Graduate Student, History
Doctoral candidate
Graduate School
Kathryn H. Braund
About
My dissertation will narrate the history of the Creek Nation between the Fort Jackson treaty of 1814 and the 1836 uprising that preceded the forcible removal to Indian Territory.
In May I presented a conference paper on the Battle of Burnt Corn, the fight that started the Creek War of 1813-1814. I'm using evidence from the Papeles de Cuba and other sources to assess Creek-Spanish relations. I also adapt Peter Silver's concept of an "anti-Indian sublime" in frontier political rhetoric, applying it to the fractious Alabama frontier ca. 1807-1813.
For my dissertation and future projects, I am studying the diaries of Lukas Vischer, a Swiss traveler in the United States, 1823-1828. His travels ranged from Canada to the Mississippi Valley, and his notes on American Indians are of particular interest.
Vischer’s documents (at the Staatsarchiv Basel-Stadt, Basel, Switzerland, and in private hands) provide a valuable transatlantic perspective on the “early republic” around the sesquicentennial year, 1826, as well as insight into migration and the meaning of “Amerika” for German-speaking Europeans at this time. Vischer is noted for his subsequent career as an artifact collector in Mexico. His experience of “American antiquities” in the U.S. points toward his later activities in Mexico.
I have an abiding interest in the history of Brewton, Alabama (at the confluence of Burnt Corn Creek and Murder Creek), and intend to eventually publish something useful about this distinctive but easily overlooked district. I’ve spent some time with the McMillan family papers in Brewton and the Pace Library archive at the University of West Florida, Pensacola.
I'm also interested in the intersection of the African diaspora with the southeastern Indians, and hope to contribute in this area.
Contact Information
http://media.cla.auburn.edu/history/people/display.cfm?PersonID=2540
+1 205 595 7529
