The Lost Colony and Jamestown - the same effect

How did The Lost Colony fit in the founding of the English colonies in
North America?

Virginia Dare was born at the Lost Colony on Roanoke Island, the first
child of English parents in America was born, and that gives North
Carolinians a strong claim to be a critical part of the English
colonization effort.

But since that colony disappeared without a trace, can we claim that
this unsuccessful colonization effort was part of later permanent
colonization efforts in Virginia and New England?

The answer: Absolutely, says John May, author of an upcoming book to
be titled “English America: An Introduction to The Lost Colony and
Jamestown.” It is scheduled for publication next year by McFarland, a
leading independent publisher of academic and general-interest
nonfiction books.

May argues that the “founding of the first enduring English American
colony was one continuous effort interrupted by war with Spain. The
Roanoke Island and Jamestown colonies constitute the selfsame history
in all meaningful respects. Think of Jamestown as the second act of
the two-act play but under new direction and with it all new cast of
characters.”

In October 1584, at the request of Sir Walter Raleigh’s supporters, a
young scholar, Richard Hakluyt, prepared a prospectus outlining the
“potential political advantages of a colony in the part of North
America that had been named Virginia.” Hakluyt delivered a copy to
Queen Elizabeth.

The queen offered only minimal support for Raleigh’s venture.

But May argues that the objectives outlined in the prospectus
“remained unchanged for the next twenty-five years. But in all those
years of trial and error--of one heartbreaking failure after another--
the one constant and central presence in the effort was Richard
Hakluyt.”

Raleigh, the most prominent supporter of the first colonization effort
on Roanoke, had the most to gain.

With a successful permanent settlement within seven years of his grant
in 1584, Raleigh would be granted title to most of the eastern part of
North America. But Raleigh had stepped aside and become involved in
other adventures.

Efforts to establish a colony on Roanoke Island continued, and May
tells the stories of that colony in engaging detail, beginning with
their biggest problem, the unsuitability of our coast to support a
colonization effort.

“The coast of North Carolina was an inauspicious choice for a first
colony. From the seashore island for up to fifty miles, the land is
swampy or so low-lying it often floods and much of it in the sixteenth
century was thick forested wetlands that were all but impenetrable.

“English galleons had an average draft of twelve feet, but inlets into
the Pamlico Sound-- through which Roanoke Island is accessed--or
blocked to such ships by shallow sandbars that shift with every major
storm.

“Dangerous offshore shallows--Wimble, Diamond, and Frying Pan
Shoals--extend miles out into the Atlantic, and seas off the Outer
Banks are subject to riptides and cross currents caused by the
conflicts of the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current. These hazards
have caused countless shipwrecks and given to this region of the North
American coast the baleful epitaph ‘Graveyard of the Atlantic.’”

In May’s detailed account of the Virginia Colony, his hero is John
Smith, the rough-and-ready Daniel Boone character who also fought
against the Native Americans and still gained their respect.

The story about the Native American emperor Powhatan’s daughter
rescuing Smith from execution is based on Smith’s later written
account. May says that, although this account is probably not
completely accurate, Pocahontas had a real expectation that Smith
would become a part of the Powhatan family. Smith’s failure to meet
this expectation was a great disappointment to her.

May’s copious research combined with his great storytelling gifts make
his story of the Lost Colony and Jamestown histories a reading
pleasure.

The Lost Colony itself had disappeared without a trace.

But there were others who were “eager to take up the baton and see
what profits could be squeezed from the great unknown of North America
about which Hakluyt promised so much.”

D.G. Martin, a retired lawyer, served as UNC-System’s vice president
for public affairs and hosted PBS-NC’s North Carolina Bookwatch.