ROANOKE COLONY

The Roanoke Colony, also known as the Lost Colony, was established on Roanoke Island in what is
today's County, North, United States. It was a late 16th-century attempt by Queen Elizabeth I to establish
a permanent English settlement. The colony was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh.

The colonists disappeared during the Anglo-Spanish War, three years after the last shipment of supplies
from England. Their disappearance gave rise to the nickname "The Lost Colony." There has been no
conclusive evidence as to what happened to the colonists.

John White, the governor of the Roanoke Island colony in present-day North Carolina, returned from a
supply-trip to England to find the settlement deserted. White and his men found no trace of the 100 or
so colonists he left behind, and there was no sign of violence. Among the missing were Ellinor Dare,
White’s daughter; and Virginia Dare, White’s granddaughter and the first English child born in America.
August 18 was to have been Virginia’s third birthday. The only clue to their mysterious disappearance was
the word “CROATOAN” carved into the palisade that had been built around the settlement. White took
the letters to mean that the colonists had moved to Croatoan Island, some 50 miles away, but a later
search of the island found none of the settlers.

The Roanoke Island colony, the first English settlement in the New World, was founded by English Explorer
Sir Walter Raleigh in August 1585. The first Roanoke colonists did not fare well, suffering from dwindling
food supplies and Indian attacks, and in 1586 they returned to England aboard a ship captained by Sir
Francis Drake. In 1587, Raleigh sent out another group of 100 colonists under John White. White returned
to England to procure more supplies, but the war with Spain delayed his return to Roanoke. By the time
he finally returned in August 1590, everyone had vanished.

In 1998, archaeologists studying tree-ring data from Virginia found that extreme drought conditions
persisted between 1587 and 1589. These conditions undoubtedly contributed to the demise of the so-
called Lost Colony, but where the settlers went after they left Roanoke remains a mystery. One theory
has them being absorbed into an Indian tribe known as the Croatans.

The Roanoke colonies, the result of three attempts at colonization on the eastern shores of what would
become North Carolina, laid the foundation for later English colonization initiatives. In April of 1584,
explorers Phillip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe set out from England to survey the coast near Cape Hatteras.
In the course of their expedition, they encountered few obstacles and their positive report prompted Sir
Walter Raleigh to establish a colony in the New World. In 1585, Sir Richard Grenville, Raleigh’s cousin,
sent seven ships loaded with colonists and provisions to establish a colony on Roanoke Island. Although
the settlement survived, poor relations with the natives and food shortages constantly plagued the
colony.

After English supply ships failed to reach Roanoke Island, the colonists returned to England, and in the
process missed the arrival of a re-supply ship. The ship’s crew found the colony deserted and left fifteen
men at the site to await their return. They never did, and eventually the men returned to England. Two
years later, Grenville sent another colonial expedition of 150 men, led by artist John White. The third
colony, choosing the same location their predecessors had abandoned, saw improved relations with
natives and the 1587 birth of Virginia Dare, the first child born to English parents in the New World. Soon
after Dare’s birth, White returned to London to secure more provisions for his fledgling colony, only to
return three years later to find the colony abandoned, with no trace of inhabitants and most structures
destroyed. The vanquished settlement is often referred to as the “Lost Colony,” a story retold each
summer on Roanoke Island in Paul Green’s outdoor drama.
Although the first English colonies were unsuccessful, the attempts brought attention to the dangers
inherent in creating a new society in a foreign world, and laid a course for future colonists.

VIRGINIA COMPANY
V IRGINIA WAS THE E NGLISH NAME FOR THE ENTIRE EASTERN COAST OF N ORTH A MERICA NORTH OF
F LORIDA ; THEY HAD NAMED IT FOR E LIZABETH I, THE “ VIRGIN QUEEN .” T HE V IRGINIA C OMPANY
PLANNED TO SEARCH FOR GOLD AND SILVER DEPOSITS IN THE N EW W ORLD , AS WELL AS A RIVER
ROUTE TO THE P ACIFIC O CEAN THAT WOULD ALLOW THEM TO ESTABLISH TRADE WITH THE O RIENT .

THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY

The Plymouth Company was permitted to establish settlement(s) between the 38th parallel and the 45th
parallel (roughly between the upper reaches of the Chesapeake Bay and the current U.S.-Canada border)

On 13 August 1607, the Plymouth Company established the Popham Colony along the Kennebec River in
present-day Maine. However, it was abandoned after about 1 year, and the Plymouth Company became
inactive.

With the religious Pilgrims who arrived aboard the Mayflower, a successor company to the Plymouth
Company eventually established a permanent settlement in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 in what is
now New England.

THE LONDON COMPANY

By the terms of the charter, the London Company was permitted to establish a colony of 100 miles square
between the 34th parallel and the 41st parallel (approximately between Cape Fear and Long Island
Sound), and also owned a large portion of Atlantic Ocean and inland Canada.

On 14 May 1607, the London Company established the Jamestown Settlement about 40 miles inland along
the James River, a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in present-day Virginia. The future of the
settlement at Jamestown was precarious for its first 5 years. The president of the third Jamestown Council,
Captain John Smith, was a difficult personality and a formidably arrogant military man who initiated a
series of encounters with indigenous people the results of which would resonate negatively for at least
the next four hundred years among Native Americans.

To the disappointment of its investors, the Virginia Company of London failed to discover gold or silver in
Virginia. However, the company did establish trade of various types. The biggest trade breakthrough came
when colonist John Rolfe introduced several sweeter strains of tobacco from the Caribbean (rather than
the harsh-tasting kind native to Virginia). Rolfe's new tobacco strains led to a strong export for the London
Company and other early English colonies, and helped balance a trade deficit with Spain.

The Jamestown Massacre which devastated that colony in 1622 brought on unfavourable attention,
particularly from King James I who had originally chartered the Company. There was a period of debate
in Britain between Company officers who wished to guard the original charter, and those who wished the
Company ended. In 1624, the King dissolved the Company and made Virginia a royal colony

JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENT
In June of 1606, King James I granted a charter to a group of London entrepreneurs, the Virginia Company,
to establish an English settlement in the Chesapeake region of North America. In December of that year,
104 settlers sailed from London with Company instructions to build a secure settlement, find gold, and
seek a water route to the Pacific.

On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company settlers landed on Jamestown Island to establish an English colony
60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Discovery of the exact location of the first fort indicates
its site was in a secure place, where Spanish ships could not fire point blank into the fort. Within days of
landing, the colonists were attacked by Powhatan Indians. The newcomers spent the next few weeks
working to “beare and plant palisadoes” for a wooden fort. Three contemporary accounts and a sketch of
the fort agree that its walls formed a triangle around a storehouse, church, and a number of houses.
Bulwarks (raised platforms) for cannons were built at the three corners to defend against a possible
Spanish attack.

The Virginia Company tried to intensify the focus on money-making industry with The First Supply to
Jamestown. But disease, famine, and sporadic attacks from the neighboring Powhatan Indians took a
tremendous toll on the population of the settlement. There were also times when trade with the
Powhatan revived the colony with food in exchange for glass beads, copper, and iron implements. Captain
John Smith was particularly good at this trade. But his strict leadership made enemies within and without
the fort, and a mysterious gunpowder explosion badly injured him and sent him back to England in
October 1609. What followed was Jamestown’s darkest hour, the “starving time” winter of 1609-10.
About 300 settlers crowded into James Fort when the Indians set up a siege, and only 60 settlers survived
to the next spring. The survivors decided to bury the fort’s ordinance and abandon the town. It was only
the arrival of the new governor, Lord De La Ware, and his supply ships that brought the colonists back to
the fort and set the colony back on its feet. Some years of peace and prosperity followed the 1614 wedding
of Pocahontas, the favored daughter of Chief Powhatan, to tobacco grower John Rolfe.

The first representative assembly in English North America convened in the Jamestown church on July 30,
1619. The General Assembly met in response to orders from the Virginia Company “to establish one equal
and uniform government over all Virginia” and provide “just laws for the happy guiding and governing of
the people there inhabiting.” A few weeks later came the first arrival of Africans to Jamestown. These
Africans became indentured servants, similar in legal position to many poor Englishmen who traded
several years of labor in exchange for passage to America. (The legal system of race-based chattel slavery
did not fully develop in Virginia until the 1680s.)

After Chief Powhatan’s death, his brother took leadership of the Indians of eastern Virginia and, in 1622,
ordered a surprise attack on the English tobacco farms and settlements. More than 300 settlers were
killed. A last-minute warning spared James Fort itself, but the attack on the colony and the continuing
mismanagement by the Virginia Company convinced the King to revoke the Company’s charter. Virginia
became a crown colony in 1624.

As Jamestown grew into a robust “New Town” to the east, written references to the original fort
disappeared. In 1676 a rebellion in the colony led by Nathaniel Bacon sacked and burned much of the
capital town. Jamestown remained the capital of Virginia until its major statehouse, located on the
western end of the island, burned in 1698. The capital moved to Williamsburg in 1699, and Jamestown
began to slowly disappear above the ground. By the 1750s the land was heavily cultivated, primarily by
the Travis and Ambler families.

 In 1607, the Virginia Company of London financed a colony at Jamestown, Virginia. In

1608, John Smith took control of the Jamestown colony. 800 more colonists arrived in
1609, and by 1621 Jamestown had grown to more than 2000.
  The settlers face many hardships. For example, they found no gold nor did they establish
the fish or fur trading expected of them by the Virginia Company investors.
 The Virginia Company installed yet another leader, to govern after Smith.
 A harsh winter and more trouble continued to plague the colonists.
 In 1612, John Rolfe developed a high-grade tobacco that the colonists learned to grow.
It became very popular in England. When the colonists discovered how to grow tobacco,
the colony began to prosper.
 As the number of colonists increased, the Powhatan natives grew worse.
 Relations with the Native Americans living nearby improved when one of the colonists,
John Rolfe, married Pocahontas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan.
 The Virginia Company allowed a representative government in which ten towns in the
colony sent two representatives or burgesses, to an assembly.
 The assembly made local laws.
 Settlers were offered 50 acres of land if they paid for their own passage to the colonies.
Those who could not afford passage to America, borrowed money and became
indentured servants, who worked for many years in order to pay back loans.

INDENTURED SERVANTS
Indentured servants first arrived in America in the decade following the settlement of Jamestown by the
Virginia Company in 1607.

The idea of indentured servitude was born of a need for cheap labour. The earliest settlers soon realized
that they had lots of land to care for, but no one to care for it. With passage to the Colonies expensive for
all but the wealthy, the Virginia Company developed the system of indentured servitude to attract
workers. Indentured servants became vital to the colonial economy.

The timing of the Virginia colony was ideal. The Thirty Year's War had left Europe's economy depressed,
and many skilled and unskilled labourers were without work. A new life in the New World offered a
glimmer of hope; this explains how one-half to two-thirds of the immigrants who came to the American
colonies arrived as indentured servants.

Servants typically worked four to seven years in exchange for passage, room, board, lodging and freedom
dues. While the life of an indentured servant was harsh and restrictive, it wasn't slavery. There were laws
that protected some of their rights. But their life was not an easy one, and the punishments meted out to
people who wronged were harsher than those for non-servants. An indentured servant's contract could
be extended as punishment for breaking a law, such as running away, or in the case of female servants,
becoming pregnant.

For those that survived the work and received their freedom package, many historians argue that they
were better off than those new immigrants who came freely to the country. Their contract may have
included at least 25 acres of land, a year's worth of corn, arms, a cow and new clothes. Some servants did
rise to become part of the colonial elite, but for the majority of indentured servants that survived the
treacherous journey by sea and the harsh conditions of life in the New World, satisfaction was a modest
life as a freeman in a burgeoning colonial economy.

In 1619 the first black Africans came to Virginia. With no slave laws in place, they were initially treated as
indentured servants, and given the same opportunities for freedom dues as whites. However, slave laws
were soon passed – in Massachusetts in 1641 and Virginia in 1661 –and any small freedoms that might
have existed for blacks were taken away.

As demands for labor grew, so did the cost of indentured servants. Many landowners also felt threatened
by newly freed servants demand for land. The colonial elite realized the problems of indentured servitude.
Landowners turned to African slaves as a more profitable and ever-renewable source of labor and the
shift from indentured servants to racial slavery had begun.