As Henry Hudson sailed up the broad river that would one day bear
his name, he grew concerned that his Dutch patrons would be
disappointed in his failure to find the fabled route to the Orient.
What became immediately apparent, however, from the Indians clad in
deer skins and "good furs" was that Hudson had discovered something
just as tantalizing. The news of Hudson's 1609 voyage to America
ignited a fierce competition to lay claim to this uncharted
continent, teeming with untapped natural resources. The result was
the creation of an American fur trade, which fostered economic
rivalries and fueled wars among the European powers, and later
between the United States and Great Britain, as North America
became a battleground for colonization and imperial aspirations. In
Fur, Fortune, and Empire, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin
chronicles the rise and fall of the fur trade of old, when the
rallying cry was "get the furs while they last." Beavers, sea
otters, and buffalos were slaughtered, used for their precious
pelts that were tailored into extravagant hats, coats, and sleigh
blankets. To read Fur, Fortune, and Empire then is to understand
how North America was explored, exploited, and settled, while its
native Indians were alternately enriched and exploited by the
trade. As Dolin demonstrates, fur, both an economic elixir and an
agent of destruction, became inextricably linked to many key events
in American history, including the French and Indian War, the
American Revolution, and the War of 1812, as well as to the
relentless pull of Manifest Destiny and the opening of the West.
This work provides an international cast beyond the scope of any
Hollywood epic, including Thomas Morton, the rabble-rouser who
infuriated the Pilgrims by trading guns with the Indians; British
explorer Captain James Cook, whose discovery in the Pacific
Northwest helped launch America's China trade; Thomas Jefferson who
dreamed of expanding the fur trade beyond the Mississippi;
America's first multimillionaire John Jacob Astor, who built a
fortune on a foundation of fur; and intrepid mountain men such as
Kit Carson and Jedediah Smith, who sliced their way through an awe
inspiring and unforgiving landscape, leaving behind a mythic legacy
still resonates today. Concluding with the virtual extinction of
the buffalo in the late 1800s, Fur, Fortune, and Empire is an epic
history that brings to vivid life three hundred years of the
American experience, conclusively demonstrating that the fur trade
played a seminal role in creating the nation we are today.
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