Roanoke (colony)

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1584 map (Chesapeake Bay to Cape Lookout) by John White
Portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh

The Roanoke Island colony was located on Roanoke Island , off the east coast of the American state of North Carolina . On August 17, 1585 was established by 108 men and was the first colony of the British in North America. However, it was given up again the following year. A second attempt from 1587 onwards failed with the mysterious disappearance of 118 settlers established in 1590.

The first English settlement (1584 to 1586)

On April 27, 1584, the researchers Arthur Barlowe and Philip Amadas set out on an expedition to the area of ​​the Outer Banks in what is now North Carolina on behalf of Sir Walter Raleigh and came across Roanoke Island , the residential area of ​​the Roanoke Indians . They were enthusiastic about the landscape and the opportunities it offered and were able to win two Pamlico Indians named Manteo and Wanchese, whom they taught English, to return to England with them to promote Roanoke Island as a future settlement. Queen Elizabeth I was so pleased with the report from the two pioneers that she allowed Raleigh to establish a colony in the New World.

On April 9, 1585, under Raleigh's cousin, Admiral Richard Grenville , ships with about 600 people left for Roanoke Island in Plymouth , of which Grenville and another 107 people remained as settlers on Roanoke. The first settlement was a disaster: the settlers arrived too late to be able to hope for a good harvest. They also got into an argument with the locals, which culminated in the fact that they burned the village of Aquascogoc and killed the chief. Fearing revenge and lacking food, Grenville decided to leave Governor Ralph Lane and about 75 men behind and sail again for England; he promised to return in April 1586 with more people and a supply ship.

When Sir Francis Drake took a break on Roanoke on his return from the Caribbean in July 1586 , Grenville had still not returned with the promised supply ship. Drake took the remaining settlers to England. A little later, the supply ship reached the now abandoned settlement with other emigrants. Grenville left 15 people to hold the position on Roanoke while he returned to England again to inform Raleigh.

The second attempt (1587 to 1590)

On July 22, 1587, John White , who had already been one of the first settlers, returned to Roanoke with another 150 settlers as the new governor and found the colony abandoned. His pregnant daughter Eleanor and son-in-law Ananias Dare were also with him. On August 18, 1587, Eleanor gave Virginia Dare , the first English child on American soil. On August 25th, White left for England again to take care of supplies. John White intended to return immediately, but the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War prevented this.

When White returned to Roanoke three years later on August 18, 1590, the colony was again deserted.

The Lost Colony ( The Lost Colony )

Finding the inscription "Croatoan"

White found the colony dilapidated, and there was no trace of the remaining 90 men, 17 women and 11 children. There was also no evidence of a fight or assault. White found the word " CROATOAN " carved into a tree , a reference to the island of the same name, which is now called Hatteras (after the tribe of the Hatteras ) and was the home of Chief Manteo. The letters “CRO” were also found carved into a nearby tree trunk. When a hurricane hit , the men refused to look any further. White had to flee and return to England again.

1602 sent Raleigh again an expedition to Roanoke, which also found no further traces of the "lost colony".

Hypotheses about the fate of the colony

In 1709 the adventurer John Lawson reported in his travelogue A New Voyage to Carolina that Indians on Hatteras Island off the east coast of North Carolina had told him of white ancestors. He made the claim that the inhabitants of the colony mixed with indigenous Indian tribes. Around 1880, the teacher and lawyer Hamilton McMillan suspected that the inhabitants of the colony had merged with the Croatoan Indian tribe. Today it is believed that the original group of settlers went their separate ways. Some have been killed by locals, some have probably joined different Indian tribes. Why they did this and why personal items or records were never found remains unclear to this day.

Eleanor and Virginia Dare on the reverse of a 1937 commemorative 50 cent coin

In 1937 a number of stones were found in North Carolina that should clear up the mystery of Roanoke Island. A traveler reportedly found the first stone in a swamp; this was the beginning of a series of 40 stone finds by the end of 1939. Eleanor Dare (daughter of John White, mother of Virginia Dare) allegedly had her story carved into the stones; in this way she tells her father about the flight inland after an Indian attack. On the last stones an unknown author finally reports of her death in 1599. The press rushed to these discoveries, but had to retract everything in 1940 when the large-scale fraud was exposed by a reporter. Nevertheless, parts of the legend handed down on the stones are still gladly told in the USA today. The image of Eleanor fleeing through the American wilderness with her baby is still part of American folklore today.

In 2013, Malcolm LeComte from Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina came up with the idea of ​​using satellite images to study the region that was marked on White's map. Around 100 km west of Roanoke inland, they discovered the outlines of underground structures, which they interpret as fortifications and which differ significantly from the round structures of the Indians.

Representation in literature and film

theatre

  • Paul Green wrote the play The Lost Colony , which is still performed on Roanoke Island today.

Fiction

  • Bill Napier made Raleigh's expedition the content of his 2003 book Shattered Icon , German title Der 77th Grad .
  • In Michael Marshall Smith's book Angel of Death (2004), the story is also addressed to the lost settlers.
  • In the two science fiction books The Last Colony (2007) and Between the Stars (2008) by John Scalzi , a colony called Croatoan on the planet Roanoke is described.
  • In Christoph Marzi's book Somnia (2008) the term Croatoan and the history of the colony is a central part of the plot.
  • In Stephen King there in the books Langoliers , It and The monster - Tommyknockers references to Roanoke. Also in the novel "Storm of the Century"
  • In the episode And the Cold Eye of the series The Three ??? the topic Croatoan is taken up.
  • With Jeffery Deaver , the disappeared colony is also thematized in "The Insect Collector".

Movies

  • In the film Mindhunters (2004) the topic of the lost colony is assumed to be the background for a series of murders on an island.
  • Brad Anderson makes reference to the disappearance of a civilization in his 2010 film The Rule of the Shadows . The term Croatoan is often seen in the background of the film; B. on house walls.
  • The 2007 television film Lost Colony connects the story of the second settlement with supernatural horror.

TV Shows

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Wellenreuther: Decline and Rise, History of North America from the beginning of settlement to the end of the 17th century ; P. 149
  2. ↑ NCPedia.org: McMillan, Hamilton. Retrieved May 19, 2016 .
  3. ↑ The oldest mystery in the USA is being deciphered World article of December 13, 2013, accessed on May 15, 2015