what happened to the lost colony at roanoke? by josh clark source: history.howstuffworks.com it must have been unnervingly quiet as joh

What Happened to the Lost Colony at Roanoke?
by Josh Clark
Source: history.howstuffworks.com
It must have been unnervingly quiet as John White made his way through
the abandoned settlement at Roanoke in 1587. In the three years since
he'd left, the colonists on Roanoke Island had vanished without a
trace. What horrors had taken place here? Where had his family and the
others gone?
What had once been a settlement of two-story, thatched-roof cottages
was lost. The first seed of English presence in the New World, given
purchase through the efforts of 117 people, had been uprooted
inexplicably. In its place, a husk remained. The houses had all been
taken down. A roughly built fort surrounding the former settlement was
all that signaled the former presence of the colonists. And on a post
was carved one of only two clues: the word "CROATOAN." On another
tree, White found the carving "CRO."
That was it. The small cannons and boats that should have been
situated at the nearby bay were gone. Chests with drawings, maps and
books that White had buried nearby years earlier were torn apart and
ruined by weather. There were no bones, no corpses -- no evidence one
way or another to show what had befallen the colonists, save for the
evidence provided by their hastily assembled fortress. These 117
people were lost forever, never to be heard from again.
This group of settlers, called planters in the English vernacular of
the age, came to be known as the lost colony of Roanoke. The shroud of
mystery surrounding their fate has kept them alive in the annals of
U.S. history as much as the successful colonies that followed.
The Lost Colony at Roanoke
There were two expeditions to Roanoke before what would become the
lost colony was established in 1587. The first was exploratory, the
second (in 1585) consisted of 100 men who lived on the island for 10
months before returning to England. These early expeditions quickly
deteriorated any initial warm feelings the Native Americans had toward
the English. The settlers routinely kidnapped local tribal leaders and
held them for ransom, despite relying on these "savages" for food and
supplies [source: Lane].
When the 100 men left the 1585 Roanoke colony, it was due to constant
threat of attack and waning food. Had they stayed for two more weeks,
the men would've received supplies from England. A ship arrived and,
finding the colony deserted, left behind 15 soldiers to maintain an
English presence in the New World until another group of colonists
could be brought.
This next group would become the lost colony of Roanoke. The 1587
settler population included women and children and looked much more
like later successful colonies. Their arrival at Roanoke was an
inauspicious one: They found the settlement abandoned and in shambles.
The bones of one of the 15 soldiers there before them were the only
physical evidence of what had befallen the previous settlers.
Led by Gov. John White (who'd been a member of the 1585 colony), these
fresh colonists sought to carve out a life on the North Carolina
island. They managed to turn the tide of bad relations with one nearby
tribe, Powhatans living on Croatoan Island. The other tribes in the
area maintained their distance. This left the colonists dependent on
supplies from England, and in August 1587, Gov. White left to gather
more provisions. When he returned, he found that the colony --
including his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter (Virginia Dare,
the first English child born in North America) -- was gone.
The carved word "CROATOAN" was an obvious clue. Perhaps the colonists
had moved in search of protection or a steady food supply from the
Powhatans. It appeared they hadn't left under duress; there were no
Maltese crosses carved anywhere, the agreed-upon signal the colonists
would use to indicate that danger had befallen them [source: NC State
Library].
Yet no search of Croatoan Island was ever launched. Subsequent
expeditions to locate the lost colony either failed or were undertaken
as an excuse for piracy or other commercial endeavors. It wasn't until
the Jamestown Colony was established in 1607 that any earnest searches
were conducted to discover the fate of the lost Roanoke colonists.
Not only were the colonists themselves lost, the colony was as well.
Poor record keeping among White and others as well as years of
abandonment have kept the exact whereabouts of the 1587 colony a
mystery. Numerous digs on Roanoke failed to produce any evidence of
the lost colony. Remnants of the 1585 settlement have been discovered,
but no evidence of the lost colony has been found. One problem is that
primary sources tell different tales. From Gov. White's writings, the
second settlement should be located near the first on the north end of
the island. But a 1589 affidavit of a Spanish sailor puts the
settlement near the center of the island where the cannons were
stationed.
An old well and a small cannon found near the bay support the
Spaniard's deposition. Some historians now believe that the 1587
Roanoke settlement currently lies underwater, victim to centuries of
erosion.
For 400 years, Europeans have searched to uncover the truth behind the
lost colony. Some interesting clues turned up early on, beginning with
the Jamestown settlers.
­
Roanoke Mystery: Evidence and Theories of the Lost Colony
So what happened to the Roanoke colonists? Ultimately, no one knows
for sure. When it comes to the lost colony, historians are long on
theories but short on hard evidence. Gov. John White, the first person
to discover the colonists' disappearance, reported everything he saw
in a letter. There were no bones, like those that had been left behind
from the 1585 colony. The houses had been "taken downe," not destroyed
or burned [source: Neville]. The "CROATOAN" carving didn't indicate
distress with a Maltese cross. Everything pointed to the settlers
simply having picked up and left.
In White's opinion, they moved "[f]ifty miles into the maine,"
arguably meaning they moved inland, into the forests of North Carolina
[source: Keiger]. This idea has appealed to historians over the years;
exactly why the colonists moved inland or what became of them
afterward if they did ignites new debate.
It's conceivable that the colonists met a less violent fate. The
Jamestown colonists sent out several search parties to find members of
the lost colony and made a habit of questioning any Native Americans
with whom the Jamestown members made contact. Some of these natives
told tales of white settlements further down the coast, with
two-story, thatched-roof houses, a style unique to the English. Others
told of nearby tribes who could read English and dressed similarly to
Europeans. Perhaps the most dramatic report from Jamestown was the
sighting of a boy dressed as a native. He had blond hair and was
fair-skinned.
These reports corroborate the most widely held theory of what became
of the Roanoke colonists: They assimilated into some friendly Native
American tribe. Over the course of generations, intermarriage between
the natives and the English would produce a third, distinct group.
This group may be the Lumbee tribe.
The Lumbee tribe is native to North Carolina, yet no certain lineage
can be pinned down. The tribe's oral history links them to the Roanoke
settlers, and this tradition is supported by some of their surnames
and the tribe's ability to read and write English. Family names of
some of the Roanoke colonists, like Dial, Hyatt and Taylor, were
shared by Lumbee tribe members as early as 1719. The settlers who met
them were astonished to find Native Americans that had grey eyes and
spoke English. Even within the Lumbee tribe, the veracity of the
group's link to the Roanoke colonists is in dispute. The Lumbee
Connection, as it's come to be called, is intriguing.
But another explanation is that the Roanoke settlers fell victim to
the Spanish, whose settlement was just down the coast in Florida. It's
certain that the Spanish in the West Indies were aware of the English
colonists' presence. One Roanoke settler named Darby Glande left the
1587 expedition once it set ashore in Puerto Rico to take on supplies.
He later reported that he told Spanish officials the location of the
Roanoke settlement [source: Keiger].
In the opinion of Johns Hopkins University anthropologist Lee Miller,
the colonists wandered into a violent shift in the balance of power
among inland tribes. Natives with whom the colonists were friendly
lost their hold over the area, and Native Americans hostile to the
settlers took control. If the Roanoke colonists made the trip inland
when this happened, the men would've likely been killed and the women
and children captured as slaves. The colonists would have then been
traded along a route that spanned the U.S. coast from present-day
Georgia to Virginia [source: Keiger]. All of these theories remain
debated. But if the Lumbee Connection is true, then the Roanoke
colonists aren't lost -- their genes can be found in people living
today in Robeson County, North Carolina.
What Happened to the Roanoke Colony?
Reading Organizer
Who?
are the important people involved?
When?
was the Roanoke Colony established?
Where?
is Roanoke Island located?
Why?
-did John White leave?
-was his return delayed?
What?
evidence was left at Roanoke?
What?
theories exist about the fate of the Lost Colonists?

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