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From the Introduction... Theirs was an unlikely alliance, for George Washington and Alexander Hamilton could not have been more different. Washington was a gentleman farmer from the patrician colony of Virginia and the owner of a great estate enriched by the labor of African slavery. As a rising member of the Virginia gentry, he satisfied the expectations of his station by entering into public service. Hamilton, on the other hand, was an illegitimate child--the “bastard brat of a Scotch peddler,” as John Adams brusquely put it once--and an immigrant from the West Indies. A self-made man, he made his way to America on his own and earned his positions in the army and the government. Despite their differences, Washington and Hamilton shared a lot of common ground. They collaboratively pursued their vision of a continental republic throughout the Revolutionary War and through the founding of the nation. They both embraced the revolutionary ideals of the era, though with Hamilton usually playing a subordinate role to Washington, who was seen as essential to the successful creation of America.