The Lost Colony of Roanoke
What happened to the colonists?
https://youtu.be/ofhIJ1wMKtc
What is the lost colony?
The "Lost Colony of Roanoke" is a early settlement in North Carolina. While the settlements governor, John White, was away in England collecting supplies and fighting the in the Anglo-Spanish War the colonists went missing. To this day the mysterious disappearance has gone unsolved even with various clues and theories. While the mystery does not have a definite explanation the evidence that we do have points towards the colonists assimilating into local native tribes.
The colonists assimilated into the Native American tribes in the area.
- While there are many theories as to what happened to the colonists at Roanoke the most plausible explanation is that "the colonists may have broken up into distinct groups and assimilated into local Indian communities (Croatoan was the name of an Indian group who lived on Roanoke, as well as the name of the present-day Hatteras Island)."
Why would they do this?
- During the time that John White was gone there was a severe drought in the area. It is likely that "'they knew that Roanoke wasn’t a good place to build a settlement,'... They were painfully aware that there was little fresh water available to the colony—especially not during a historic drought." Since they were new to the area, and the settlement was still undeveloped, and they were short on supplies, surviving the drought would have been very difficult to do. Assimilating in to the Native tribes would have increased their chances of survival because the Natives knew the area better than the colonists and would have known where fresh water was, how to survive times of drought, and they would have supplies needed for survival.
Did something bad happen?
- While it is a possibility that the colonists could have met their ultimate demise while John White was away there is a lack of evidence to prove that. Before John White left for England he and the colonists agreed that "if they should be distressed in any of those places, they were to carve a cross over the letters, but [white] found no such sign". Thus proving that the colonists were not in distress and therefore all the more likely that they assimilated into local Native American tribes.