The Roanoke Colony Case Study

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How could an entire colony of around 117 people just disappear with no trace of where or why they went? The Roanoke colony is the first settlement made by Britain in the new world. Arriving to the island of the same name around the end of July in 1587. The colonists were greeted with a pleasant welcome from the Natives of that same area. Though all was well a supply run back to England was desperately needed. After the colony’s governor, John White, returned, everyone had vanished. The mystery behind the the Roanoke colony disappearance can be summed up in two theories: they moved locations and they were attacked by Natives. Undoubtedly the mystery of the Roanoke colony disappearance is baffling, but that hasn’t stopped speculations to arise. The first colonists were given two simple rules in their governors absence; carve the word…show more content…
Even with that fateful word carved into the tree, White had a map which contained a marking on a location which theoretically would have been a reasonable place for the settlers to move to (Pruitt 3). Specifically assumed is that the colony went to the tribe Croatoan, the same name they carved, intermarried and gradually moved inland to later be known as the Lumbee tribe (Steiger 1). Upon investigation by White he found that they had not gone to the Croatoan’s either. Possibly they just moved inland, by themselves, and were taken in by a friendly tribe (Vanished Into Thin Air 1; What Happened to the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke? 2). Even in the beginning the colonists were able to make good relations with the Natives, so it would not come as a surprise that they were able to merge with a tribe (The Roanoke Disasters 1). In which “would explain why no evidence of a massacre was found” (Vanished Into Thin Air 2). After all, with the given evidence and a persons ability to evaluate said evidence, it comes as no surprise why this theory is one that most believe above the

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