Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 What happened to the colony at Roanoke?

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 Objectives In this activity you will: Describe the content of some evidence. Explain some reasons why the colony vanished using the evidence. Come up with a theory about what happened to Roanoke, based on the evidence you have.

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 What does this map show? Why might they have chosen this site for a settlement? What does this tell us about the coast? What might these men be doing? Who might live here?

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 During the reign of Elizabeth I English explorers travelled the world. Some of these explorers tried to set up colonies in foreign countries.

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 What is a colony? A colony - Part of an empire. A town, village or other settlement set up by explorers in a foreign land.

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 One such colony was set up at Roanoke in modern day America. The men who tried to set this up were Walter Raleigh, Richard Grenville and John White. Raleigh had the idea, Grenville led the voyage and White ran the colony.

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 White and Grenville arrived in America after a dangerous voyage where they had lost lots of their supplies. They set up their colony. Grenville then returned to England to get more supplies and give Raleigh and the Queen news of the colony. He left White in charge.

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 White’s daughter gave birth to the first ever English person born in America Virginia Lane. Then White too returned to England to try to get more supplies.

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 White couldn’t get back to the colony, his daughter and granddaughter, for 3 years. When he did get back to Roanoke they had vanished. But where? What could have happened?

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 REMEMBER: What does it say about where the colony went? What doesn’t it say that might be true? Are there any problems with the evidence? Use the following evidence to try to work out what happened to the colony

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 One possibility is that the colonists simply gave up waiting, tried to return to England on their own, and died in the attempt. When Governor White left in 1587, he left the colonists with a pinnace and several small ships for exploration of the coast or removal of the colony to the mainland. (pinnace = a small boat) What does this evidence say happened to the colony? Is it believable? Are there any problems with this evidence?

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 Francis Nelson was an explorer from a later colony who tried to find the Roanoke Colonists. He spells Roanoke – Roonock. What does this evidence say happened to the colony? Is it believable? Are there any problems with this evidence?

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 A ring found by Archaeologists from the University of East Carolina; this can probably be traced back to belonging to a Master Kendall who was one of the Roanoke colonists. It was found at the site of a nearby Native American settlement. At the same site the archaeologists found several gun flints.

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 ‘This drought persisted for 3 years, from 1587 to 1589, and is the driest 3-year episode in the entire 800-year reconstruction, the Lost Colony drought affected the entire southeastern United States but was particularly severe in the Tidewater region near Roanoke [Island].’ David W. Stahle, of the University of Arkansas, in the journal Science, 1998

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 ‘Traditions say that the people we call the Croatan Indians were always friendly to the whites; and finding them destitute and despairing of ever receiving aid from England, persuaded them to leave the island, and go to the mainland... They gradually drifted away from their original home, and at length settled in Robeson, about the center of the county...’ February 12, 1885, the Fayetteville Observer (a newspaper from the Roanoke area).

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 ‘We have a theory, that we are testing, that there is DNA evidence that the colonists joined with the Native Americans. This is supported by documentary evidence that we have.’ The Lost Colony DNA project, Houston, Texas, 2008

Interpretation © HarperCollins Publishers 2010 What happened to the colony? What’s your theory? Try to use evidence from the sources to explain your answer. The best answers will think about how useful the sources are.