3 King’s College

CHAPTER 3 King's College Alexander arrived in New York City in 1773. Ned Stevens was waiting for him there.

Alexander also quickly made friends with a young tailor named Hercules Mulligan. Hugh Knox had written to friends he knew in New York, so Alexander met even more people through him. He enrolled in the Elizabethtown Academy in New Jersey, where he studied Latin, Greek, and advanced math. After six months, he was ready to apply to college.

Now known as Princeton University, the College of New Jersey had been Alexander's first choice. Although he was only eighteen, he felt his education was way behind other young men his age. Alexander had heard of another young man, Aaron Burr, who graduated from the College of New Jersey at sixteen. So he asked the president of the college if he could complete his studies in only two years. He wanted to graduate as quickly as he could. The president refused, so Alexander enrolled in another school: King's College in New York City, which is now called Columbia University.

At King's College, everyone was talking about revolution. New York at that time was one of thirteen colonies owned by Great Britain. Like Alexander's home in Nevis, it was under the control of the British king, George III. Many colonists were angry that the king taxed the colonies for their money but did not give them a voice in the government.

The president of King's College, Dr. Myles Cooper, was a Tory. The Tory party thought the American colonies should be loyal to Britain. But Alexander believed in American independence from Britain. Just outside the college grounds, on lower Broadway in Manhattan, was an area called the Fields. Anyone was welcome to make public speeches there. Alexander had listened to many speakers at the Fields. One day he decided to speak himself. He started out shyly. He'd never spoken in public before. But soon he was making a powerful argument against the rule of Great Britain in the colonies. When he finished, the crowd was shocked at first. Alexander was only nineteen and looked even younger. Yet he spoke like a much older man. "It is a collegian!" people whispered to one another. From that day on, New Yorkers recognized Alexander as a voice in favor of revolution. He also started writing articles arguing for independence in local newspapers. One of the things Alexander spoke about that day in the Fields was the Boston Tea Party.

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