Thanksgiving with Alexander Hamilton: Stewed eels and 'promiscuous' dining

What if Alexander Hamilton had hosted a Thanksgiving dinner? That’s a lot easier to imagine than a Broadway show with a hip-hop score that has made him the most popular Founding Father of the decade.

Thanksgiving was not an annual national holiday until 1863, but there were official proclamations of thanksgiving before then. For example, President George Washington declared Thursday Nov. 26, 1789, to be “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.”

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You might envision a celebration that would look like our image of the quintessential American Thanksgiving — family and friends gathered around a table laden with roast turkey and all the fixings. That certainly would fit with a quote widely attributed to Hamilton: “No citizen of the U.S. shall refrain from turkey on Thanksgiving Day.”

In 1789, Hamilton and his family lived in Lower Manhattan. Their home, in a prosperous neighborhood, must have been a bustling place. At that point, they had four young children of their own and were raising the orphaned daughter of a friend.

Hamilton’s wife, Eliza, would have decided what dishes to include in celebratory dinner. Many of the possibilities are familiar to our modern palates. However, others — think turtle soup, pigeon pie, hogs’ ears and stewed eels — would probably elicit grimaces today.

The Hamiltons’ dinner would have been lavish by our standards. Like any other well-off family of the time, they would not have prepared or served the meal themselves. It is unlikely that the Hamiltons had slaves at that time, but they certainly had servants.

The English fashion, often followed by prosperous Americans, was to serve multiple courses. In order to provide an adequate variety, one contemporary authority recommended nine dishes in each course for a dozen diners or 15 dishes for a party of 18. Cookbooks provided elaborate diagrams for each course, showing the exact position for every dish on the table.

It was considered bad form to include two dishes containing the same main ingredient in the same course. Typically, the first course would include soups and stews, large pieces of meat, poultry served whole, and fish. The second would include savory pies, smaller game birds such as pheasant, and seafood. Vegetable dishes were part of both courses, as were garnishes and condiments. Desserts included puddings, pies, cakes, cookies, and jellies and other small sweets we could call candies. Fruits and nuts might be served after the meal.

Beverages would have been served with each course. As Hamilton enjoyed wine, he would no doubt have served wines with dinner and port or other sweet wines afterwards.

The Hamiltons liked to entertain. Both were close to Eliza’s sister, Angelica, and her husband, John Church. If the Churches were visiting from their home in England, the Hamiltons would no doubt have invited them. The Hamiltons might well have included friends with whom they socialized, such as John Jay and his wife. In addition, Alexander kept in touch with men from earlier stages of his life, such as Hercules Mulligan, a tailor who was one of the first people he met upon arriving in New York, and Nicholas Fish, a member of a prominent New York family who was a friend from Hamilton’s army days.  

Although all-male dinners were common at the time, it was becoming fashionable for men and women to dine together. Seating for the latter, alternating men and women at the table, was referred to by one writer as a “new, promiscuous way of dining.” Maybe that would have required the Hamiltons to find a “date” if a single gentleman such as Nicholas Fish did not bring a female companion.

Eliza was pious and spiritual. Although her husband was less attached to formal religious observance, he too had a firm belief in a higher being and was supportive of religion. They would likely have started the meal with a prayer. If Alexander led it, the prayer might not have been a rote recitation, but rather an eloquent and heartfelt invocation.

Hamilton was known as an excellent dinner companion, and he would likely have kept the conversation flowing. If pressed, he might invite a political adversary, such as Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson, or James Madison. More likely, he would have avoided that, hoping that the dinner would simply be an enjoyable social event. Still, there was always the chance that a real or perceived insult would lead to a duel, and we all know what could happen then.

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Though it’s fun to speculate, the Thanksgiving dinner described is as unlikely as, well, a real Founding Father breaking out into a hip-hop song. And that supposed quote from Hamilton is dubious in my book. Thanksgiving with a capital “T” didn’t exist at the time. And Norman Rockwell-style roast turkey, though it did exist, was not especially popular in the late 18th century.

If Hamilton observed Nov. 26, 1789 (or any other day proclaimed for thanksgiving during his lifetime), he probably did something more akin to what politicians and their families do these days when they serve holiday meals at soup kitchens. Hamilton’s mentor, Washington, set an example that many in public life have followed ever since. He attended religious services, and donated beer and food to imprisoned debtors. 

Laura Kumin blogs on food and cooking atMother Would Know and is the author ofThe Hamilton Cookbook: Cooking, Eating, and Entertaining in Hamilton's World, published Nov. 21. Follow her on Twitter: @MotherWouldKnow