Berkeley Legal History Workshop Welcomes Anders Walker

Anders Walker is the Lillie Myers Professor of Law and History at Saint Louis University School of Law. He is the author of two books, The Ghost of Jim Crow: How Southern Moderates Used Brown v. Board of Education to Stall Civil Rights (Oxford, 2009) and The Burning House: Jim Crow and the Making of Modern America (Yale, 2018).

Abstract

According to legal historian Deborah Rosen, the First Seminole War played a pivotal role in American nation building. For the first time, the United States justified extra-territorial aggression by drawing a legal distinction between “civilized and savage people.” However, this distinction did not go unchallenged. A young Creek woman named Milly Francis intervened on behalf of an American soldier during the conflict and won national acclaim in the process, challenging Andrew Jackson’s arguments that the Seminoles were “savage” and therefore not deserving of legal protection. Milly’s intervention – largely ignored by historians – subverted Jackson’s rhetoric, complicated his genocidal plans, and marked a shift in Native American warfare, a move away from showy acts of violence and towards more subtle tactics aimed at winnings hearts and minds.

If you would like a copy of the paper, please email Elena Gonzalez at egonzalez@law.berkeley.edu.

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