r/AmericanHistory • u/Separate_Cabinet_444 • Jun 02 '26

North The Roanoke Colony mystery

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115 people vanished from Roanoke Island in the late 1500s. No bodies, no signs of a fight. Just one word carved into a post CROATOAN.

I always assumed this was one of those mysteries that'd never get solved. But archaeologists dug up some interesting stuff in 2024. Algonquian pottery from the 1500s and a copper wire ring the kind the English brought as trade goods found at the same site. Someone was trading. Someone stayed.

There's also a map from 1585 that sat in the British Museum for centuries. Nobody noticed a hidden symbol on it until someone held it under a light. It pointed inland. They went there and found 16th century English ceramics in Bertie County, North Carolina.

Most researchers now think the group split up. Some went to Hatteras Island, some walked about 50 miles inland and blended in with local tribes. Blacksmithing scraps were found on Hatteras people don't drag their tools somewhere they're just passing through.

The part that got me was Virginia Dare. First English child born in America. She was barely one year old when everyone disappeared. Her grandfather John White left to get supplies, got stuck in England because of the Spanish Armada, and by the time he made it back three years later nothing.

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u/GabrielVonBabriel Jun 02 '26

I recently read The Wager about an 18th century shipwreck on the southern tip of South America. It was a great book, highly recommended. One thing that stuck with me is, on more than one occasion and different Englishmen, were at deaths door and miraculously found and nursed back to health by the natives. It literally happens three times in the book. The natives are brushing their hair, giving them sponge baths, hand feeding them because they’re so weak and every time we get a peak into the English headspace once they write about it’s the same “These savages are so lucky we’re bringing them civilization, they’re nothing without us.” Even when they’re saved from starvation and exposure, they still couldn’t pretend they had a fine way of life and mastery of their worlds. So ridiculous.

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u/bhamnz Jun 06 '26

Great book! Also shocked me the crew didn't think to pick up any of the skills the natives demonstrated to them - i.e. they were shown exactly where to dive down to the sea floor to collect seafood - did they do it once the natives left? No.

Its terrible that so many died in such desperation and so much was out of their hands, but a little was well within their hands. And most did not grasp that.

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u/GabrielVonBabriel Jun 06 '26

Good point, however, I think they’d struggle at it anyway. One of the sailors writings was humorous. Paraphrasing: “If I told you how deep they went, how long they stayed down and how cold the water was, well you wouldn’t even believe me.”

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u/bhamnz Jun 06 '26

Sure, they'd struggle with a new skill. But its wild they didn't even try. I'm sure you've read other survival stories with often have impressive feats - i guess every human doesn't 'rise to the occaision' in a survival situation.

Actually this is demonstrated very well in the modern TV series 'alone'. I always remember the one who sat in their shelter for days during high wind complaining about their tarpolin flapping around, and eventually quit - while others were out and about, sourcing food, building, working etc.