James Horn was born in Kent, England, and grew up on the outskirts of London. He taught for 20 years in British universities before moving to the US in 1997. He is an expert on the early history of Virginia and 16th and 17th- century America. Horn has worked at the College of William and Mary, University of Virginia, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and is now President of the James Rediscovery Foundation at the original site of Jamestown. He is the author of 1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy (October, 2018), a best seller, and most recently of A Brave and Cunning Prince: The Great Chief Opechancanough and the War for America (November, 2021).
Horn has been involved in a series of remarkable discoveries at Jamestown, including "Jane," a young English woman who died and was cannibalized during the starving time winter of 1609-1610; four of the colony's first leaders in the chancel of the first church; and the site of the house where "Angela," a young Angolan woman, lived as an enslaved worker. She was one of the first Africans to arrive in English America in the summer of 1619. Recently, the archaeology team have uncovered the remains of an important English male who was buried in the chancel of the second church of 1617-18. Research is ongoing to establish his identity. News of these discoveries have reached national and international audiences and have been the subject of several TV documentaries. For information about Jamestown Rediscovery go to www.historicjamestowne.org