Roanoke (The Lost Colony)
Present Day North Carolina
Roanoke Island was the result of an attempt to
establish a permanent settlement in North America
Sir Walter Raleigh financed the exploration.
His purpose was to gain more riches.
He sent an expedition to Roanoke
Island which was originally called
Secotan.
When they reached Roanoke, they found that
the inhabitants of this area had been
slaughtered.
The men returned to England and reported to Sir
Walter Raleigh what had happened, but they also
said that this was still a good place to try to establish
a colony.
In 1587 Sir Walter Raleigh sent a group of 150
colonists to inhabit the colony at Roanoke Island.
There were men women and children. John White
was their leader. He later became governor. His
daughter and son-in-law were some of the colonists
who came. His granddaughter Virginia Dare was
the first English child born in the
new world.
The area of Roanoke Island was first inhabited
by American Indians.
The Croatian Indians were friendly, but
other tribes were not. The colonist
feared them and feared for their safety.
Relationship with the Native Americans was
not good except for the friendly Croatians.
Life in the settlement was hard because there
was a shortage of food and they did not have
the tools they needed to grow crops. The land
was not good for growing crops either. (Stokes, M. 2007)
Late in 1587, White returned to
England to get supplies and help for
the colony. He planned to return
quickly. Due to problems beyond
his control he was not able to return
to Roanoke until three years later.
It was too late. Their supplies ran out.
In 1590 when White was finally able to return to
Roanoke, there was no one to be found. His daughter
and grandchild were among the missing colonists.
Everyone had vanished. To this day, no one knows
what happened to the colonists at Roanoke. That is
why Roanoke is called “The Lost Colony”. No one
knows what happened to them.
(absoluteastronomy.com)
There has been some speculation of what may have
happened to them:
They could have all died from disease.
They could have moved to another place.
They may have been killed by the native Americans.
They could have joined the Croatian tribe.
(shadowlands.net)
We may never know what happened to
the “Lost Colony.”
References
Stokes, M., (2007). Roanoke Island: The Lost Colony. Retrieved from: http://ncpedia.org/history/colonial/roanokeisland
Roanoke Colony, (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Roanoke_Colony
The Lost Colony of Roanoke, 1588 (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://theshadowlands.net/roanoke.htm
Yahoo Images, (2011) Retrieved from: http://yahooimages.com