William Walker has conceived the idea of…

William Walker has conceived the idea of conquering vast regions of Latin America and creating new slave states to join those already part of the United States.

These campaigns are known as filibustering or freebooting.

Walker was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1824 to James Walker and his wife Mary Norvell.

His father is an English immigrant.

His mother is the daughter of Lipscomb Norvell, an American Revolutionary War officer from Virginia.

One of Walker's maternal uncles is John Norvell, a Senator from Michigan and founder of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

William Walker was engaged to Ellen Martin, but she died of yellow fever before they could be married, and he will die without children.

William Walker graduated summa cum laude from the University of Nashville at the age of fourteen.

He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and University of Heidelberg before receiving his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania at the age of nineteen.

He practiced briefly in Philadelphia before moving to New Orleans to study law.

He practiced law for a short time, then quit to become co-owner and editor of the New Orleans Crescent.

In 1849, he moved to San Francisco, where he was a journalist and fought three duels; he was wounded in two of them.