Why the Roanoke Colony Disappeared

( Document D) The Indians had most of the forts in Jamestown then the English had. The English had very little space to farm or to do anything in there land areas that they had they also had very little supplement. The supplement just barely got around to all of the English settlers sometimes the some of the English had no food to eat so they died in Jamestown. (Document

A big cause of all the deaths is because of the water. All the following in this paragraph is stated in Document A, B, and E. Due to the fact that rivers and creeks were so close, when English colonists built wells to drink out of, water would rise, it turning the fresh water into salt water which was both unhealthy and dehydrating. Also, the rivers were used for all bathroom needs, so in places where the water was still, the filth tended to fester. This was a probable cause of half the colonists dying of summer sickness. Lastly, the main food source near the James River was fish, so when winter came around, and water got cold, fishing failed, therefore people were starving.

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.

Jamestown was an awful place to be in the early 1600’s. Therefore, it was very difficult to be a settler here. When the settlers got to Jamestown, they were located near a lot of Native American tribes, which only made living there even harder. Also, a lot of the men who came to the new colony had no idea of how to work. Lastly, Jamestown ran out of food, which was known as the “Starving Time”. Although Jamestown faced many challenges, it was able to become the first English colony in America.

The deaths of approximately 440 colonists from Jamestown, England's first permanent colony, got many people wondering "Why did so many colonists die?" There are many factors that caused Jamestown to struggle so much, and begin a voyage back to England. A major reason why many colonials died was because they didn’t bring nearly enough supply's, nor did they try to become friends with their surrounding neighbors, the Native Americans.. The evidence that was discovered lies in documents and or journal entries, nearby plants, and annual weather.

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.

It usually takes me three hours to starve. The colonists first got here in 1607 on a ship named the Mayflower. Then they settled in what is Jamestown. So why did the colonists die in Jamestown? There were many reasons as to why so many colonists died in Jamestown. Three major reasons are Lack of rainfall, occupation, and how much mortality there was going on.

The people in Jamestown set themselves up for failure by picking a bad location and not exploring. The settlers just looked around and thought the land looked nice. As archaeologist Dennis B. Blanton wrote in “Jamestown’s Environment”, “The island is not situated at a point of great natural food abundance, especially relative to other locations very close by...Fish are present in the local streams, but only in the spring and early summer…”(Doc. A) Not only was the location bad that the colonists chose, but also there was an awful food supply. The only food supply that the colonists could get was fish and even the food supply of fish was scarce. The fish caught in the early summer would not last till the winter, when starvation was a high risk. Not having a decent food supply for the winter would kill even more people. In addition to not having a good food supply, they also had little to no rainfall. According to the graph of rainfall in Jamestown, “The Lost Colony And Jamestown Droughts” written in 1998, they got 2 inches less than the average rainfall in the

When examining early American history it is commonplace, besides in higher academia, to avoid the nuances of native and colonizer relations. The narrative becomes one of defeat wherein the only interaction to occur is one of native American’s constant loss to white colonizers. It is not to say that the European colonizers didn’t commit genocide, destroy the land and fabric of countless cultures, but rather when looking at history it is important to take a bottom’s up approach to storytelling. We must examine in what ways the native Americans fought English colonization, not just through war, but also through the legal system that was established after the area was colonized.

White and his men dropped anchor off the Outer Banks of North Carolina and rowed toward the island. Crewman sounded familiar tunes on trumpets to alert the colonists, but not a single human figure was seen. The landing party made its way through the woods to the settlement at the island’s northern end. Bracing himself for the worst, White entered the clearing where he had parted from the colonists, including his daughter, Eleanor Dare and his granddaughter, the first child born in the colonies, Virginia Dare (Davis, 2009). He found the settlement deserted, weeds and vines sprouting where houses had once stood. The houses themselves had been carefully dismantled and removed. Gone, too, were the fort’s small cannon; buried chests were found, containing some of the colonists’ possessions. All the evidence suggested a planned and orderly withdrawal (McGill, 2009).

The colony needed to leave, they were faced with many challenges that could only be overcame by leaving the colony. Their biggest problem they faced was drought their crops would not have been able to grow. Their main crop was most likely corn. Corn has an inability to grow in low water conditions. Once their first crops failed there was no time to plant a new round of crops. Without their main food source they would have to gather and scavenger for food. They would have to rely on secondary food sources. They were running out of food with no crops. They would have to rely on the fish from the sea or the generosity of their neighbors.

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

It was a hard time for the English when they arrived in the Americas. English settlers had sailed into the James River in Chesapeake bay region in Virginia during the spring of 1607. Why did so many colonists die between 1607 to 1611 in Jamestown? Three of the main reasons were, bad water, bad relations with Native Americans, and lacking major key settler skills.

So why did so many colonists died at Jamestown? Many people are still left curious wanting to know as to why many colonists died in early Jamestown. There are a few theories on why they died. Many think it's because of occupation. Others think it's because of rainfall, the grain trade, mortality list, and environment. But in my opinion, I think that the three major reasons on why so many colonists died in early Jamestown is because of rainfall, occupation, and mortality list.

James Horn, a historian at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation writes the story of Roanoke colony onto paper in this intriguing book, “ A Kingdom Strange The Brief And Tragic History Of The Lost Colony Of Roanoke ” Horn presents a persuasive hypothesis for what he believes must have happened to the settlers that were said to have vanished. Using accessible information and resources Horn concluded that the settlers did not in fact vanish or die, but rather just intermingle with the natives of the land. Horn proves his theories in his book by introducing a new perspective on how the settlers intermixed with the natives and were discovered centuries later by returning colonists.