Forged On The Frontier (1818-1849)

Forged on the Frontier is a wryly humorous telling of British colonialism in South Africa, told from the perspective of a not-very-successful family. It is the first in a series of three, providing a definitive history of Joshua Norton, who rose to become Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico (1860-80).As this story attests, Norton has a solid claim to being the strangest man in history, a position which he solidified as an 1820 Settler during the British colonisation of the Cape. Many think the patron saint of Discordianism a myth, his life absurdly exaggerated, but they are wrong. Reality is far stranger than fiction, and Joshua Norton is the absolute proof - a real-life Don Quixote, formed in tragedy and triumph, who was scarred into the delusion of a better world by the violence of this one.Stories about Norton's life generally focus on the weird and wonderful tales of his reign. Following his incarnation as Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, his antics were used to drive tourism towards San Francisco. They say he stopped a riot by reciting the lord's prayer, and that his funeral cortege was so long that it shut the city down. He exchanged letters with kings, made his own currency, and was the first to suggest building the Golden Gate Bridge. Plays reserved boxes for him on opening nights, restaurants bore plaques proudly showing their imperial patronage, and his political ideas were immensely progressive for the time.To understand the man behind the myth, author Chirag Patel looks beyond his arrival in the newly-minted state of California, and back to his youth. One of eleven children, half of whom died before he left the colony, Norton's story brings to life one of the most turbulent and legendary periods of colonial history, as the Dutch, British, Xhosa, Khoi, and Fingo all try to build a life for themselves on a land riven by constant war.Having moved from London to the Cape, Norton finds himself on a farm that is doomed to fail. Intended as a meat shield against Xhosa retaliation for the destruction of their lands, Norton and his family then move to a village that becomes a city of schools and churches. There, he becomes part of Judaism's early history in the colony; his uncle, Benjamin Norden, having brought together the first Hebrew congregation and built the first synagogue in a colony defined by Anglican Church ordinances. Having lived through the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Xhosa Wars, Norton's uncle Ben even embarks on the most legendary adventure in the history of the Cape Colony - the Great Trek.Although a tale of heroes and villains, Forged on the Frontier is mostly a story of people trying to survive where they can, when all the odds are stacked against them and great political winds tear through their desperate lives. It contains the most accurate and complete information on Norton's early life in any book to date, providing a crucial precursor which helps readers understand his later stance in life, his resistance to slavery, and why Norton became one of America's first tabloid celebrities.