The Life of Aaron Burr — America's Most Controversial Founding Father

With Hamilton coming back into the media spotlight after several years, I thought it would be good to talk about the kind of man Aaron Burr actually was, and how his life affected those around him, and the country he helped to create.

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[grandbean]

"his farewell speech was so moving even his haters cried"

Does anyone else find that the most boss move you can ever do?

[Zkills]

This is pretty cool but you missed an interesting fact. 2 years or so before the Hamilton-Burr duel Hamilton got into a bad situation because he was being blamed for a scandal by stealing money from the national bank. He was being blamed for this by future president James Monroe and because of this Hamilton got mad at Monroe and they planned on having a duel. Monroe recruited Burr to be his second in the duel. Burr decided to shut down the duel and brought Hamilton and Monroe to a peace. I think this is a very important fact about Burr and ties the story of Burrs life very well.

[danzervos]

I had a book that was called something like "Great American Guns and the Men who used them" One of the people covered was Aaron Burr. The author of that chapter examined the dueling pistols (which still exist). The pistols were made by an English gunsmith for Hamilton's half brother who had to flee England after killing a man in a duel. The guns were unusual for a dueling pistol. Normally dueling pistols were smooth bore with no sights - they were not intended to be accurate. The Hamilton dueling pistols were rifled, had sights and had counterweighted barrels to steady the aim. Also he discovered that by pushing the trigger forward, it set the trigger so that instead of taking around 8 lbs of force to fire the gun, it took less than one pound. This would make it easier to fire accurately and quickly. The author opined that Hamilton accidently fired his gun when drawing down on Burr. It is reported that Hamilton's round hit about 20 feet above the ground in a tree near to Burr - he did not fire straight up into the air as usually depicted..

[MayV]

This was a great look at Burr’s life! Thanks for making this resource

[tedadams]

Somehow, I feel like there is much more to this story than most of us realize.

[maryhough]

Dude the almost sonny styled intro to your segment about burr being tried for treason was HILARIOUS

[BurrShotHamJenna]

217 years ago (7.11.2021), 2 men rowed across the Hudson to Weehawken, NJ to settle their disputes, 1 of them ended up paying the ultimate price: their life

[theresaschuebel]

I knew one of his descendants. Scott was a good man and ironically looked a lot like Arron in the profile picture you showed after the picture of Leslie. Scott and I shared a neice and nephew. Scott was married to Cathy and her brother is my ex brother in law. So Scott Burr was my ex brother in laws brother in law.

[AlexGoldhill]

I would love to see a cross between Gore Vidal's Burr and Wicked that retells Hamilton from Burr's point of view.

[burnsbooks]

You should make a playlist for your American History videos. Trying to watch them now and I’m all over the place hoss

[heyiquit]

Fantastic video, but I think you give Burr a bit of a negative treatment. He seemed to be a touchy or sensitive guy, but his opposition to Hamilton and his conflicts with Jefferson have aged pretty well, in my opinion. Both of those guys were very petty and power hungry, resorting to horrible slander just to win elections or elevate their position. There was very little one could do back in the day to clear your name in the public eye, so if someone chose to make unfounded claims, you could bankrupt yourself trying to clear your name. The duel seems much more reasonable given that fact. Many of Burr's political and moral positions are quite reasonable by modern standards, especially given the conservative extremes of his rivals.

[nab-rkob]

This is the 4th or 5th video I've watched about Aaron Burr and yours was the most balanced. Bravo.

[marys.]

I love how there's a "US elections" subtitle, saying there are safeguards to protect our elections; as if we were arguing over the election of 1800 still. XD

[burnsbooks]

Ragnar Redbeard’s “Rival Caesars”, a fictional story of the young friendship between Hamilton & Burr brought me here

[JoshuaDRogers]

Good job. I learned something new with this video.

[TheCuppycakedelight]

aren't the dates when burr served in the new york state assembly mixed up? thank you for this video, sorry if i was rude. God bless.

[koolpopjones]

Reading a devotional about Aaron Burr brought me here.

[Raja-bzyw]

"I'm the villain in your history"

[dickgoblin]

Could you put sources in the description I don't mean to be a prick. I just like reading citations.

[rokball]

Please make a video about What if France won the seven-year war and What if White forces won the Russian civil war?