The Fields: Hamilton's First Speech (1774)
The Common · today City Hall Park
In Hamilton's day
The Common, called the Fields, was where New Yorkers gathered for protests. At the 'Great Meeting in the Fields' in July 1774, family tradition holds that the 17-year-old Hamilton stepped up and spoke for resisting Parliament.
Within months he was writing pamphlets. 'A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress' and 'The Farmer Refuted' made his name before he was 20.
“The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records.”
The Farmer Refuted, 1775
Visiting today
City Hall Park, between Broadway and Park Row. City Hall (1812) now stands on the old Common. A statue of Nathan Hale marks the park's revolutionary past.
Nearby in Hamilton's day
- Bridewell1775
City jail on the Common, used to hold American prisoners during the British occupation.
- Declaration read to the troops1776
On 9 July 1776 the Declaration of Independence was read to Washington's army on the Common.
- Liberty Pole1766
Raised on the Common by the Sons of Liberty after the Stamp Act's repeal, and repeatedly cut down by British soldiers.
- St. Paul's Chapel1766
Manhattan's oldest surviving church. Washington prayed here after his inauguration in 1789.
- John Street Theatre1767
The city's main playhouse in Hamilton's day. President Washington attended performances here.
- New York Hospital1771
On Broadway near Duane Street. Grave-robbing by students here set off the Doctors' Riot of 1788.