The Colony at Roanoke
Maybe it’s the Ontario history curriculum’s fault, but I was amazed I hadn’t heard of the colony at Roanoke when I stumbled onto this story. I’m even more surprised that a chronicle like this with adventure, murder and mystery hasn’t spawned some sort of cinematic interpretation by Hollywood.
The narrative begins in 1584 with a British man by the name of Sir Walter Raleigh. He decided he was going to fund an expedition to the newly discovered and potentially profitable New World and hired two men, Ralph Lane and Richard Grenville who were to see his mission through. The men, with a portion of supplies, commenced their voyage in the spring and dropped anchor on (appropriately) July 4th at a small island called Roanoke off modern day North Carolina. Here Raleigh’s men quickly went about destroying any possible relations with the local Native tribes. In one reported case, after a silver cup went missing in the English camp, the Natives were blamed, and an entire village was burned and sacked in retaliation. Soon after, Grenville set out to resupply the initial mission but fierce storms separated the ships. It is decided that the bulk of the group will head back to Britain while 15 lucky soldiers remain to guard the established camp.
Several years later in 1587 plans had evolved and were more ambitious. A colonist expedition of about 150 settlers was chosen including women and children to set up a permanent and self-sufficient presence just North of the Roanoke camp. A man named John White was selected to govern the group. They were to collect the soldiers and continue up the coast to find a more suitable permanent location and unload supplies. Plans quickly changed however, after the ships drifted into the waters off Roanoke Island and were greeted by a grisly scene. All of the soldiers had been killed and only the bones of one remain in the camp, now in disrepair. For some unknown reason the Fleet Commander suddenly refused to move the colonists to a new location and instead, they unloaded, were forced to rebuild and given no option to leave. For the colony of Roanoke this is where the paper trail ends and speculation begins.
It is decided that White will travel back to England to ask for more supplies leaving the colonists, including White’s daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law, on their own. Unfortunately for White and his people, their timing couldn’t have been any worse as the Spanish Armada was poised to attack the British Navy, which would plunge the two nations into a drawn-out war. The crown refused White’s requests, so in desperation he was forced to collect a few smaller vessels equipped with supplies and planned to privateer a larger Spanish vessel. The mission was botched, he and his men are captured and their supplies were seized. It takes three years for White to resume his mission across the Atlantic and by now he is much too late.
The ship anchors off what turns out to be a deserted camp. Not only are all 150 settlers gone without a trace but strangely the settlement has been disassembled piece by piece and has seemingly been swallowed up by the forested mainland. Instead of a Maltese cross, the symbol agreed upon to represent a forced evacuation, White finds the word CROATOAN carved into a post. He was not permitted to investigate any further and today the fate of these colonists, including his daughter, remains a mystery. A few theories have surfaced over time, many of which are plausible.
Theory #1: Murder
Disgruntled Natives raid the town, kill everyone and clear out any evidence that they existed, cleansing the area of their presence. There was also a Spanish colony further south along the coast that could have posed a threat. This is less likely as there was seemingly no sign of struggle and as mentioned previously, no Maltese cross.
Theory #2: Relocation then Murder
The careful disassembly and relocation of a small town is certainly possible over a three-year span. It does not appear that their exit was forced and it’s possible they tried to reestablish, encroaching on a local tribe’s territory. That tribe launching a retaliatory attack would have killed or enslaved them. There is also some speculation that a change in the local power structure resulted in a Native war that the colonists could have unwittingly stumbled right into.
Theory #3: Relocation and integration
This is the most interesting hypothesis. There is some suggestion that once the settlers realized no one was coming for them that they did what they needed to do to survive. This could have included integration with a local tribe, inter-breeding and adopting their practices. The area around Roanoke wasn’t properly explored until decades later so there was plenty of time for this to occur. There were also reports from Natives in the proximity of the later Jamestown colony of lighter skinned natives with multi-storied huts similar to the British design. North Carolina’s Lumbee tribe may in fact be the descendants of these very people, as they tend to have fairer skin and grey eyes.
Due to misfortune and bad luck we may never have concrete evidence as to the fate of the Roanoke people. It’ll be interesting to see if DNA studies are able to reinforce the integration hypothesis.
