Eliza is the novel’s protagonist and narrator, who tells her story from old age, a vantage point that allows her to reflect on her past cohesively. Eliza grows up in relative comfort at the Schuyler family estate in Albany. She is the daughter of a general and has a sense of patriotism and a desire to help others from an early age, yet she struggles to fit in. She thinks of herself as the plainest of the three oldest Schuyler sisters and sometimes considers herself as too masculine compared to Angelica and Peggy’s traditionally feminine charms. In her early life, she meets several important and she is symbolically adopted by the local Iroquois when she is 13. She is considered saintly as she is often willing to put others’ needs before her own, yet she comes to resent this compliment, wanting to be considered strong rather than her generically good. She meets and marries Alexander Hamilton during the Revolutionary War, and though they love each other their marriage comes with many trials and tribulations.

Eliza is a dynamic character, as seen in her asides commenting on her past behavior from the perspective of her future self.