Alexander Hamilton
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50 free Alexander Hamilton trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Alexander Hamilton packed an improbable amount into fewer than fifty years. Born on a small Caribbean island and orphaned young, he talked and wrote his way to the mainland colonies, into George Washington's inner circle and then into the first cabinet, where he designed the financial machinery of a new nation. He was never president, though plenty of people assume he was. This quiz follows the whole arc: the island boyhood, the Revolutionary War, the Constitutional Convention and The Federalist Papers, the feuds and deals of the 1790s, a very public scandal, and the duel that ended it all. A few questions cover his afterlife too, on the currency and on Broadway. It is written for history students revising the founding era, fans of the musical who want the real story, and anyone who likes a founding-father quiz where every answer comes with an explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which political rival fatally shot Hamilton in a pistol duel at dawn on July 11, 1804?
Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr was charged with murder in two states, but neither case ever reached trial. Their feud dated to 1791, when he took a Senate seat from Hamilton's father-in-law.
Q 02Which US banknote has carried Hamilton's portrait on its front since a redesign in the late 1920s?
$10 bill
The $10 Federal Reserve Note showed Andrew Jackson until the Series of 1928 put Hamilton on every $10 bill. His is the only portrait on a circulating US note that faces left.
Q 03Which cabinet post did Hamilton become the first person to hold, serving under George Washington from 1789?
Treasury Secretary
Treasury Secretary is the post that made Hamilton's name: despite his portrait on the currency, he was never president. He served from 1789 to 1795.
Q 04Hamilton was born out of wedlock in Charlestown, the capital of which small Caribbean island?
Nevis
Nevis was then part of the British Leeward Islands. Hamilton's mother later moved her two sons to St. Croix, where she kept a small store in Christiansted.
Q 05Which natural disaster did the teenage Hamilton describe so vividly in 1772 that local leaders paid for his schooling?
A hurricane
A hurricane devastated Christiansted on August 30, 1772. Hamilton's account of it so impressed community leaders that they raised a fund to send him to North America to study.
Q 06What term of office did Hamilton propose for the president in his own plan at the 1787 Constitutional Convention?
For life
For life, so long as he showed good behavior, was Hamilton's formula, and he wanted senators to serve on the same terms. Opponents called him a monarchist for years afterwards.
Q 07Which writer and performer created the Broadway musical Hamilton after reading a biography of him on vacation in Mexico?
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda also played the title role when the show opened on Broadway in 2015. It went on to set a record with 16 Tony Award nominations, winning 11.
Q 08Hamilton's 1791 excise tax on which product set off an armed uprising among farmers in western Pennsylvania?
Whiskey
Whiskey was the basic export of the frontier economy, so the tax hit small farmers hard. Washington himself rode out with about 13,000 militiamen to end the revolt in 1794.
Q 09Which longtime enemy did Hamilton urge Federalists to back when the House had to settle the tied election of 1800?
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson won on the 36th ballot, when several Federalists stopped voting for his rival. Hamilton disliked his politics but judged the other contender unprincipled.
Q 10Which state did Hamilton represent at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, where he was its only delegate to sign?
New York
New York sent three delegates, but the other two withdrew early, leaving Hamilton to sign alone. He settled there as a teenager and later founded a daily newspaper, the New York Evening Post.
Q 11King's College, where Hamilton enrolled as a teenager in the 1770s, later became which Ivy League university?
Columbia
Columbia dropped its royal name in 1784, right after the Revolution. Hamilton, a former student, later served on its board of trustees.
Q 12Which general's daughter did Hamilton marry in December 1780, months after meeting her at the army's winter quarters?
Elizabeth Schuyler
Elizabeth Schuyler outlived Hamilton by half a century, dying in 1854 at age 97. The couple had eight children.
Q 13Under which shared Roman pen name did Hamilton and two co-authors publish The Federalist Papers in 1787 and 1788?
Publius
Publius honored Publius Valerius, who helped found the Roman Republic and whose byname meant friend of the people. Hamilton chose the name and wrote 51 of the 85 essays.
Q 21Hamilton's 1790 dinner-table bargain with James Madison put the permanent national capital on the banks of which river?
The Potomac
The Potomac site was one half of a trade: four congressmen from districts along the river switched their votes to pass Hamilton's financial plan. The Susquehanna had been the rival site.
Q 22Which fellow Federalist did Hamilton attack in a long pamphlet during the 1800 campaign, splitting his own party?
John Adams
John Adams was the sitting president and the Federalists' own candidate that year. Hamilton's pamphlet was highly critical of his conduct and character, then closed with a tepid endorsement.
Q 23Under Hamilton's 1790 funding plan, what did the federal government take over from the thirteen states?
Q 14At which 1781 siege did Hamilton lead a night bayonet charge that captured a key British redoubt?
Yorktown
Yorktown's fall effectively ended the war. Hamilton's men took Redoubt No. 10 with bayonets alone, so that no accidental gunshot would give the night attack away.
Q 15In which New Jersey town, on a ledge above the Hudson River, was Hamilton fatally shot in 1804?
Weehawken
Weehawken's heights, below the cliffs of the Palisades, were a popular dueling ground. The two men crossed the Hudson in separate boats early that morning.
Q 16What position did Hamilton hold on George Washington's wartime staff for four years, ranked as a lieutenant colonel?
Aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp work made Hamilton Washington's emissary in intelligence, diplomacy and talks with senior officers. He quit in 1781 after a reprimand, still asking for a field command.
Q 17Which institution did Hamilton persuade Congress to charter in 1791, despite claims that it was unconstitutional?
A national bank
A national bank drew fire from Madison and from fellow cabinet members, who said the Constitution gave Congress no such power. Hamilton answered that its powers were implied, and Washington signed the bill.
Q 18Which US armed service traces its birth to the fleet of revenue cutters that Hamilton proposed in 1790?
The Coast Guard
The Coast Guard counts August 4, 1790, when Congress approved his armed cutters, as its birthday. The ships were meant to patrol the coast and help customs collectors seize contraband.
Q 19Which married woman's affair with Hamilton became public in 1797, years after her husband extorted money from him?
Maria Reynolds
Maria Reynolds was 23 when the affair began in 1791. To prove he had misused no public money, Hamilton published a pamphlet admitting the affair in detail.
Q 20Hamilton helped George Washington draft which 1796 message warning against party strife and permanent foreign alliances?
The Farewell Address
The Farewell Address was a public letter, first printed in a newspaper on September 19, 1796. The ideas were Washington's, but Hamilton wrote most of the text.
Their war debts
Their war debts from the Revolution were exchanged for new federal securities at full face value. About $18 million in state obligations ended up on the national books.
Q 24What was the first name of Hamilton's eldest son, who died at 19 after a duel in 1801?
Philip
Philip had confronted a lawyer over a speech attacking his father, and the quarrel ended on the dueling ground. He was named for his mother's father, a Continental Army general.
Q 25What is the name of the only home Hamilton ever owned, a country house his family moved into in 1802?
The Grange
The Grange is now a national memorial, and the whole house has been moved twice, in 1889 and again in 2008. Hamilton lived in it for only two years.
Q 26What kind of institution did Hamilton's widow help to found in 1806, later serving as its head for 27 years?
An orphanage
An orphanage was a fitting cause for the widow of a man orphaned as a boy. Hers was the first private one in its city, and she led it from 1821 to 1848.
Q 27After the Revolution, Hamilton built a law practice in the 1780s by defending which unpopular group in court?
Loyalists
Loyalists and British subjects faced lawsuits over property they had held during the wartime occupation. In Rutgers v. Waddington, Hamilton argued that a state law broke the peace treaty.
Q 28Which author's 2004 biography of Hamilton became the basis for the hit Broadway musical about him?
Ron Chernow
Ron Chernow went on to serve as the show's historical consultant. His book returned to the bestseller list in 2015, eleven years after it first appeared.
Q 29Hamilton's father James, the fourth son of a landed gentleman, sailed to the Caribbean from which country?
Scotland
Scotland was home to the family's estate in Ayrshire. James Hamilton later abandoned Alexander's mother and their two sons.
Q 30What job did the young Hamilton hold on St. Croix, where he once ran the business for five months?
Merchant's clerk
Merchant's clerk was his post at Beekman and Cruger, a firm that traded with the mainland colonies. While still a teenager he was left in charge for five months in 1771 while the owner was at sea.