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.
