FamousIllegitimate Children

Sarah Bernhardt. Actress. ---

Sarah Bernhardt (October 23, 1844 March 26, 1923) was a stage actress born in Paris. Often referred to as "the most famous actress in the history of the world," she made her fame on the stages of Europe in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the United States. She developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning the nickname "The Divine Sarah."

Leonardo da Vinci. Artist. --- April 15, 1452 May 2, 1519) was an Italian polymath: scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, and writer.

The illegitimate son of a notary, Messer Piero, and a peasant girl, Caterina, Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense, "da Vinci" simply meaning "of Vinci": his full birth name was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", meaning "Leonardo, son of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci."

Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the "Renaissance man", a man whose seemingly infinite curiosity was equalled only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.^[2]

It is primarily as a painter that Leonardo was and is renowned. Two of his works, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper occupy unique positions as the most famous, most reproduced and most imitated portrait and religious painting of all time, their fame approached only by Michelangelo's Creation of Adam. Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also iconic. Perhaps fifteen paintings survive, the small number due to his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination.^[3] Nevertheless these few works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, comprise an unmatched contribution to later generations of artists.

As an engineer, Leonardo conceived ideas vastly ahead of his own time, conceptualising a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, and the double hull, and outlining a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or even feasible during his lifetime,^[4] but some of his smaller inventions such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire entered the world of manufacturing unheralded. As a scientist, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics.

Frederick Douglass. Abolitionist. ---

Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass, ca. 1879.
Born	February 14, 1818 [1] Talbot County, Maryland, USA
Died	February 20, 1895 (aged77) Washington, D.C., USA
Occupation	Abolitionist

Frederick Douglass (February 14, 1818 ^[1]February 20, 1895) was an American abolitionist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer. Called "The Sage of Anacostia" and "The Lion of Anacostia," Douglass was one of the most prominent figures in African American history, and one of the most influential lecturers and authors in American history. His towering posture showed dignity and strength, and when he spoke, his baritone voice was powerful. These features together gave Douglass a strong presence. He was a firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, American Indian, or recent immigrant. Douglass devoted his life to advocating the brotherhood of all humankind. He was fond of saying, "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, who later became known as Frederick Douglass, was born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland, near Hillsboro. He was separated from his mother, Harriet Bailey, when he was still an infant. She died when Douglass was about 7. The identity of Douglass' father is obscure: Douglass originally stated that his father was a white man, perhaps his owner, Aaron Anthony; but he later said he knew nothing of his father's identity. When Anthony died, Douglass was given to Lucretia Auld, wife of Thomas Auld. Mrs. Auld sent Douglass to Baltimore to serve Thomas' brother, Hugh Auld.

When Douglass was about 12, Hugh Auld's wife, Sophia, broke the law by teaching him some letters of the alphabet. Thereafter, as detailed in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (published in 1845), Douglass succeeded in learning to read from white children in the neighborhood in which he lived, and by observing the writings of the men with whom he worked. When Hugh Auld discovered this, he strongly disapproved, saying that if a slave learned to read, he would become dissatisfied with his condition and desire freedom; Douglass later referred to this as the first anti-abolitionist speech he had ever heard.

In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from his brother after a dispute ("as a means of punishing Hugh," Douglass wrote).

Dissatisfied with him, Thomas Auld then sent Douglass to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a "slave-breaker," where Douglass was whipped regularly.

Sixteen-year-old Douglass was indeed nearly broken psychologically by his ordeal under Covey, but he finally rebelled against the beatings and fought back. Covey lost in a confrontation with Douglass and never tried to beat him again. This incident was kept under wraps, possibly because Covey was afraid the news of Douglass' victory would ruin his reputation as a "slave-breaker" or simply because he was ashamed of his defeat.

In 1837, Douglass met Anna Murray, a free African American, in Baltimore while he was still enslaved. They were married soon after he obtained his freedom.

Douglass joined various organizations in New Bedford, Massachusetts, including a black church, and regularly attended abolitionist meetings. He subscribed to William Lloyd Garrison's weekly journal, The Liberator, and in 1841, he heard Garrison speak at a meeting of the Bristol Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass was unexpectedly asked to speak at one of these meetings, where he told his story and was encouraged to become an anti-slavery lecturer. Douglass was inspired by Garrison, later stating that "no face and form ever impressed me with such sentiments (the hatred of slavery) as did those of William Lloyd Garrison." Garrison was likewise impressed with Douglass, and wrote of him in The Liberator. Several days later, Douglass delivered his first speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society's annual convention in Nantucket. Twenty-three years old at the time, Douglass later said that his legs were shaking. He conquered his nervousness and gave an eloquent speech about his rough life as a slave.

In 1843, Douglass participated in the American Anti-Slavery Society's Hundred Conventions project, a six month tour of meeting halls throughout the Eastern and Midwestern United States. He participated in the Seneca Falls Convention, the birthplace of the American feminist movement, and was a signatory of its Declaration of Sentiments.

Alexander Hamilton. U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

Alexander Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis^[3] in the Caribbean, out of wedlock, to James Hamilton, the fourth son of a Scottish laird, and Rachel Faucett Lavien, of part French Huguenot descent. Ron Chernow has argued that Hamilton's father was a Nevis merchant named Stephens whose legitimate son continued to sponsor Hamilton in later life, unlike Hamilton, or his legitimate son, Peter.

Hamilton's mother had been married previously to Johann Michael Lavien of St. Croix.^[4] To escape her unhappy marriage, Rachel left St. Croix for St. Kitts in 1750, where she met James Hamilton^[5]. They moved together to Nevis, which was Rachel's birthplace and where she had inherited property from her father^[6]. They would have two sons together, James, Jr. and Alexander. The Church of England did not accept the situation, and denied Hamilton membership or education in the church school. He had to enroll in a private, Jewish school.^[7] Hamilton was always sensitive about his illegitimate birth, which in the historical period had greater potential for social stigma than in modern society.

Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an Army officer, lawyer, Founding Father, American politician, leading statesman, financier and political theorist. One of America's foremost constitutional lawyers, he was a leader in calling the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787; he was one of the two chief authors of the Federalist Papers, the most important interpretation of the United States Constitution.

Hamilton served chiefly as aide-de-camp to General George Washington, though he also led troops in combat. Under President Washington, Hamilton became the first Secretary of the Treasury; and had much influence over the rest of the government and the formation of policy, including foreign and military policy. Hamilton convinced Congress to use an elastic interpretation of the Constitution to pass far-reaching laws. They included: the funding of the national debt; federal assumption of the state debts; creation of a national bank; and a system of taxes through a tariff on imports and a tax on whiskey that would help pay for it. He admired the success of the British system, and opposed the excesses of the French Revolution.

Hamilton created the Federalist party, the first American political party, which he built up using Treasury department patronage, networks of elite leaders, and aggressive newspaper editors he subsidized both through Treasury patronage and by loans from his own pocket. ^[1] His great political adversary was Thomas Jefferson who, with James Madison, created the opposition party (of several names, now known as the Democratic-Republican Party). This opposition party intended to counter Hamilton's urban, financial, industrial goals for the United States, and his promotion of extensive trade and friendly relations with Britain. Hamilton retired from the Treasury in 1795 to practice law in New York City, but during the Quasi-War with France he served as organizer and de facto commander of a national army beginning in December, 1798; if full scale war broke out with France, the army was intended to conquer the North American colonies of France's ally, Spain. He worked to defeat both John Adams and Jefferson in the election of 1800; but when the House of Representatives deadlocked, he helped secure the election of Jefferson over Hamilton's long-time political enemy, Aaron Burr.

Hamilton's nationalist and industrializing vision was rejected in the Jeffersonian "Revolution of 1800" as too elitist and hostile to states' rights. However, after the War of 1812 showed the need for strong national institutions, his former opponents -- including Madison and Albert Gallatin -- came to emulate his programs as they too set up a national bank, tariffs, a national infrastructure, and a standing army and navy. The later Whig and Republican parties adopted many of Hamilton's ideas regarding the flexible interpretation of the Constitution and using the federal government to build a strong economy and military. However, his negative reputation after 1800 - both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson viewed him as unprincipled and dangerously aristocratic - did not allow acknowledgment of his role until his style of nationalism became dominant again in the late 19th century, when progressives such as Theodore Roosevelt and Herbert Croly, as well as conservatives such as long-time member of the US Congress Henry Cabot Lodge, revived his reputation. Several twentieth-century Republican politicians took it upon themselves to write biographies of Hamilton.