Edward Stevens (diplomat)

Edward Stevens (c. 1755 – 26 September 1834)[1] was an American physician and diplomat.

Stevens was born in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Stevens father, the merchant Thomas Stevens,[1] would also become the adoptive father of an orphaned Alexander Hamilton.[2] According to some, Thomas Stevens was Hamilton's actual father, making Edward and Alexander half-brothers.[2] Secretary of State Timothy Pickering , who knew both men in adulthood, noted that the men were strikingly similar in appearance and concluded that they must be brothers. Ron Chernow says many aspects of Hamilton's biography make more sense given Stevens's paternity. It would explain why Hamilton was adopted into the Stevens family while his brother, James, was not. It may have also been a factor in Hamilton's supposed father abandoning his family.[3]

Stevens graduated from King's College in 1774 and continued his studies at the University of Edinburgh the next year. He enrolled in medical school starting in 1776 and graduated with an M.D. on 12 September 1777.[1] Stevens documented his research on gastric digestion in his inaugural dissertation De alimentorum concoctione. Based on this work, he was the first researcher to isolate human gastric juices.[1] His work confirmed that of René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, who showed the digestive power of gastric juices, and helped dispel earlier theories of digestion.[1] Stevens's work on digestion would influence Lazzaro Spallanzani.

On 20 January 1776, Stevens was admitted to the Royal Medical Society. He would later serve as its president in 1779 and 1780. Stevens conducted experimental inquiry into the color of blood and received a prize for his work. Stevens returned to St. Croix in 1783. After ten years of practicing medicine there, he moved to Philadelphia in 1793. While in Philadelphia, he engaged in a controversy with Benjamin Rush on methods for treating an outbreak of yellow fever. Stevens was admitted to the American Philosophical Society on 18 April 1794. Stevens's work in digestion may have influenced other researches in Philadelphia, notably John Richardson Young. In 1795 Stevens was appointed as a professor at King's College.[1]

Stevens served as the United States consul-general in Saint-Domingue from 1799 to 1800.[1] John Adams sent Stevens to Haiti with instructions to establish a relationship with Toussaint L'Ouverture and express support for his regime.[4] Stevens's correspondence with Timothy Pickering, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson provide important insight into US geopolitics during the Haitian revolution.[1]

Little is known of Stevens's last years. He corresponded with David Hosack, including a letter introducing his son in 1823.[1]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 CDSB 2008.
  2. 1 2 Kennedy 2000, p. 39.
  3. ↑ Chernow 2004, p. 28.
  4. ↑ Bender 2006, p. 108.

References

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