the relationship of Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens

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Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens met when Laurens joined George Washington’s military family, of which Hamilton was already a part, in August of 1777.¹ Though they came from different backgrounds, the two men had a lot in common, and they quickly became the best of friends. Indeed, years later many veterans of the Revolution would remember Hamilton and Laurens as an inseparable pair. But was the powerful bond they formed platonic, or did Hamilton and Laurens fall in love? To answer this question, many turn to the roughly two dozen surviving letters that passed between Hamilton and Laurens. Many historians have argued that these letters are not good enough evidence to say what kind of relationship Hamilton and Laurens had, but the letters constitute the clearest insight we have into how the two soldiers interacted. So what can we learn from the Hamilton-Laurens letters? Do they provide proof of a powerful love story, or are they just an example of how men formed friendships in the eighteenth century?

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