Little Known History - Part 3

ST CROIX AND NEVIS ISLANDS; ALEXANDER HAMILTON

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

December 22, 2024

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 17:15

15) “Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger [foreigner] over thee, which is not thy brother.”

The purpose of this sermon is to explore the connection between some of the Caribbean Islands and the history of one of the founding fathers of our nation. There were a whole lot of European nations, France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands, Knights of Malta of Sicily, Denmark, Spain, and Norway involved in the early settlement of these newly discovered islands. Let’s explore two, St. Croix and Nevis.

First, we will talk about St. Croix.

It all began in 1625 (close to when the first settlers came to the United States) when Dutch and English settlers landed in Saint Croix, joined by some French refugees from Saint Kitts. The English expelled the Dutch and French settlers before they themselves were evicted by a Spanish invasion from Puerto Rico in August of 1650.

So, in the first 25 years of the settlement of these islands, there were four European nations that settled St. Croix with the Spanish being the only ones remaining. From 1651 until1664, the Knights of Malta (at the time a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily) ruled the island in the name of Louis XIV.

The island then passed to the French West India Company. The colony was evacuated to Saint Dominica in 1695, when France battled the English and Dutch in the War of the Grand Alliance. St. Croix was then uninhabited and abandoned for 38 years. After being abandoned (from 1695-1733), on June 15, 1733, France and Denmark-Norway concluded a treaty by which the Danish West India Company bought St. Croix for 750,000 Livres.

Twelve years after the island was re-inhabited, Alexander Hamilton’s young mother arrived with her mother from England to live in St. Croix. Shortly after their arrival, the strange story of Alexander’s birth begins.

Next we talk about Nevis Island:

Nevis became a popular stop-over point for English and Dutch ships on their way to North America .Captain Bartholomew Gilbert of England visited the island in 1603. Gilbert sailed on to Virginia to seek out survivors of the Roanoke settlement in what is now North Carolina. Captain John Smith visited Nevis on his way to Virginia in 1607 on the voyage that founded Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World.

On August 30, 1620, when the Pilgrims were sailing to what is now called Plymouth, Massachusetts, King James I of England asserted sovereignty over Nevis by giving a Royal Patent. However, the actual European settlement did not happen until 1628, when Anthony Hilton moved from nearby Saint Kitts following a murder plot against him. Eighty other settlers accompanied him, soon boosted by a further 100 settlers from London who had initially hoped to settle Barbuda. Hilton became the first Governor of Nevis.

After the Treaty of Madrid (1670) between Spain and England, Nevis became the seat of the British colony in the islands, and the Admiralty Court also satin Nevis. Between 1675 and 1730, the island was the headquarters for the slave trade for the Leeward Islands, with approximately 6,000–7,000 enslaved West Africans passing through in route to other islands each year. The Royal African Company brought all its ships through Nevis. A 1678 census shows a community of Irish people–22% of the population–existing as either indentured servants, slaves, or freemen.

Due to the profitable slave trade and the high quality of Nevisian sugar cane, Nevisian sugar cane became a dominant source of wealth for Great Britain and the slave-owning British plantocracy. When the Leeward Islands were separated from Barbados in 1671, Nevis became the seat of the Leeward Islands colony and was given the nickname “Queen of the Caribees”. It remained the colonial capital for the Leeward Islands until the seat was transferred to Antigua for military reasons in 1698. During this period, Nevis was the richest of the British Leeward Islands.

Nevis, which is only about 7 miles long and 5 miles wide, outranked larger islands like Jamaica in sugar production in the late17th century. Twenty per cent of the British Empire’s total sugar production in 1700 was derived from Nevisian plantations. Exports from West Indian colonies like Nevis were worth more than all the exports from all the mainland Thirteen Colonies of North America combined at the time of the American Revolution.

IS USURY A SIN?

During the Middle Ages, there were two main things said about the Jews, that they were:

• Engaged in the slave trade, and
• “Usurers.”

The Jews were the merchant men, the ship owners, and the auctioneers of the African slave trade.They dominated this business for over three and a half centuries.

In addition, one of the oldest Christian accusations against Jews was that the Jews practiced usury and Christians didn’t. Biblical law forbids taking or giving interest to “your brother” (a fellow Israelite), whether money or food or anything. But the Bible permits lending money on interest to a “racial stranger” or a “foreigner.”

And in addition to violating the eighth commandment,“…thou shalt not steal”, here are two more of many verses that teach against usury among Israelites:

Exodus 22:25: “If thou lend money to any of My people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.”

Deuteronomy 23:19, 20:

19) “Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury.

20) Unto a stranger[racial, non-Israelite] thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother[Israelite]thou shalt not lend upon usury that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thin hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it.”

Does this verse in Deuteronomy teach that all the races in the world are treated the same in God’s law? No. For can an Israelite lend money or anything else at usury to an Oriental, or a Negroid, or a Hindu, or anyone who is not an Israelite? Yes, they can. But an Israelite is forbidden to lend money or anything else at usury to an Israelite! So, there must be a difference between an Israelite and the rest of the people of the world.

Protestant reformers Martin Luther (late in his life) and Ulrich Zwingli, condemned usury utterly. John Calvin and some other progressive “Christian” thinkers argued that “interest-taking” did not constitute usury. After Luther wrote his book against the Jews (which today very few Lutherans even know that he wrote it) and their practices (including usury), shortly before he died, the Jews withdrew their support from him and gave it to Calvin. Christianity today says that the Bible still forbids usury, but they agree with Calvin and say that usury means unreasonable charges.

Where are the Bible verses that teach this? Why did they (mainly the clergy and higher-ups) change the meaning of the word usury?

The formula for compound interest:

A = final amount

P = initial principal balance

r = interest rate

n = number of times interest rate recalculated each year

t = number of years

Have you ever wondered who invented this formula? Was he Jewish? No. Jacob Bernoulli, the inventor, was a Swiss mathematician from a family of Protestant Dutch origin who fled to Basel, Switzerland to escape religious persecution from the Spanish Inquisition, which targeted Protestants at the time. His family practiced Calvinism, which permitted, unlike Luther and Zwingli, usury. Here is what you will get when the following information, $200,000 at 10% for 360 months is punched in on the Loan Calculator, at:https://www.trufcu.com/truloans/loan-calculator Monthly loan payment is: $1,755.14 for 360 payments at 10% Total amount of loan: $200,000 Total interest paid: $431,857.72 Total payments: $631,857.72 You will pay $431,857.72 more than what you borrowed!!!  $631,857 - $200,000 = $431,857

The first year of total payments: $21,061.68

First year of Interest payments:$19,941

First year of Principal payments: only $1,121

The 30th year of total payments: $21,061.68

30th year of Interest payments: only $947

30th year of Principal payments: $20,130

You pay $1667 on interest in the 1st payment compared to only $15in the last payment, the 360th payment.

You pay only $8 on the principal in the 1st payment, while you pay $1740 in the last one.

It will be in the 23th year, with less than seven years to go, that you will pay more for the principal than the interest on one of your monthly payments, that is over 278 monthly payments. Compound interest is a real wealth builder—for the banker, not the borrower. On the 278th payment you will pay the principal down by $881, while you will pay the interest down by $874.

This is nothing more than robbery by individuals who build nothing! All the bankers do is loan the lender money created from nothing and receive up to twice the value of the house. No wonder it is the death penalty in the Bible for everyone who loans anything at usury to their Israelite brothers! Anyone who loans money will be the head, while those who borrow will be the tail. The Bible says that the borrower is slave to the lender.

Why are bankers and financial institutions allowed to use the compound interest formula when they loan money for a house or a car or on credit cards or national loans (35 trillion dollars)??! Financial institutions make a gigantic fortune on their loans by the tenth year, when most people move and then must make another loan. 

What about God’s law of eliminating all the debt of all Israelites every seven years?What about God’s law restoring all land back to Israelites who own land every 50 years?

ALEXANDER HAMILTON

“The Founding Father Orphan”

Alexander Hamilton was born in 1755 in Charlestown, the capital of the island of Nevis, in the Leeward Islands. He was born out of out of wedlock to Rachel Faucette and James A. Hamilton. Alexander’s parents were not married at the time of his birth. The reason for this was very unusual.

Ten years before Alexander was born, his mother, Rachel, came to St. Croix with her mother from Uppingham, England, which is about 100 miles northwest of London. They both came to visit her sister and brother-in-law who lived in St. Croix. But shortly after their arrival, her mother arranged for her 16-year-old daughter, Rachel, to be in an unwilling marriage to an older man. She was married off to Johann Micael Levien, a man close to 30 years old, who was Jewish and very cruel. Their marriage was a nightmare. Their marriage took place in 1745, and they had one son. Rachel had no love for her husband, who eventually accused her of fornication (which was true) and had her thrown into prison, thinking some time behind bars would bring her around.

As a side note, marriage between Christians and Jews was forbidden in Danish St. Croix in 1745, when she was forced to be married. So, before she married her Jewish husband, she converted to Judaism as that was the law of Denmark at that time.

In October 1749, a romantic liaison between her and Johan Jacob Cronenberg had been discovered by her older husband. Rachel and Cronenberg had been residing together for a long time in fornication. They were caught together well hidden behind locked doors. Rachel was driven back to her husband, and Cronenberg was warned and even imprisoned for a few days.

Despite this, Rachel soon returned to live with the bachelor Cronenberg. She and her lover were eventually caught again by her husband, and they were both arrested and thrown in jail. Cronenberg was then deported, while Rachel stayed in prison.

After several months of imprisonment, Lavien had Rachel released from jail, assuming she would have learned her lesson, and everything would change for the better. To the contrary, Rachel, upon her release, simply left her husband (and young son) on St. Croix and fled (with her mother) to St. Kitts, right next door to Nevis. 

While there, she met James Hamilton, from Scotland.  He had come to the West Indies (like so many others) to seek a quick fortune in the world of sugar.  But he was late to the game and lacked business sense (much like Lavien), so he ended up doing menial work attempting to make ends meet. They moved to the island of Nevis.

And from this relationship came two sons, James, Jr. and Alexander. She had not officially divorced her first husband, which meant her “second” marriage was considered null and void.  Her two children were, therefore, illegitimate.

When Alexander was eleven years old, his family moved back to St. Croix. But after a couple of months, Alexander’s father abandoned them. It is thought by many that James Hamilton abandoned his lover and their illegitimate children, allegedly to spare her a charge of bigamy after finding out that her first and only husband intended to divorce her under Danish law on grounds of adultery and desertion.

Alex’s mother rented a two-story house in St. Croix and provided for her two sons. But when Alexander was thirteen years old, both he and his mother caught yellow fever; he survived but his mother died.

What was Alexander’s life up to this time of his mother’s death? His birthplace, Nevis, had a large Jewish community as twenty-five percent of the free population at this time in Nevis was Jewish.

Alexander went to a Jewish school, which was housed in the synagogue in the capital city of Charlestown. After his mother died, Hamilton supported himself by working as a clerk for a trading company in Christiansted, St. Croix.

Four years after his mother died, her two sons were essentially orphans since their father had abandoned them. Then the beautiful island of St. Croix was ravaged by a hurricane on August 31, 1772. It began at sundown and raged for six hours. Gale-force winds tore down trees, destroyed buildings, and flung boats inland. The widespread devastation crippled the Danish colony and left the residents without food. Benefactors in the mainland colonies sent food to the island.

Hamilton wrote a dramatic description of the hurricane which was published in the Royal Danish American Gazette. The letter impressed many of the newspaper readers. Some of them decided to help further his education.

Just three years before the Declaration of Independence was written and signed, in 1773, some of the residents of St. Croix sent Hamilton to school in New Jersey and New York. How did Alexander, who was from the Caribbean islands, who was very poor, who had never been to America, become a Founding Father of the new nation when harsh disagreements had already busted out, like when the British soldiers opened fire on a mob of colonists, killing five men in what was known as the Boston Massacre. Shortly after Alex arrived in the united colonies the famous Boston Tea Party took place in Boston. Britain was bankrupt after its War with France, and it was attempting to collect taxes from the colony which benefited from that war. The War was fought from 1775-1781, and the war ended when the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783.

The Revolutionary War broke out before Hamilton graduated from King’s College (Columbia College). Alexander decided to join the forces on the battlefield, fighting alongside the Patriots. He began advising and assisting General George Washington (how did this happen), as well as leading and participating in several battles. He became a personal aide and private secretary to George Washington.

After the war was over, Alexander studied law and eventually established his own law practice in New York. He was a Crown Templar who took many Jewish clients, the only founding father to do so. Hamilton also had personal and professional ties to Jews. His children also had Jewish friends, and his later descendants also married into prominent Jewish banking families.

For example, Alexander Morgan Hamilton (January 25, 1903 – May 29, 1970) was an American philanthropist and civil servant. He was the grandson of J. P. Morgan, the founder of America’s Federal Reserve System, and great-great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States and founder of America’s first central bank. Kind of strange who is descended from whom.

After being in America for seven years, 1780, Alexander Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler, daughter of Philip Schuyler, a Revolutionary War general, and Catherine Van Rensselaer. Both Schuyler’s and Rensselaer’s were very wealthy and prominent New York families. Alexander Hamilton’s wife, Elizabeth, was a member of the Reformed Dutch Church of Albany and their marriage produced eight children.

Also in that year, the directors of the Bank of England appointed Alexander Hamilton to represent their interests in the United States. Why was he appointed. He was to start a bank that would be owned by private interest as an alternative to those who insisted the issue and control of money should remain in the hands of the government elected by the people.

In 1781, after graduating from Columbia University, Hamilton worked with his friend John Jay to rewrite the university’s charter. One unique change the pair made was eliminating the requirement that the school’s president had to be Christian. This was a highly unusual step at the time: other Colonial-era schools such as Brown and Rutgers maintained that their presidents had to be Christian well into the 20th Century.

Less well-known today is the name of another collaborator who worked with Hamilton to rewrite Columbia’s charter: Gershom Seixas. Seixas was the first native-born Jewish religious leader in the United States. He served in New York City’s first Spanish and Portuguese synagogue, for about five decades.

In July, 1782, Hamilton was appointed to Congress during the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, representing the state of New York. He resigned from Congress in 1783 and set up his law practice once again. The last battle of the Revolutionary War was fought in 1781, the Paris Peace Treaty was finalized on September 3, 1783, and ratified by the Continental Congress on January 14, 1784. In the same year, Alexander emerged as an agent of the Rothschilds and founded the Bank of New York.

In 1787, following a relentless lobbying effort, Hamilton successfully secured an appointment for Seixas to the board of trustees of Columbia University. This was an unprecedented for New York Jewry, since Jews were largely banned from colleges, clubs and other prestigious groups. Columbia would not have another Jewish trustee on its board until 141 years later in 1928.

And Hamilton helped George Washington draft a letter to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island, which was delivered to Moses Seixas, the brother of Hamilton’s old friend Gershom Seixas. Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams, a Baptist preacher, who was banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony for spreading “new and dangerous opinions.” Rhode Island was established by a charter from King Charles II, which was based on principles of complete religious toleration from its very beginning.

The Jews, who had been chased from their homes by persecution, forced conversions, violence, and governmental theft of their property, the American promise of toleration was an almost incomprehensible blessing. And for the Jews of Spain and Portugal, making their way to Newport, Rhode Island via Amsterdam, Holland, the promise of such freedom must have been tantalizing and a little terrifying. Roger Williams led America to deny the Scriptures which identified its greatest enemies. Should America express tolerance for everyone on the earth or should they banish their enemies from their homeland who desire to destroy them? The answer should be obvious.

SUMMARY OF HAMILTON’S LIFE

From 1773 to 1791, Alexander went from an illegitimate, bastard, son of a whore, arrogant immigrant, orphan boy from the Caribbean islands, with almost no money, to a college student in the United Colonies supported by people from his former island, fought the Revolutionary War as an energetic but inexperienced private in a volunteer militia unit, a battle-tested commander in the Continental Army, and the principal aide to General George Washington, became a close friend to the first native-born Jewish religious leader in the United States, married into a wealthy and prominent family, became an agent of the Rothschilds and one of the Founding Fathers of the soon-to-be nation. He founded a bank, wrote most of the articles of the Federalists, started a newspaper which still exists, and became an important asset to the first Constitutional president of the nation—George Washington. All this without being in America for the first 15 years of his life and coming to the colonies just three years before the Declaration of Independence was written and signed!

In 1790, Hamilton encountered resistance when he proposed his plan for a United States central bank to Congress. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison opposed a central banking system, which they said was unconstitutional. Washington trusted Hamilton more than any of the other Founders. Hamilton was Washington’s Chief of Staff during the Revolution. When Washington became President, he relied more on Hamilton than any of his other Cabinet members. This made many of the other members of the administration very upset.

Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams despised Hamilton. Jefferson said that Hamilton was a corrupt monarchist, who was power-hungry, he opposed his plan for a national bank believing it would favor wealthy businessmen over farmers and would create a financial monopoly that would undermine state banks, he complained that his fiscal policies were intended to destroy the republic, he saw his push to strengthen the central government and presidency, and he called him a traitor.

Hamilton was persistent, and in early 1791, Congress passed the controversial bill that created the nation’s first central usury banking system. As part of the compromise, the Rothschild national bank would have a twenty-year charter running from 1791-1811, after which time it would be up to Congress to approve or deny renewal of the bank and its charter.  However, during that time, no other federal bank would be authorized.

The First Bank of the United States, headquartered in Philadelphia, had startup capital of $10 million, which is equivalent to approximately $280 million in today’s dollars. The United States government held 20% of the capital, and thus became a minority stockholder in the bank. Private investors held the remaining $8 million and whether they resided overseas or in the United States, would be allowed to be stockholders in the bank, but would not be allowed to vote.

Another big event was the Whiskey Rebellion that was caused by the Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, in the spring of 1791. It was part of his excise tax proposal for federal assumption of the public debts of the several states for the American Revolution. The tax was particularly hard on small farmers who bartered and didn’t have access to cash. They also saw the tax as unfair and the brainchild of Alexander Hamilton and greedy Eastern bankers.

Virtually no taxpayer in the back country, that is, the frontier areas of Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky, supported the tax. The whiskey tax was hated in the back country because whiskey production and distilling were widespread. Furthermore, in keeping with Hamilton’s program, the tax bore more heavily on the smaller distilleries. As a result, many large distilleries supported the tax as a means of crippling their smaller and more numerous competitors.

Practically no one paid the tax on whiskey throughout the American “back-country.” As a result, President Washington and Secretary Hamilton chose to make a fuss about Western Pennsylvania because that was the only region where officials were willing to collect the tax. Yet Washington’s invasion of western Pennsylvania was clearly immoral by the standards of the American Revolution, and thus a betrayal of what countless Americans had died for during the War.

Washington led an army of almost 13,000 soldiers to Pittsburgh to end the three-year struggle, but it ended in complete disaster. Less than fifteen men died, all from natural causes or accidents. All the rebels dismissed before the troops arrived, approximately 150 men were apprehended and tried for treason. Two men were found guilty of treason, and both were pardoned by President Washington. In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson repealed the excise tax on whiskey. Washington, Hamilton, and the Cabinet covered up the extent of the revolution because they didn’t want to advertise the extent of their failure. In his 1796 book, Congressman William Findley argued that Alexander Hamilton had deliberately provoked the Whiskey Rebellion.

CONCLUSION

Alexander Hamilton, born illegitimately on the island of Nevis, as a youngster lived in St. Croix, came to the United States to go to college in 1773, got married in 1780, in 1784 he set up the Bank of New York, in 1789 he was appointed Treasury Secretary, in 1790 he proposed a National Bank, in 1791 he received his central usury bank.

Alexander Hamilton is recognized as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. Hamilton’s mother became Jewish when she unwillingly was forced to marry her first husband, who was Jewish. She had other lovers but was never divorced from her husband she never loved. Alexander was never baptized, went to a Jewish synagogue for school, was a close friend with Gershom Seixas, was an agent for the Rothschilds and advised President George Washington to start the First National Bank which was supported by the Jewish Rothschilds. Chief among his critics were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, with whom he differed on political matters, and John Adams, a fellow member of Hamilton’s own Federalist Party.

In 1791, while serving as treasury secretary, the married Hamilton became involved with Maria Reynolds, a young woman who had approached him for financial assistance to escape what she claimed was an abusive marriage. Soon after, Reynolds’ husband, James, confronted Hamilton and demanded the equivalent of $25,000 in today’s money to keep quiet about the affair. It was an extortion scheme, and it worked. Hamilton continued to pay the couple money, while he continued his relationship with Maria for another year (with James’ encouragement).He wrote a tell-tale pamphlet about the affair.

Alexander was the second most powerful man in the country after George Washington. He did not serve as United States president because he published the details about the sordid details of his earlier affair with a married woman, Maria Reynolds, and the blackmail payments he made with her husband to cover up the affair.

After the war, Hamilton became an original member of the Society of Cincinnati, an organization of veteran officers founded in 1783 to ensure that the principles of the Revolution and the sacrifices required to win American independence would not be forgotten. He believed that the Society was a valuable force for securing the future of the American republic. Hamilton led the Society as its second president general—an office first held by Washington—until Alexander’s untimely death by pistol in 1804.

Alexander Hamilton and Judah Benjamin were Rothschild agents, and both were born British subjects in the Caribbean islands—Nevis and St. Croix respectively. Both were raised with Jewish teachings in their youth. Both married women, who came from wealthy and prominent families, when they immigrated to the United States. They both were involved in financial matters, with Alexander in favor of a national bank backed by the Rothschilds, and Judah in favor of loans made by the Rothschilds to the southern forces. They were both hated by other important individuals in the government or military:

Hamilton—Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams.

Benjamin—General P. G. T. Beauregard, Lieutenant General “Stonewall” Jackson, and Major General Henry Wise.

Alexander was completely trusted by President George Washington and Judah was completely trusted by President Jefferson Davis of the United States Confederacy. Alexander got the bank that he lobbied for, but when the 20-year charter ran out, he was not there to defend its renewal as he had been killed in a duel by Aaron Burr. Alexander had a spiteful relationship after Burr defeated Hamilton’s father-in-law, General Phillip John Schuyler, for a seat in the United States Senate. The renewal bill for the national bank was tied in the senate but was defeated by a vote of the vice-president.

Judah never got all the necessary loans that he sought and fled after the south’s defeat and went to England where he proceeded in his law practice. Judah was a British citizen, who lived in America for part of his life, fought for the Confederacy, fled back to Britain, and is buried in France. Judah never suffered as the survivors of the southern states did after all the horrible things that were done to them after the war. Judah instead became a highly successful prominent barrister, even becoming a Queen’s Counsel and achieving great recognition for his legal writings.

Deuteronomy 17:15:

15) “Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger [foreigner] over thee, which is not thy brother.”

It’s too bad both our young nation and the Southern States did not take the advice of our God, but took the advice of the enemies of our God. Who are saying, “Come, let us [the enemies of Israel] cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel maybe no more in remembrance.” – Psalm 83:4b. 

Who are the Israelite nations? What is the “gospel of the kingdom." It seems that the name of Israel is no more in remembrance except for the remnant.

Blessed be the LORD God of Israel.