The Mystery of Roanoke: A Mini-Essay

     On August 27, 1587, over one-hundred individuals watched as the three ships which had brought them to an abandoned English fort disappeared into the horizon. For weeks, these men, women, and children – the first English colonists in America – had repaired the fort’s derelict buildings and constructed new cottages out of brick and tile. During the construction, Elizabeth and Ananias Dare welcomed the arrival a baby girl and, a few days later, Dyonis and Margery Harvie delivered a boy.[1] Their celebrations were cut short as their governor, John White (Elizabeth Dare’s father), and the three ships were summoned back to England. As he parted ways with his daughter and new-born granddaughter, White promised to return with needed supplies within a few months. The promise went unkept and, when White finally returned in August of 1590, the fort was abandoned and only a cryptic CROATOAN etched into the entrance posts hinted at the colonists’ fate.[2] For centuries, what occurred during White’s three-year absence has been – and continues to be – the fodder for legends and fiction. From alien abductions and cannibal tribes to ancient curses and bloodthirsty monsters, theories abound regarding the destiny of those deserted settlers. Although extraterrestrials and curses make for great storytelling, serious scholarship reveals that Roanoke’s tale was far more tragic than supernatural.

     The colony began in 1585 when Sir Walter Ralegh, one of Queen Elizabeth’s pets, sent about one-hundred men to settle a small island on the North Carolina coast.[3] As summer gave way to winter, the colonists quickly strained their relationship with the Algonquian tribe, which had benevolently supported the men with their own surplus of food. When Sir Ralph Lane killed their chief in retaliation, the fort was quickly abandoned.[4] Irked, Ralegh attempted to settle the area again with White’s expedition and, again, misfortune ensued, this time involving the mysterious disappearance of several families. So, aliens and monsters aside, what really happened? Although historians degree slightly, they have proposed several credible scenarios.

     In North Carolina, local legend maintains that the colonists intermarried with the Lumbee tribe of Robeson County and their descendants still exist today. Historian Karen Ordahl Kupperman argues that this may be the most plausible explanation, with the settlers melting into the native populations akin to the three men abandoned by Lane and the fifteen men deserted by Sir Richard Grenville’s expedition in 1586.[5] Alan Taylor agrees with the fable to an extent. Drawing upon documentation from a group of English colonists who encountered a native tribe at Chesapeake Bay in 1607, the scholar contends that the refugees joined a local village and, shortly following this, the village’s members provoked the powerful Powhatan chieftain and were viciously killed.[6] Anthropologist Lee Miller takes a more intriguing stance and asserts that political deceit in Queen Elizabeth’s court – with Sir Francis Walsingham at the helm – purposefully intervened in Raleigh’s expedition in an effort to dismantle his credibility and remove him from the queen’s favor.[7] The plan, Miller contends, worked too well, with Raleigh condemned to the Tower of London and his colonists abandoned as hapless victims in a political game of jealously.[8] In desperation, the neglected settlers moved west into the interior of North Carolina and stumble upon a conflict between native nations, where they were either slaughtered in battle or taken as slaves.[9] Another possible outcome involves the Dare Stones housed at Brenau University. The first, found by a tourist along the Chowan River in 1937, held a bleak inscription: “Ananias and Virginia Dare went hence unto Heaven 1591.”[10] Between 1937 and 1940, over forty stones were found detailing the tragic tale of the settlers’ sad, death-riddled venture into the interior of North Carolina. Although most have been proven counterfeit, the original stone has maintained some semblance of credibility, with the spelling conforming to Elizabethan orthography and the inscription etched with tools likely possessed by the colonists.[11]

Works Referenced

Coleman, R.V. The First Frontier. 1948. Edison, NJ: Castle Books, 2005.

Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony. Lanaham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1984.

Miller, Lee. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2000.

Taylor, Alan. American Colonies. New York: Viking Press, 2001.

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[1] Miller, 3. 

[2] Miller, 14. 

[3] Taylor, 123. 

[4] Taylor, 124. 

[5] Kupperman, 141. 

[6] Alan, 124. 

[7] Miller, 190-191. 

[8] Miller, 203-204. 

[9] Miller, 234-236. 

[10] Coleman, 61. 

[11] Coleman, 60-61.