You did a decent job on this using the information you had available to you. However, as we often find. History and all descriptions of events past are written by the powerful. John Sutter is my great x’s a bunch grandfather. The headboard of my bed was his. He did not abandon his family. He went to US, like many to prosper and once he did they all came over. He was loaned his land, one day to be Sacramento, by Mexico, with contract, that he provided timber to the Mexican government as a Mexican citizen. When the US acquired the land from Mexico, then the man became a US citizen and the contract was grandfathered in and simply switched to the US. His right hand man found gold. John told him to keep it secret and he did for months till too drunk, he slipped. When government got wind of discovery they legally could not take the land back due to binding contract. So, they hired men to sabotage Sutter. Everyday and night his operation was raided. The men, not only stole gold for the government, they burnt down his buildings, stole horses, you name it. Made his life a living hell. They used sabotage and legal trials. Life was unbearable for John and he fought, but finally agreed to leave the property. He presented and argued to Congress. To anyone in government who would give him the time of day. Always voted down. The story was squashed. Just to show the governments guilt, they gave him a pension and a small place, in a state I will not name, where he and his family, he supposedly abandoned, lived out his years. To his death and to this day any published information of John Sutter is negative and detrimental to his character. They paint my ancestor as a failure. The opposite is true. To achieve what he did, to rise to the levels he did, is not by chance. He was smart and was a natural leader. To this day any info available to the public is slander. However, if the world was not corrupt I may never have been born. Or, maybe, I’d be a rich prince of Sutterland. God damn. Instead of billions I got a damn headboard. O well. MericA.
He came here to bank on White Supremacy & use brown bodies for economic growth. He abused the indigenous people in their home land. He deserved what he got & should've stayed in Europe instead of committing genocide (which for some reason you think is called "prospering"). I'm going to continue to disparage his name while wiping out his carbon foot print for my ancestors. You have a headboard & clearly, blinding-bright white-privilege to use as your pillow.
