The duel between Vice President Aaron Burr and former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton occurs on July 11, 1804, when the two men are rowed in separate boats across the Hudson River to a secluded spot near Weehawken, New Jersey. There, in compliance with duel laws, they exchange pistol shots at ten paces. Hamilton is hit on his right side and dies the following day, and the survivor, Burr, finds “that his reputation suffered an equally fatal wound” (20).

Ellis feels that a fuller narrative of events is needed in order to do justice to this “most famous encounter of its kind in American history” (20).

Though both duelers come to the event elegantly attired, they are very different men, with contrasting genealogies. Intense, power-hungry Burr hails from a distinguished New England bloodline, while Hamilton is, in party rival and former president of the United States John Adams’ libelous terms, ‘“the bastard brat of a Scotch pedlar [sic]’”(22). As a result of his origins, Hamilton is constantly compelled to prove himself, needing “to impress his superiors with his own superiority” (22). He therefore feels unable to refuse Burr’s challenge to a duel, even though his last will and testament shows that he hoped to avoid the encounter.