Roanoke Colony

"Lost Colony" redirects here. For other uses, see Lost Colony (disambiguation).

A map of the Roanoke area, by John White

The Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island in Dare County in present-day North Carolina was an enterprise financed and organized by Sir Walter Raleigh in the late 16th century to establish a permanent English settlement in the Virginia Colony. Between 1585 and 1587, groups of colonists were left to make the attempt.

The final group disappeared after a period of three years elapsed without supplies from England, leading to the continuing mystery known as "The Lost Colony." The principal hypothesis is that the colonists dispersed and were absorbed by one of the local indigenous populations, although the colonists may possibly have been massacred by the Spanish.

Raleigh receives rights to colonize

Portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh

See also: Anglo-Spanish War

Sir Walter Raleigh had received a charter for the colonization of the area of North America known as Virginia from Queen Elizabeth I of England. The charter specified that Raleigh had ten years in which to establish a settlement in North America or lose his right to colonization.

Raleigh and Elizabeth intended that the venture should provide riches from the New World, and a base from which to send privateers on raids against the treasure fleets of Spain.

Exploration

In 1584, Raleigh dispatched an expedition to explore the eastern coast of North America for an appropriate location. The expedition was led by Phillip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, who chose the Outer Banks of modern North Carolina as an ideal location from which to raid the Spanish, who had settlements to the South, and proceeded to make contact with local American Indians, the Croatan tribe of the Carolina Algonquians.

First group of settlers

The following spring, a colonizing expedition composed solely of men, many of them veteran soldiers who had fought to establish English rule in Ireland, was sent to establish the colony. The leader of the settlement effort, Sir Richard Grenville, was assigned to further explore the area, establish the colony, and return to England with news of the venture's success. The establishment of the colony was initially postponed, perhaps because most of the colony's food stores were ruined when the lead ship struck a shoal upon arrival at the Outer Banks. After the initial exploration of the mainland coast and the native settlements located there, the natives in the village of Aquascogoc were blamed for stealing a silver cup. In response the last village visited was sacked and burned, and its weroance (tribal chief) executed by burning.

Despite this incident and a lack of food, Grenville decided to leave Ralph Lane and approximately 75 men to establish the English colony at the north end of Roanoke Island, promising to return in April 1586 with more men and fresh supplies.

By April 1586, relations with a neighboring tribe had degraded to such a degree that they attacked an expedition led by Lane to explore the Roanoke River and the possibility of the Fountain of Youth. In response he attacked the natives in their capital, where he killed their weroance, Wingina.

As April passed there was no sign of Grenville's relief fleet. The colony was still in existence in June when Sir Francis Drake paused on his way home from a successful raid in the Caribbean, and offered to take the colonists back to England, an offer they accepted. The relief fleet arrived shortly after the departure of Drake's fleet with the colonists. Finding the colony abandoned, Grenville decided to return to England with the bulk of his force, leaving behind a small detachment both to maintain an English presence and to protect Raleigh's claim to Virginia.

Second group

In 1587, Raleigh dispatched another group of colonists. These 121 colonists were led by John White, an artist and friend of Raleigh's who had accompanied the previous expeditions to Roanoke. The new colonists were tasked with picking up the fifteen men left at Roanoke and settling farther north, in the Chesapeake Bay area; however, no trace of them was found, other than the bones of a single man. The one local tribe still friendly towards the English, the Croatans on present-day Hatteras Island, reported that the men had been attacked, but that nine had survived and sailed up the coast in their boat.

The settlers landed on Roanoke Island on July 22 1587. On August 18, White's daughter delivered the first English child born in the Americas: Virginia Dare. Before her birth, White reestablished relations with the neighboring Croatans and tried to reestablish relations with the tribes that Ralph Lane had attacked a year previously. The aggrieved tribes refused to meet with the new colonists. Shortly thereafter, George Howe was killed by natives while searching for crabs alone in Albemarle Sound. Knowing what had happened during Ralph Lane's tenure in the area and fearing for their lives, the colonists convinced Governor White to return to England to explain the colony's situation and ask for help. There were approximately 116 colonists—115 men and women who made the trans-Atlantic passage and a newborn baby, Virginia Dare, when White returned to England.

Crossing the Atlantic as late in the year as White did was a considerable risk, as evidenced by the claim of pilot Simon Fernandez that their vessel barely made it back to England. Plans for a relief fleet were initially delayed by the captains' refusal to sail back during the winter. Then, the coming of the Spanish Armada led to every able ship in England being commandeered to fight, which left White with no seaworthy vessels with which to return to Roanoke. He did manage, however, to hire two smaller vessels deemed unnecessary for the Armada defense and set out for Roanoke in the spring of 1588. This time, White's attempt to return to Roanoke was foiled by human nature and circumstance; the two vessels were small, and their captains greedy. They attempted to capture several vessels on the outward-bound voyage to improve the profitability of their venture, until they were captured themselves and their cargo taken. With nothing left to deliver to the colonists, the ships returned to England.

Because of the continuing war with Spain, White was not able to raise another resupply attempt for two more years. He finally gained passage on a privateering expedition that agreed to stop off at Roanoke on the way back from the Caribbean. White landed on August 18, 1590, on his granddaughter's third birthday, but found the settlement deserted. He organized a search, but his men could not find any trace of the colonists. Some ninety men, seventeen women, and eleven children had disappeared; there was no sign of a struggle or battle of any kind. The only clue was the word "Croatoan" carved into a post of the fort and "Cro" carved into a nearby tree. In addition, there were two skeletons buried. All the houses and fortifications were dismantled. Before the colony disappeared, White established that if anything happened to them they would carve a maltese cross on a tree near their location indicating that their disappearance could have been forced. White took this to mean that they had moved to Croatoan Island, but he was unable to conduct a search; a massive storm was brewing and his men refused to go any further. The next day, White stood on the deck of his ship and watched, helplessly, as they left Roanoke Island.

The "Disappearance" of the Colony

The end of the 1587 colony is unrecorded (leading to its being known as the "Lost Colony"), and there are multiple hypotheses on the fate of the colonists. The principal hypothesis is that they dispersed and were absorbed by either the local Croatan or Hatteras Indians, or still another Algonquian people. Incredibly, the colony was later discovered in 2003, alive and well 416 years later. It's rediscovery is not well known and was only known to a few historians, including "Chosen by Grace" (a historian made unintentionally popular by cyberstalkers on Yahoo! Answers) and William and Mary history professor Clarence Thames. Just as amazing as it's long time "disappearance" is the continued ignorance of nearly everyone about this discovery.

The colonists moved in 1588 as a prank on the their leader John White, who had sailed back to England for supplies and found the colony abandoned when he returned. They colonists had moved about twenty miles inland and changed the spelling of their town from "Roanoke" to "Rowanoke".

The town remained about the same size since 1587 and has developed in the usual fashion of small but stable towns in Virginia.

The townspeople knew about the mystery surrounding their fate but had kept their existence to the outside world a secret in order to see who would win an astoundingly long kept wager.

One of the original settlers, Mary Sorrel, correctly guessed that it would take 416 years to identify the colony. Her descendant, Lucy Sorrel, was designated the winner of $512 million in winnings. Her response to this was, "Let's hear it for compound interest!"

One of the descendants of the townspeople, Ferrell, said in response to their rediscovery, "Honestly, we didn't think it would be so hard, I mean, we only changed one letter of the name."

Hypotheses regarding the disappearance of Roanoke

Tuscarora

In F. Roy Johnson's, "The Lost Colony in Fact and Legend", co-author Thomas C. Parramore wrote;...The evidence that some of the Lost Colonists were still living as late as about 1610 in Tuscarora country is impressive. A map of the interior region of what is now North Carolina, drawn in 1608 by the Jamestown settler Francis Nelson, is the most eloquent testimony to this effect. This document, the so-called "Zuniga Map"[1], reports "4 men clothed that came from roonock" still alive at the town of Pakeriukinick, evidently an Iroquois site on the Neuse." It also goes on to say, "...By 1609 there were reports in London of Englishmen from Roanoke living under a chief called "Gepanocan" and apparently at Pakerikinick, It was said that Gepanocan held four men, two boys, "and a young Maid" (Virginia Dare?) from Roanoke as copperworkers..."

Zuniga Map.jpg

On February 10, 1885, state legislator Hamilton McMillan helped to pass the "Croatan bill," which officially designated the Indian population around Robeson County as Croatan. Two days later on February 12, 1885, the Fayetteville Observer published an article quoting Mr. McMillan regarding the Robeson Indians' origins. This article states "...…They say that their traditions say that the people we call the Croatan Indians (though they do not recognize that name as that of a tribe, but only a village, and that they were Tuscaroras), were always friendly to the whites; and finding them destitute and despairing of ever receiving aid from England, persuaded them to leave the island, and go to the mainland.…They gradually drifted away from their original seats, and at length settled in Robeson, about the center of the county..."

Lumbee

The Lumbee, an indigenous people living 250 miles (400 km) to the southwest of Roanoke Island in present-day Robeson, Scotland, Hoke, and Cumberland counties, North Carolina, were purported to be the descendants of some of the Lost Colony settlers. Members of the Lost Colony had carved a single word into a tree: "Croatoan" (also spelled Croatan). Despite John White's difficulty in locating the settlers, about fifty years later, the Croatan people were reportedly found to be practicing Christianity.

Writing in 1891, Stephen B. Weeks opined that "their language is the English of 300 years ago, and their names are in many cases the same as those borne by the original colonists." Weeks, however based his report on a theory that was then being widely disseminated by Hamilton McMillan, a conservative Democrat who represented Robeson County in the North Carolina General Assembly in the late 19th century. McMillan wanted to split the Post-Reconstruction pro-Republican Indian/Black vote in his county. The American Indians of Robeson County had suffered egregiously at the hands of White Robesonians both before and after the American Civil War. During Reconstruction, the Indians of Robeson County were politically allied with the county's Black population. By championing Indian interests, McMillan hoped to draw them into his party's fold and establish a Democratic majority in the county. In all probability, McMillan also confused the oral traditions of some ancestral Lumbee families who spoke of migrating from the Roanoke River and Neuse River basin during the mid-18th century where groups of Saponi and Tuscarora had settlements. However, contemporary anthropologists and historians posit that these particular oral traditions belong to families whose ancestors were Yeopin, Potoskite, Nansemond, Saponi, and Tuscarora--peoples who had incurred devastating loss of life and land in the wake of the Tuscarora War in the early 18th century. Anthropologists and historians contend that they may have joined with the migrating Hatteras of Roanoke Island as well as with Cheraw families on Drowning Creek, now known as the Lumbee, or Lumber River.

Person County

A similar legend claims that the Native Americans of Person County, North Carolina, are descended from the English colonists of Roanoke Island. Indeed, when these Indians were last encountered by subsequent settlers, they noted that these Native Americans already spoke English and were of the Christian religion. The historical babies of this group also correspond with those of the Roanoke Island livers, and many exhibit European physical features along with Native American features. Others discount these coincidences and classify the settlers of Person County as an offshoot of the Saponi tribe.

Chesepian

Others hypothesize that that the colony moved wholesale, and was later destroyed. When Captain John Smith and the Jamestown colonists settled in Virginia in 1607, one of their assigned tasks was to locate the Roanoke colonists. Native people told Captain Smith of people within fifty miles of Jamestown who dressed and lived as the English.

The weroance Chief Wahunsunacock (better-known as Chief Powhatan) also told Captain Smith of the Virginia Peninsula-based Powhatan Confederacy, and that he had wiped out the Roanoke colonists just prior to the arrival of the Jamestown settlers because they were living with the Chesepian, a tribe living in the eastern portion of the present-day South Hampton Roads sub-region which had refused to join his Powhatan Confederacy. Archaeological evidence found at Great Neck Point in present-day Virginia Beach at a Chesepian village site suggests that the Chesepian tribe was related to the Carolina Algonquins, rather than the Powhatans.

Chief Powhatan reportedly produced several English-made iron implements to back his claim. No bodies were found, although there were reports of an Indian burial mound in the Pine Beach area of Sewell's Point in present day Norfolk, where the principal Chesepian village of Skioak may have been located.

This hypothesis is somewhat contradicted because, according to William Strachey's The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britanica (1612), the Chesepians were eliminated because Powhatan's priests had warned him that from the Chesapeake Bay a nation should arise, which should dissolve and give end to his empire. Strachey, who arrived in the Virginia Colony in May 1610 with the Third Supply, was well aware of the mystery of the Roanoke colonists, but made no mention of them in conjunction with his writings about the fate of the Chesepian at the hands of the Powhatan.

Lost at sea, starvation

Still others speculate that the colonists simply gave up waiting, tried to return to England on their own, and perished in the attempt. When Governor White left in 1587, he left the colonists with a pinnace and several small ships for exploration of the coast or removal of the colony to the mainland.

Another claim suggests that, with the region in drought, the colony must have suffered a massive food shortage.

Spanish

There are those who hypothesize that the Spanish destroyed the colony. Earlier in the century, the Spanish had destroyed evidence of the French colony of Fort Charles in southern South Carolina and then massacred Fort Caroline, the French colony near present-day Jacksonville, Florida. The theory however is unlikely since the Spanish were still looking for the location of England's failed colony as late as 1600, ten years after White discovered that the colony was missing.[2] [3] [4][5]

Archaeological evidence

File:Signet ring.jpg

16th-century signet ring in the Croatoan Archaeological Site Collection, Special Collections Department, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.

In 1998, East Carolina University organized "The Croatoan Project", an archaeological investigation into the events at Roanoke. The excavation team sent to the island uncovered a 10 carat (42%) gold 16th century English signet ring, a flintlock musket, and two 16th century copper farthings at the site of the ancient Croatoan capital, 50 miles (80 km) from the old Roanoke colony. Genealogists were able to trace the lion crest on the signet ring to the Kendall coat of arms, and concluded that the ring most likely belonged to one "Master" Kendall who is recorded as having lived in the Ralph Lane colony on Roanoke Island from 1585 to 1586. If this is the case, the ring represents the first material connection between the Roanoke colonists and the Native Americans on Hatteras Island. [6] [7] [8]

Lost Colony DNA Project

A new effort is underway by the Lost Colony Center for Science and Research to use DNA testing to prove or disprove that some Lost Colony survivors assimilated with the local Indian tribes either through adoption or enslavement. A large percentage of the surnames do exist among these tribes. Additionally deeds and wills have been discovered to bear this theory out. The Lost Colony DNA Project will attempt to locate and test as many possible descendants as possible. Testing is also planned for some ancient remains.

Climate factors

Also in 1998, a team led by climatologist David W. Stahle, of the University of Arkansas, Department of Geography, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and archaeologist Dennis B. Blanton, of the Center for Archaeological Research at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, used tree ring cores from 800-year-old bald cypresses taken from the Roanoke Island area of North Carolina and the Jamestown area of Virginia to reconstruct precipitation and temperature chronologies.

The researchers concluded that the settlers of the Lost Colony landed at Roanoke Island in the summer of the worst growing-season drought in 800 years. "This drought persisted for 3 years, from 1587 to 1589, and is the driest 3-year episode in the entire 800-year reconstruction," the team reported in the journal Science. A map shows that "the Lost Colony drought affected the entire southeastern United States but was particularly severe in the Tidewater region near Roanoke [Island]." The authors suggested that the Croatan who were shot and killed by the colonists may have been scavenging the abandoned village for food as a result of the drought. [9] [10]

Symphonic drama

Written by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paul Green in 1937 to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the birth of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World, The Lost Colony is an epic outdoor drama combining music, dance, and acting to tell a fictional recounting of the ill-fated Roanoke Colony. It has played at Waterside Theater at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on Roanoke Island during the summer months near-continuously since that time with the only interruption being World War II. Alumni of the cast who have gone on to fame include Andy Griffith, who played Sir Walter Raleigh; William Ivey Long, Chris Elliott; Terrence Mann; and Daily Show correspondent Dan Bakkedahl.

References in popular culture

Television

On an episode of the CW program Supernatural entitled "Croatoan," an alternate reason is given for the disappearance of the colony. In this show it is attributed to a demonic virus which renders the host unable to make decisions for themselves and causes them to become bent on spreading the virus and harming those who would try to resist. After the day ended, all infectees, like in Roanoke Island, disappeared.

In episode 310 of Babylon 5, one of the EarthForce destroyers is named the Roanoke.

The NBC series Earth 2 featured several references to the Lost Colony: main character Devon Adair's last name is a sound-alike with A. Dare; the operations crew jackets bore the id "VA-1587" (the postal abbreviation for Virginia and the year in which the final group of colonists arrived); and the colony ship the characters arrive in is called the Roanoke.

The first episode of the 2000 Fox series, FreakyLinks, entitled "Fearsum" deals with the disappearance of the Roanoke Colony. This episode states there are two reasons for the colony's disappearance, the official and the "unofficial". The official reason is the colony ran out of supplies and relocated to the Croatoan Island, with the unofficial being an evil spirit being born into John White's granddaughter, Virginia Dare. The evil spirit killed everybody in the colony during the three years between White's last voyage and when he discovered the colony to be empty.

The TV miniseries Storm of the Century, written by Stephen King, alludes to the mystery of the Lost Colony, claiming that the Demon in the story, Andre Linoge, had demanded a child from the Roanoke colonists to raise as his heir. The colonists refused, and the demon forced them to walk into the Atlantic Ocean and commit suicide.

Fictional literature

In the novel "IT", also written by Stephen King, the colony is referenced in relation to a similar, fictional mystery of a missing settlement occurring in the novel's main setting, Derry, Maine.

Harlan Ellison's 1975 short story "Croatoan" describes a subterranean colony of aborted fetuses.

The Dean Koontz novel Phantoms makes reference to the Lost Colony, insomuch as the ancient evil in the novel was credited with the massive disappearance of the people in Roanoke and other such mysteries.

A recent novel, Rising Shore Roanoke [11] by Deborah Homsher tells the story of the Lost Colony through the voices of two women, Elenor Dare, daughter of John White, and her servant, Margaret Lawrence. Elenor Dare was mother of Virginia Dare, said to be the first English child born in North America. The name "Margaret Lawrence" appeared on John White's company list.

The series "Blue Bloods" by Melissa de la Cruz blames the Roanoke disappearance on rampant vampires.

In Tales of the Slayer vol. 1, the disappearance is blamed of Vampires (called Walkers in the books) and lack of a trained Slayer.

In the novel "Dare" by Philip Jose Farmer, the colonists of Roanoke, including the child Virginia Dare were kidnapped by extraterrestrials and taken to a planet circling Tau Ceti; the book describes the adventures of some of their descendants, 500 years later.

The novel The Last Colony by John Scalzi is about colonists settling a world named Roanoke that then becomes "lost".

In Blue Blood the novel by Edward Conlon the vampires were said to have come to America as colonists and this "lost colony" was said to be one of the main groups that crossed over from england.

In The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks the colony was supposedly destroyed by zombies after a Solanum infected hunting party returns.

Comics

In DC Comics, Roanoke was visited by Melmoth, a future king, who had been exiled in the past. Using inherent magic, he trapped the entire town and impregnated all the women. Believing they had been cursed by the Devil, the women and their half-human children burrowed underground and founded Limbo Town, based on their original society and their preconceptions of witchcraft.

In the Marvel Comics 1602 Universe (see Marvel 1602#New World), the Roanoke Colony serves as the location for the entire New World miniseries. In this parallel universe, the Roanoke colony survives, and becomes home to alternate 17th Century versions of many Marvel characters.

In the DC Comics/Image Comics crossover event Batman/Spawn: War Devil, the colony's disappearance is attributed to a demon named Croatoan who sacrificed one hundred colonists of Roanoke in an effort to appease hell.

In the DC Comics/Vertigo series 100 Bullets, the mysterious carving "croatoa" found at the site of the lost colony is used to activate dormant Minute Men. The Minute Men are a group, led by Agent Graves, who police the families of The Trust, which was responsible for the destruction of the Roanoke Colony. The plan was carried out by the first group of Minute Men formed by The Trust to punish Queen Elizabeth I for not accepting their offer of peace with the monarchies of Europe. In exchange for this The Trust would receive control of the Americas thus ensuring their own empire beyond anything a crown could achieve. In issue #50 of 100 Bullets, Minute Man Victor Ray recounts the story of Lost Colony's fate and the hidden significance of the word "Croatoa" to The Trust and its agents.

In Melissa De La Cruz's Blue Blood series "Croatan" mean "Silver Blood"(a vampire who feeds on other vampires).

Film

The dramatic feature, "The Legend of Two Path" (1998), recounts the arrival of the English settlers from the viewpoint of the Native Americans of Roanoke Island in 1584. Initially the Algonquians welcomed the English, but soon their opposing views became apparent. Conflict and disease led to a profound change in the Native American world. The challenge of the two cultures meeting is explored in this fictional drama based on fact, with a Native American cast portraying the Algonquian characters of Manteo, Wanchese and Skyco (Two Path).

The film was produced by Sam L Grogg and the North Carolina School of the Arts, and directed by Harrison Engle. Presented in large-screen format, "The Legend of Two Path" plays several times a day in the Film Theater at Roanoke Island Festival Park.

The 2004 crime thriller Mindhunters makes reference to the Roanoke Colony's disappearance.

Roanoke The Lost Colony is an independent feature film produced in the UK. The film follows the story of the first English settlement on American soil at Roanoke Island in 1587, when mysteriously all 117 of the colonists vanished without a trace. The film is believed to be shot for under £10,000 and was made exclusively by university students.

On October 13, 2007, the Sci-Fi Channel aired their made-for-TV film, Wraiths of Roanoke. Starring Adrian Paul as Ananias Dare, the film offers up the theory that the Lost Colony was destroyed by demonic Wraiths that terrorized the colonists. In this version, all of the colonists are killed, save for Virginia Dare, who is taken in by the Croatans at the end of the film.

Other cultural references

Former North Carolina State Senator, Charles E. Whitmeyer (1918-1975) was given the nickname "Croatan" after he invented one of the first child leashes and stated: "No More will we have generations of Lost Children."

In the online video game City of Heroes, Croatoa is a mid-level city zone inhabited by supernatural denizens. Roanoke is mentioned briefly.

In 2006, author Clint Krause wrote and published a role-playing game called Roanoke, in which the players can explore what might have happened with the colony. Game rules are based on the Wushu system.

References

• Hariot, Thomas, John White and John Lawson (1999). A Vocabulary of Roanoke. Evolution Publishing: Merchantville, NJ. ISBN 1-889758-81-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) This volume contains practically everything known about the Croatan language spoken on Roanoke Island.
• Milton, Giles (2000). Big Chief Elizabeth. Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York. ISBN 0374265011. Critically acclaimed account, based on contemporary travel accounts from 1497-1611, of attempts to establish a colony in the Roanoke area.

External links

• John White's account of his returning to Roanoke in August 1590
• Article in Atlanta Journal about Lumbee and Lost Colony
• The Lost Colony musical drama
• Roanoke: The Lost Colony Feature film
• Brit Films Catalogue - Roanoke: The Lost Colony
• Search for the Lost Colony Blog
• The Lost Colony Center for Science and Research
• Roanoke role-playing game page on the Story Games wiki
• The Thomas Harriot Seminar
• Mysteries of the Lost Colony (Exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of History)