to the musical, you view him through a different lens.

Aaron Burr is one of the main antagonists of the Hamilton musical, and he also serves as a narrator for the most part. In the opening scene of Act One, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr epically raps about Hamilton’s childhood in the Caribbean. Towards the end of the song, when several characters say how they impacted Hamilton during his lifetime, Burr delivers the iconic line: “I’m the damn fool that shot him.” After the opening act, the story rewinds back to the moment when Hamilton and Burr met – “Pardon me, are you Aaron Burr, Sir?”. Seeking an accelerated course of study, Hamilton befriends Aaron Burr (who had graduated very quickly), hoping Burr will help him. It is during this song that Burr says his iconic line: “Talk less, smile more.” This line is said many times throughout the show, and becomes very symbolic of Burr. The men begin getting along together, and later join the army to fight in the American Revolution. After the war, the men remain friends and Burr even attends Hamilton’s wedding. Upon reflecting about Hamilton’s recent successes, Burr sings his famous solo Wait for It, in which he compares himself to Hamilton and notes how Hamilton always just jumps into things while he is more cautious and waits for things to happen. At this point, it is clear that jealousy starts building up inside Burr.

After the revolution, Burr and Hamilton begin interacting more in the political field. When Hamilton begins working closely with Madison and Jefferson, Burr is excluded. One day (The Room Where It Happens), Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison have a private dinner and exclude Burr. He becomes furious at this, and conveys his strong distress against Hamilton. Burr then switches political parties and defeats Hamilton’s father in law Philip Schuyler. At this point, it becomes clear that the men become enemies. The men go on to have many experiences, which you can read more about in detail here. Rather than continuing providing a summary of the musical, I would rather discuss a very common question that arises among Hamilton fans: what did Aaron Burr do after he killed Hamilton? I have read some things about it, and I find It quite funny.

After their duel, Burr expected to come back and be received as a hero for killing Hamilton, but instead was faced with an angry population. He then moved to the South, then back North, where he faced treason for getting caught trying to get some western states to secede. It is believed that his plan was to get the states to secede so he could create his own country, but he failed so epically that he fled to Europe and remained there for nearly the rest of his life. He eventually returned to the United States, but he never regained popularity in the political field, and he died in the shadows.

I wanted to end with this part about Burr’s life because it really shows that he really messed up by killing Hamilton – hence the title “the damn fool that shot him.” I just feel bad for Burr because his life went really downhill, and it was all because he got so overwhelmed with jealousy over Hamilton’s successes that he lost focus of his own goals. This only makes me wonder what would have happened if Hamilton had killed Burr instead. Or maybe, neither of them kill each other because they were able to resolve their issues without a duel. What would have happened then? Who knows…