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Published Nov 2021
320 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
The extraordinary story of the Powhatan chief who waged a lifelong struggle to drive European settlers from his homeland.
In the mid-sixteenth century, Spanish explorers in the Chesapeake Bay kidnapped an Indian child and took him back to Spain and subsequently to Mexico. The boy converted to Catholicism and after nearly a decade was able to return to his land with a group of Jesuits to establish a mission. Shortly after arriving, he organized a war party that killed them.
In the years that followed, Opechancanough (as the English called him), helped establish the most powerful chiefdom in the mid-Atlantic region. When English settlers founded Virginia in 1607, he fought tirelessly to drive them away, leading to a series of wars that spanned the next forty years—the first Anglo-Indian wars in America— and came close to destroying the colony.
A Brave and Cunning Prince is the first book to chronicle the life of this remarkable chief, exploring his early experiences of European society and his long struggle to save his people from conquest.
"An accomplished work of scholarly detection that plays out against the background of the English colonization of Virginia...Swift-moving prose along a twisting storyline lends this brilliant book the feel of a mystery." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[A]n immersive portrait of Opechancanough (c. 1547–1646), who helped build the powerful Powhatan chiefdom in America...Though Horn's case that Paquiquineo/Don Luís and Opechancanough are the same person requires a good bit of speculation (he would have been close to 100 when killed), he builds a cogent narrative out of documentary fragments. Early American history buffs will be riveted." - Publishers Weekly
"Like most Native people in early American history, Opechancanough generally plays a brief bit part as a violent and tragic figure. In contrast, James Horn constructs a remarkable life story that spanned a century. At a time when America is digging more deeply into its origins, this eye-opening narrative challenges well-worn tales of Pocahontas and congenial first encounters with a grim record of kidnapping, starvation, and total war." - Colin G. Calloway, author of The Indian World of George Washington
"This book tells the story of one of the most fascinating figures in American history—the older brother of the more famous man we know as Powhatan. Most Americans probably have never heard of Opechancanough, but A Brave and Cunning Prince makes it clear that his name ought to ring in our mythology with the tragic names of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse of the Sioux, the Apache's Geronimo, and the Comanche's Quanah Parker. Opechancanough's experiences and travels rival those of John Smith, and his leadership was demonstrably more effective. Though eclipsed in the records by both Smith and his own brother, Opechancanough might have been the most important of the three. Opechancanough's story is long overdue, and who better to tell the tale than our generation's foremost authority." - Joseph Kelly, author of Marooned: Jamestown, Shipwreck, and a New History of America's Origin
"Few individuals, European or Native American, had as much impact on early America as the Pamunkey leader Opechancanough. In A Brave and Cunning Prince, the renowned historian of early Virginia James Horn offers a masterclass on historical reconstruction and narrative style, deeply informed by an unparalleled mastery of evidence and sensitivity to the nuances of lived experience. Horn takes us across a century and the entire Atlantic basin, enlightening at every unexpected twist and turn. Opechancanough, a monumental figure, comes to prominence again in this true-life page-turner of narrative history." - Peter C. Mancall, author of The Trials of Thomas Morton
This information about A Brave and Cunning Prince was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
James Horn is the president of Jamestown Rediscovery. He is author and editor of eight books on colonial America, including 1619 and A Land as God Made It. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.
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