Roanoke: The First Colonists

Jamestown is thought by most of to be the first colony in the New World but this is not the complete truth. Jamestown is considered our first successful colony; however it was not the first attempt at a colony. There were a few attempts to colonize the New World before Jamestown and one in particular that was the most mysterious is the Roanoke colony, also known as the Lost Colony. The colony got this name because the colonists that were there vanished mysteriously with no trace of what happened.

Jamestown is thought by most of our general population to be the first colony in the New World. This is only half true. Jamestown is considered our first successful colony, however it was not our first attempt at a colony. There were a few attempts to colonize the New World before Jamestown and one in particular that is found to be interesting is Roanoke also known as the Lost Colony. It received this name due to the fact that the colonists that settled this colony disappeared very mysteriously.

In 1587 a group of men, women, and children led by Sir John White set sail for America and landed on a North Carolina island called Roanoke (Shirley

In 1492 Christopher Columbus “discovered” the New World. This “discovery” led to the colonization of the New World by several European nations. European nations, such as Great Britain, started colonization for a variety of reasons.

Throughout the 17th century, the English faced many hardships. The settlers of Jamestown had faced misfortune of the new land such as disease and malnutrition, and failure of crops. Over time the English built their economic and social structure with perfecting crops, indentured slaves and building a new society that would spark others to explore.

The Roanoke was an important part in Virginia history, it was the first attempt for a permanent English settlement in the new world. It was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh in the 1585 and he brought 100 colonists with him to Virginia and left them behind. Walter also had brought his daughter which soon gave birth to the first English child born in America. Her name was Virginia Dare. He had to go back to England because he had to fight in the Spanish war. He sent a fleet of ships in between the 3 years he was fighting but they did not make it to the settlement, instead they landed on a different island and the captain of the ship refused to go any farther than that island. When Raleigh returned 3 years later the only clues that him and the colonists that came with him found were the words CROA and CROATON carved into 2 trees. Before Raliegh had left them 3 years earlier he told them if there was was any trouble then to carve a cross in a tree. They searched all the trees around but did not find any crosses carved. But recently they have done a tree test on the wood that the word CROATON was carved into and they figured out that when he was gone there was extreme drought conditions that were going on while Raleigh was gone. Nobody really knows what happened to the settlement but there has been very educated guesses from historians. One guess came from a historian studying this subject ”That the croaton indian tribe 50 miles away might have something to do with it.” But the

On July 22, 1587, long before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock, 117 hopeful colonists from England landed ashore onto a tiny island along the coast of what is today North Carolina. The group unpacked and founded a settlement, Roanoke Island. Then they vanished without a trace.

The lost colony of Roanoke was a colony on an island off of the North Carolina coast. It is now located in the Outer Banks. Their governor returned to England for supplies, his return was delayed by a war between England and Spain. He returned three years later and found nothing but the buildings they built. It is believed the colonists split into many smaller groups and unified with local American indians. The main indian tribe they joined was the croatoins. There are many reasons why they left. We will explore the reasons why they left and where they went.

When people disappear nowadays most of the time we find them sooner rather than later or at least find out what happened to them, but in the case of the settlers of Roanoke who disappeared over 400 years ago we never found out what happened to them or where they went, but the downfall of the first attempt at making a colony on Roanoke Island does offer some clues as to what might have happened. In 1584, Queen Elizabeth allowed Sir Walter Ralegh to establish a colony on Roanoke Island and he did begin to do so, but after some time things went south with the Roanoke Indians who already lived there and the English retreated back to England. Against common sense, Ralegh decided to launch a second attempt at making a colony on Roanoke and what happened to them is unknown. In 1586, the second colony was launched but the commander of it had to leave to go back to England for four years, and when he returned he found the colony deserted. The English properly motivated people to want to to be part of the first colony, but when their relationship with the Roanoke Indians ended in

The Roanoke colony was located on the Roanoke Island, in Dare County. This is where North Carolina is located today. In 1584, explorers Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe were the first Europeans to set view the island. They were sent to that particular region by Sir Walter Raleigh with the assignment of exploring the extensive sounds and estuaries in hunt of an ideal location for settlement. Barlowe wrote bright information of Roanoke Island, and when the explorers returned to England a year afterward with two Natives, Manteo and Wanchese, all of London was abuzz with chat of the New World’s wonders.Queen Elizabeth, impressed with the results of the reconnaissance voyage, knighted Raleigh as a reward. The new ground was named “Virginia” in

The Roanoke colony was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh. The colony disappeared as the Anglo Spanish War was going on in 1590, three years after the last shipment of supplies from England to Roanoke. When Roanoke disappeared this gave it the nickname "The Lost Colony." There has been no exact evidence as to what happened to the colonists who disappeared. The only hint to what happened was a carving on a tree trunk that said “Croatoan”. Croatoan was small group of native americans that lived by Roanoke.

Years before Jamestown, in 1587 a man named John White and 117 men, women, and children sailed from England to the coast of what is now North Carolina. They did this in hopes of starting a new colony on the untenated territory of Roanoke Island. They established a temporary understanding with the native islanders and consummated the first baby in the New World, but soon afterwards problems arose. Supplies were quickly becoming scarce and issues started to arise between the settlers and the natives of the land. White returned to England in despair asking for help from Sir Walt Raleigh who had been the sponsor of the expedition. While he was successful in his voyage to convince Sir Walt by the time of his return all the settlers had vanished off the face of the Island.

For hundreds of years the story of The Lost Colony has been told to children for generations. Contrastly, as time trickles by we find out more information about the “Lost Colony”. Most people believe that Roanoke were killed by the Spanish. However, because of recent discoveries. Roanoke must have been forced to relocate because of a drought in route to Chowan River and intermarried with Native Americans because of these new revelations.

It seemed to be part of Queen Elizabeth’s war plan on the Spanish. The colonists were sent to Roanoke island to watch the Spanish. The Queen also hoped they would find some luxury items such as silver or gold. One of her main goals was to have the colonist try and persuade the natives of Roanoke to convert to Englishmen. One large issue was that the colonists were traveling by ship to Roanoke and a lot of the cargo was damaged. There was at least a year’s worth of food and supplies in the cargo and since the ship was partially wrecked, they only had enough food and supplies to last the colonists for not even a month. When the colonists arrived at Roanoke the season was to late for planting and raising crops, so therefore they had to rely on the natives for food. “This, of course, led to privation and poor relations, and while the colonists survived their first winter, in 1586, their position seemed increasingly tenuous. After a minor clash with the local tribe in May, the English retaliated with a raid in which they overturned canoes and decapitated two natives. This, of course, resulted in open warfare, which concluded with the murder of the tribe’s

The colony of Roanoke is generally known as England’s first attempt to begin a civilized and stable colony in the unexplored parts of earth known as the New World. Sadly, the plan to colonize Roanoke Island didn’t go exactly as the British planned. The colonists had high hopes to find new things to take back to England to make profit off of and be the first to obtain life in the New World. Things started off well for the new colony, but the colonists began to have issues with the new people they had discovered on the island known as the Croatan and Secotan Indian’s. After multiple attempts of trying to succeed at living a sustainable life in the New World the colony of Roanoke failed to exist when John White returned to the colony in 1590 and found not a single soul on the island. No one to this day is quite sure what happened to the remaining colonist’s that were last seen on the island before John White left or any of the two Indian tribe’s that had once lived there.