The Roanoke : The First Attempt For A Permanent English Settlement

For centuries, the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island has been a controversial issue. Many theories exist that explain the disappearance of the colony. Some theories suggest that the colonists left the island to live with friendly neighboring Indians. Others suggest that a hurricane wiped out the colony or that a savage Indian tribe massacred them. The possibility of disease destroying them is also a debated topic. However, evidence indicates that the men and women left behind on Roanoke Island did not die because of massacre, disease, or starvation but went to live with the Croatoan Indians.

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.

For my research paper I decided to choose the Roanoke topic, this topic really interested me and as soon as I learned about it, I was eager to learn more. An explorer named Sir Walter Raleigh and some settlers in 1585 first founded the Roanoke Colony. The finding was an attempt by Queen Elizabeth I to find an English settlement in North America. Roanoke Colony was established on Roanoke Island in the outer banks of North Carolina. While Sir Walter Raleigh was in Roanoke he was able to find 2 crucial goods, potato and tobacco, which was one of the first examples of “cultural diffusion”. The governor of the Roanoke Colony was John White, he left for a short trip to England and when he came back he found the settlement deserted. Roanoke mysteriously

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

America’s past is a mysterious one, riddled with unsolved questions and misleading legends. One of the most prominent enigmas that has haunted historians for centuries is the disappearance of the Roanoke Island Colony, also known to many as The Lost Colony.

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.

In 1587, A group of colonists were sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to Roanoke Island in hopes of permanently settling. John White, the governor of this new colony, traveled back to England to gather resources. The Anglo-Spanish war delayed White’s return to Roanoke Island until 1590. Upon his arrival to the Island, White had discovered that everything had disappeared except for the bones of one unidentified man and the word “CROATOAN” carved into a tree. This colony is now known as the Lost Colony of Roanoke and there have been many theories as to what happened to the colonists.

In 1585 the colony of Roanoke was founded, captain John White left the colony to find soldiers, food, and supplies. However, when he left for England a war was declared on Spain and England and he couldn’t return until three years later, the colony of Roanoke during that time was lost forever. We believe the colony was raided and pillaged by American Indians. In the carnage the American Indians captured and enslaved the colonists. While staying with the Indians they were accepted over time and gradually absorbed into the tribe. This is why there is no trace of remains or slaughter. When John White left the colony to get supplies from England, but could not get back in a timely fashion because of a war that broke out between England and Spain.

There are three popular conclusions as to what became of the lost settlers of Roanoke. The Croatan Indian tribe may have killed off the settlers for the hardships that they brought to the Native people. It is proven that there was a past of violence between the groups, which would give a motive for the attack. The tribe also could have adopted the colonists as their own where they became part of the Croatans. This claim is supported by name changes within the Croatan culture following the disappearance of the settlers. Another hypothesis is that the settlers attempted to take a boat back England and got lost at sea. It is logical to assume that a boat was available for the colonists to take, but no ship was ever found to confirm this theory. The third supposition is the Spanish killed the people of Roanoke. The Spanish had a reason to kill the settlers because they were living on Spaniard claimed land. They also might have killed to take the metals that were available on the island. I believe that the lost settlers became one with the Croatan tribe. This solution has the most factual evidence backing up the

According to the reading passage, about 117 colonists disappeared from Roanoke Island in 1587. There was a word carved on a tree, the word "Croatan". Because of this, there is a theory that believe that these colonialists left Roanoke Island and moved to the neighboring island of Croatan.

The two previous expeditions that had been sent to this region by Sir Walter Raleigh had been unsuccessful in establishing a settlement. The first group had simply returned to England. The second group had left fifteen men to stay on the island to start a colony. The third group had expected to find these men when they arrived, but the logs of Fort Raleigh had been pulled down. One corpse was found and it became clear that the destiny of the others was not good, and none had survived (“The Lost Colony of Roanoke” 2).

During the 1500’s, the English started their first attempts at colonizing in the New World. One of the first colonies to settle in North America was named after the island on which they settled. That island was named the Roanoke Island. After a while of living on the island the colony had to return to England, since there had been a shortage of food and they had been attacked by nearby indians multiple times. A second group of English settlers also tried to settle on the island, but got there too late. They were not able to farm nor did they have enough supplies for everyone. The colony failed to accomplish their settlement on the island and quickly went back to England. Afterwards , a third group of colonists decided to settle in the New World. When they went low on supplies, the leader of the group decided to return to England, but when he tried to return, he was delayed. He returned three years later to find that the colony had vanished mysteriously with no trace. Many historians and anthropologists indicate different theoretical possibilities such as; the colony simply left the settlement and somehow split up, decided to live with the neighbored, Croatoan indians, or were brutally attacked by the natives. Wherever the Roanoke Colony ended up we may never know and to this day it remains a popular, unsolvable mystery.

Roanoke was made out to be the ideal location for colonization and would bring profit and prosperity to the English; however, the same thing could be said about any piece of land with enough smoke and mirrors to cover up the truth. With evidence from historical documents, the numerous failures in colonizing Roanoke proved that the colony would never come into fruition. Although Roanoke brought little success, those in charge of the plan continued to promote the colony inaccurately focusing more on the potential that had yet been realized rather than the lack of supplies and conflict with Native Americans.

Colonists arrived on Roanoke Island in 1587, with the hopes of becoming the first English colony in America (Bernstein 2:55). The colony was to be governed by John White and was composed of English families who wished to make a new home for themselves, among the colonists was John White 's daughter, Virginia Dare. Several months later the colony 's governor sailed back to England for supplies. The shortage of supplies was due to skirmishes with the Natives, loss of supplies due to storms, and with the time for planting over the colonists had no way to find enough food. John White promised to return as quickly as possible, but due to unforeseen circumstances was unable to return as soon as was expected. Three years later, John White returned only to find