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.

Life of Opechancanough, exploring his early exposure to European society and his lifelong fight to protect the integrity of his homeland. With engrossing storytelling, deep research, and surprising insights, A Brave and Cunning Prince will be vital reading for anyone seeking to understand the charged early encounters between the indigenous peoples of North America and the settlers who would bring death and destruction"--

This series of hilarious fictional diaries put us inside the heads of hapless figures from history in frazzling situations. Suki is a 14-year-old girl in 16th century Japan who wants to become a samurai warrior like her father and brother. Despite her disastrous training, when a party of bandits threaten her village whilst the men are away at war, Suki has to defeat them. Will she prove herself a legendary samurai, or will it all end in disaster? ‘Get Real’ fact boxes feature throughout, providing historical context and further information, as well as a timeline, historical biographies and a glossary in the end matter.

A dramatic illustrated exploration of the infamous massacre of 1622, and the events of a pivotal conflict in colonial American history. Since 1607, English settlers of Jamestown maintained a shaky relationship with the Powhatan Confederacy. As the Virginians expanded their profitable tobacco fields, bolstered by new settlers each year, the Powhatan tribes grew wary of English power. In 1622, Chief Opechancanough shattered the peace with a surprise attack on the Jamestown settlements, an attack in which 347 English settlers, one-third of the Virginia colony, were killed in a single day. Opechancanough hoped to eliminate the European presence with a decisive blow, but instead began a decade-long war with Jamestown. In this engaging and expertly researched work, Cameron Colby narrates the tumultuous events of Jamestown's early years. The first and second Anglo-Powhatan wars are brought vividly to life using battlescene artworks and period images. Detailed maps and 3D diagrams illustrate Native American and English tactics from 1607–34, and chart the progress of Jamestown's expansion as English settlers sought to drive back the Powhatan tribes of the Chesapeake.

A sweeping history of the Native Southerners who wrote their principles into Spanish and English law A sweeping history of the Native Southerners who challenged European empires from the inside, Republic of Indians tells the story of Indigenous leaders who wrote their principles into Spanish and English law. While in the Spanish Empire, Natives were a recognized part of “la república de indios,” the “republic of Indians,” other Natives across the early American South understood themselves to be joined with European colonists in larger polities, each jealously guarding their own bodies of liberties under royal sanction. Thus, rather than simply rejecting European pretensions to rule them as subjects and vassals, Native Southerners as diverse as the Apalachees, Pamunkeys, Powhatans, and Timucuas redefined their status to become political players in legislative assemblies and the courts of distant monarchs. They pushed for incorporation in larger political systems in which they had a say and were themselves instrumental in creating. Adapting pre-invasion practices to the technology of writing and the challenges of colonialism, Indigenous petitioners sought exemptions from labor and protection for “the lands that God gave to them,” as well as the right to install preferred leaders, avoid enslavement, ally with the Crown against colonists, ease harsh colonial laws, and even amend the terms of treaties and compacts. Bradley J. Dixon shows how their petitions also stand as enduring contributions to American political thought and how it was these “vassals” and “subjects” who gave meaning to the modern idea of tribal sovereignty. In the South, the Spanish and English empires came to resemble one another precisely because they were both dependent to a remarkable degree on maintaining Indigenous political consent and were founded in large part on Indigenous conceptions of law.