In the history of the American frontier, John Sutter (1803-1880)
looms large. A Swiss expatriate who attempted to create a personal
empire in California's Sacramento Valley, he founded New Helvetia,
a cosmopolitan settlement whose economy depended on Indian slaves
and free laborers. New Helvetia drew overland immigrants to
California in the 1840s and then--after gold was discovered by
Sutter's employees--a flood of fortune seekers. Sutter was poised
to become one of the richest men in the West, but rapacious
settlers and his own poor business sense sent his dreams
crashing.
Albert L. Hurtado has written the definitive biography of
Sutter, mining a wealth of sources to create the first fully
documented account of the man and his times. "John Sutter" explores
Sutter's life in the broader context of America's rush for westward
expansion while plumbing the inner dynamics of this erstwhile
empire-builder.
Sutter was a quintessential outsider driven by anxiety over
status--a man of talent, vision, and heroic ambitions who
nevertheless became the victim of his own inadequacies as a
businessman and his inability to adjust to a rapidly changing
frontier. Sutter was full of contradictions. While building a
reputation as a humanitarian friend of destitute immigrants, he
callously exploited Indians. Nevertheless, this penniless dreamer
became one of the most important men in California and a major
player in the American conquest of the West.
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