The first California rush was not for gold in 1848 but sea otters after 1800, quickly followed by fur seals. Later, as settlers moved west, they entered lands well explored by preceding trappers, and America’s first multimillionaire, John Jacob Astor (1763–1848), made his fortune by sweeping up much of the fur trade from coast to coast. “The Bible and the beaver were the two mainstays of the young colony,” wrote historian James Truslow Adams in The Founding of New England. Historian Dolin ( Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America, 2007, etc.) begins with a mild surprise: The pilgrims yearned for religious freedom but financed their voyage by agreeing to work for seven years to pay back, mostly in pelts, their English sponsors. The fascinating story of the fur trade, full of heroism, greed, violence and political conflict.
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