[5][1] In it he accused Lin-Manuel Miranda of whitewashing Alexander Hamilton's role as a slave owner[6] and his involvement in the genocide of Native Americans.

"[2] Journalist Emil Guillermo observed: "So people dance and rhyme to a hip hop beat, does that forgive Hamilton's family, kneed-deep in slavery as slave holders in upstate New York?

[2][3][4] Critics also noted that The Haunting fits with the rest of Reed's career of questioning white supremacy in cultural institutions, such as in his 1972 novel Mumbo Jumbo;[5][1] Nawal Arjini wrote in The Nation that "[b]oth works attempt, with varying degrees of success, to reimagine the history taught in school as one in which people of color have power.

"[5] Lauren Kane wrote in The Paris Review that "Reed's play is aware of how sticky historical moralizing can be, taking aim even at itself as the spirits bicker about land rights, and while the script is smart in presenting how the project of correcting one another's perspective on history can divide when it should unite, it doesn't pull punches or mince words.

[4] The fundraiser was successful, and Reed stated in an interview that Toni Morrison made the second-largest contribution to the campaign,[10] with Robert Mailer Anderson playing the role of Ron Chernow for the first four staged readings in January 2019.

[4][9] Nawal Arjini of The Nation commented positively on the quality of the acting, stating: "Turning what are essentially history lectures into riveting theater is a tall order for most actors, but the cast is for the most part up to the challenge.

"[5] Critics also noted that the play ends by painting Miranda's fictionalized character with a sympathetic brush as someone who has been taken advantage of by institutional powers, a notion Reed supported in an interview for Current Affairs.

In a review for The New York Times, Elizabeth Vincentelli stated: "The Haunting is classic activist theater—the haphazard acting is typical of the genre—that prefers didacticism to dialectic.

"[4] Similarly, Hua Hsu of The New Yorker wrote, "Some of the history lessons were long-winded and meandering—and maybe slightly confusing without a basic grasp of the original musical...

[9] By the time the full production premiered, Reed inserted a joke in the script about missing a mortgage payment to see the national tour of the show in San Francisco.