My First Years in the Fur Trade: The Journals of 1802-1804

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Description

Captivated by the tales of adventure in the wild northwest told by the voyageurs, fifteen-year-old George Nelson left his circle of relatives in southern Canada in 1802 and headed out to the Northwest Territory to begin a five-year contract working for Sir Alexander Mackenzie’s XY Company, one of the vital major fur trade companies of the time. His growth from homesick lad to experienced fur trader over the next two years forms the heart of this unique and fascinating journal.

Nelson had been hired as a clerk but, as a result of the shortage of literate and experienced men, within a year he used to be promoted to manage a fur trade post on his own with, as he put it, “three men & an interpretor under me!” With little training, at sixteen years of age, he used to be placed accountable for men who were as much as twice his age and a lot more experienced in the wilderness.

Required to keep a day-to-day journal of the post, Nelson quickly became a very important witness to all that went on around him, recording a vibrant, detailed chronicle that allows us as of late to glimpse something of this fascinating world.

Long treasured by fur trade historians, the early journals of this abnormal man are here published in their entirety for the first time. His journals offer both an unparalleled view of the fur trade and the story of one boy coming of age on the frontier.

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