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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that shines a light on the lesser known

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Speaker 1: stories of everyday history. I'm Gabe Louisier, and today we're

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Speaker 1: talking about Joshua Norton, a San Francisco icon and the

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Speaker 1: first self proclaimed emperor of the United States. The day

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Speaker 1: was September eighteen fifty nine. A failed Gold Rush Arab

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Speaker 1: businessman named Joshua Norton visited the offices of the San

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Speaker 1: Francisco Bulletin. He gave the editor a short notice to

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Speaker 1: be published in that day's paper, and it began as follows.

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Speaker 1: At the peremptory request of a large majority of the

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Speaker 1: citizens of these United States, I Joshua Norton of San Francisco, California,

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Speaker 1: declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these United States. Now

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Speaker 1: not much is known about Norton's early life before his

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Speaker 1: time as a self proclaimed emperor. But what we do

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Speaker 1: know is he was born around eighteen eighteen to a

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Speaker 1: Jewish family of merchants in present day London. When he

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Speaker 1: was to his family moved to South Africa, where his

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Speaker 1: father established a successful ship supply business. Norton tried to

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Speaker 1: get into the family business himself, but his own ships

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Speaker 1: supply company wound up going bankrupt after less than two years.

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Speaker 1: By the time he was thirty years old, both of

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Speaker 1: his parents and two of his siblings had died, so

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Speaker 1: one year later, in eighteen forty nine, Norton left South

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Speaker 1: Africa for good and made his way to San Francisco.

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Speaker 1: Like many aspiring businessmen of his day, Norton had traveled

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Speaker 1: to California hoping to capitalize on the recent gold rush.

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Speaker 1: After receiving his inheritance, he was worth about forty thousand dollars,

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Speaker 1: which is well over a million dollars in today's money.

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Speaker 1: In San Francisco. He invested that money in real estate,

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Speaker 1: including waterfront property. He also started a successful commodities business,

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Speaker 1: selling staple foods like rice and flour. By eighteen fifty two,

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Speaker 1: Norton had turned his forty thousand dollar investment into a

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Speaker 1: quarter million dollar fortune. He was now one of the

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Speaker 1: most influential and respected citizens of the city. But in

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Speaker 1: a boom and bus town like gold Rush era San Francisco,

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Speaker 1: what goes up will certainly come down, and often sooner

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Speaker 1: than you'd expect. In Norton's case, his fall came when

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Speaker 1: he tried to corner the rice market in eighteen fifty two.

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Speaker 1: China was dealing with a rice famine that year, and

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Speaker 1: as result, the price of the grain was expected to skyrocket.

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Speaker 1: Seeing an opportunity, Norton bought a twenty five thousand dollar

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Speaker 1: stake in Peruvian rice. But unfortunately for him, so did

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Speaker 1: every other speculator. When shipload after shipload of Peruvian rice

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Speaker 1: began arriving in the ports, the price plummeted. At that point,

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Speaker 1: Norton probably should have cut his losses and moved on,

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Speaker 1: but instead he sued the man who had tipped him

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Speaker 1: off about the Peruvian rice scheme. The ensuing court case

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Speaker 1: dragged on for four years. By the time the California

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court finally ruled against him, Norton was bankrupt for

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Speaker 1: a second time. News of his financial ruin spread, and

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Speaker 1: just as quickly Norton lost his social standing. He moved

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Speaker 1: out of his big house and disappeared from the public

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Speaker 1: eye entirely for the next year or two. When he

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Speaker 1: re emerged, it was on at Fateful Day in September

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Speaker 1: eighteen fifty nine, when, at age forty one, he dubbed

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Speaker 1: himself Emperor of the United States. It's worth noting that

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Speaker 1: there's no record of Norton's mental health, either before or

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Speaker 1: after his bankruptcy. Some historians speculate that becoming Emperor Norton

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Speaker 1: was a way for him to cope with the depression

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Speaker 1: he felt over his money troubles. Still, it's possible that

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Speaker 1: he simply grew tired of life as a serious minded

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Speaker 1: businessman and decided instead to reinvent himself as an eccentric

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Speaker 1: Whatever his motivation, readers were charmed by the idea of

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Speaker 1: a zany self appointed emperor in the hope of boosting

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Speaker 1: their readership. Local papers started so listening Norton to write

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Speaker 1: new proclamations, and when even those weren't enough, they would

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Speaker 1: make up their own fake decrees under his name. Things

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Speaker 1: continued like this for the next twenty years, with Norton

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Speaker 1: issuing proclamations on everything from banning presidential elections to complaining

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Speaker 1: about a skating rank operator who refused to lend him

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Speaker 1: a pair of skates. Some of his decrees were surprisingly

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Speaker 1: local minded for a national emperor, like the time he

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Speaker 1: imposed the twenty five dollar fine about five hundred dollars

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Speaker 1: today on anyone who abbreviated the city's name to Frisco.

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Speaker 1: His most famous and prescient proclamation, though, was the one

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Speaker 1: he made calling for the construction of a new bridge

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Speaker 1: between Oakland and San Francisco. The city would eventually adopt

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Speaker 1: this idea in the nineteen thirties when it built the

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Speaker 1: Bay Bridge in the exact spot where Norton suggested. Norton

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Speaker 1: also started dressing as the emperor he claimed to be.

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Speaker 1: During the Civil War, he would alternate between either a

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Speaker 1: blue or gray military jacket in order to maintain his

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Speaker 1: imperial neutrality. After the war, he stuck with the win

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Speaker 1: team and wore a blue officers jacket with big gold

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Speaker 1: epaulets on the shoulders. For headwear, The Emperor switched between

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Speaker 1: a small military cap and a beaver for top hat

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Speaker 1: for more formal occasions. Although his made up title did

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Speaker 1: not come with a salary, the people of San Francisco

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Speaker 1: made sure Norton was provided for. Theater owners reserved him

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Speaker 1: a seat on opening nights, Train and ferry companies let

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Speaker 1: him ride for free, and some restaurants comped his meals

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Speaker 1: in exchange for his royal seal. Of approval. Norton still

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Speaker 1: didn't have much money, but thanks to the quote unquote

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Speaker 1: taxes paid by some of his generous subjects, the Imperial

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Speaker 1: Treasury always held enough to pay for his rented room,

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Speaker 1: which cost about fifty cents a night. Over time, Norton

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Speaker 1: learned to distinguish between those in the city who were

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Speaker 1: in on his joke and those who thought he was one.

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Speaker 1: For example, in eighteen seventy, Norton shunned the newspapers that

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Speaker 1: ran phony proclamations under his name. Instead, he began publishing

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Speaker 1: most of his real proclamations and an abolitionist weekly called

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Speaker 1: The Pacific Appeal, which was owned and operated by African Americans.

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Speaker 1: Much of his work for The Pacific Appeal was progressive

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Speaker 1: for its time. He called for black children to have

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Speaker 1: the right to attend public schools and ride public street cars.

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Speaker 1: He chastised law enforcement for its unfair treatment of Chinese immigrants,

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Speaker 1: and he argued in support of Native American rights. Beyond

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Speaker 1: his writing, Norton would spend most days playing chess and

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Speaker 1: reading and libraries, or taking long walks through his city.

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Speaker 1: It was during one of these walks on January eight,

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Speaker 1: eight eighty that Joshua Norton collapsed on the street and

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Speaker 1: died from a suspected stroke. Dozens of newspapers across the

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Speaker 1: country reported on his passing, and about ten thousand people

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Speaker 1: attended his funeral a few days later. He was buried

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Speaker 1: in a rosewood casket donated by a group of local businessmen. Today,

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Speaker 1: San Francisco still holds Emperor Norton in high regard. He's

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Speaker 1: become a symbol of the city's counterculture roots and as

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Speaker 1: a promoter of fairness and tolerance and a bit of

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Speaker 1: a weirdo. Many locals still consider him the perfect embodiment

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Speaker 1: of the spirit of San Francisco. I'm Gabe Lousier and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. If you have any proclamations of

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Speaker 1: your own to make, you can send to me at

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Speaker 1: this day at i heart media dot com. Thanks as

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Speaker 1: always to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank

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Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow

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Speaker 1: for another Day in History Class m m. For more

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