The Red Bird and the Devil is the story of Henry Woodward's remarkable life as Carolina's first Indian trader and his role in settling Carolina Colony. He lived with the Native Americans there, the only Englishman for 400 miles. Held prisoner by the Spanish in St. Augustine and rescued in a daring raid, he served as a surgeon on a buccaneer ship, was shipwrecked in a hurricane, and miraculously ended up back in Carolina.

Overcoming political intrigue, personal loss, and physical hardship, Woodward became one of the most important figures in the colony. His legacy is tangled -- was he a friend or a foe of the Native Americans? Was he a pawn of the English Lords Proprietors who owned the colony, America's first frontiersman, or both?