Joshua Norton: America’s first and only emperor

Mickey Starling editor@riverbendnews.org The history of America is full of details of how the nation avoided falling prey to dictators, despots and kings. But, nothing was said of emperors. Seizing upon this obvious oversight was Joshua Norton, who made his way to the United States by way of South Africa. Born in England, Norton made his home in San Francisco, Calif. around 1845. The aspiring young man became wealthy within five years, working as a mercantile middleman. Around 1854, Norton purchased $25,000 of rice (filling an entire ship). He hoped to profit from China’s decision to ban rice exports because they were facing a drought. The scarcity of rice had driven the price up sign