New Horizons

The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island

 Learning Objective
• To explore why England wanted to colonise the Americas and evaluate what
happened to the first colony.

Success Criteria
• To identify where the first English colony was.
• To explain why England wanted to colonise the Americas.
• To evaluate the mystery of the colony’s disappearance.
 What Do You Know?
This is Christopher Columbus.
With a partner, come up with as many facts about this man as you can.
 A New World
Europeans first arrived the Americas when Christopher
Columbus landed in the West Indies in 1492. The principal
inhabitants of the Caribbean prior to European contact were
the Taíno people.

Throughout the 16th century, the Spanish colonised parts of

South America and other European powers explored and
colonised across the Americas.

The English first attempted to create a colony in 1585, on

Roanoke Island in Virginia, North America.

Key Terms
Indigenous
colony: – the original
A country or areainhabitants of an
under the full or area.
partial political control
of another country and occupied by settlers from that country.
 A New World
Queen Elizabeth chartered Sir Walter Raleigh to create a settlement in North
America. She gave him the right to take a part of the continent, with which he could
do as he pleased in the name of England.

Why would Sir Walter Raleigh want a colony in

North America?

Why would Queen Elizabeth be keen for this to

happen?

How might this affect the Indigenous peoples who

lived in North America?

Work with a partner to complete the two mind maps on your activity sheet by
recording your ideas.
 A New World
Did you come up with some of these ideas?
Sir Walter Raleigh
• Fame.
• Money from goods such as tobacco and potatoes.
• Money from privateering.
• Money from taxes paid by the colonists.

Key Queen
Terms Elizabeth I
privateering:
• WorldPirate activity made legal by having permission from the king or queen.
power.
• Money from trade.
• A way to take power from the Spanish.
• A way to spread Christianity to far places.

Indigenous people:
• Incoming colonists may be violent.
• New diseases from Europeans.
England was at war
• Different with Spain and
technologies at this time; ideas
cultural the Spanish Armada tried to invade England in 1588.
from Europeans.
How might this have influenced the queen?
 Roanoke Island
Sir Walter Raleigh sent an expedition to Virginia before
establishing his colony. English explorers sailed to
Virginia and met Indigenous peoples; the Secotans and the
Croatans. They brought two Croatan men back to England
with them to report to Raleigh about the geography and
peoples of Virginia.

Using this information, Raleigh decided to colonise a place

called Roanoke Island. A small colony was founded in
1585, but this colony was wiped out through fighting with
the Indigenous peoples. By 1587, there was a new colony
of 108 people (mostly men) living on the island in a small
fort.

Use your activity sheet to record how you think these first
English colonists might have regarded the Indigenous peoples
they met in Virginia.
 Virginia Dare
On August 18th 1587, the first English baby was born in the New World. Virginia
Dare was the granddaughter of John White, the leader of the colony. She was a
symbol of a new life and hope for the colonisation of the Americas.

White left his granddaughter and the colony to get help and supplies from England,
promising to return the next year.

Owing to the war with Spain and poor

weather, John White did not make it
back until Virginia Dare’s third birthday.
The grandfather returned to find a
deserted settlement. Nobody knows to
this day what happened to the colonists,
including little Virginia.

A lithograph entitled The Baptism

of Virginia Dare, 1880
 The Lost Colony
In groups, investigate the clues and theories as to what happened to the settlers of the
Roanoke colony.

When you have read and analysed the information, decide as a group what you think
the fate of the lost colony was.

Use your activity sheets to record ideas as you investigate.

 The Lost Colony

As a group, explain
your theory as to
what happened to the
colonists of Roanoke
Island.
 A Total Failure?
The first English colony in the Americas failed entirely. Sir Walter Raleigh never
had his successful colony, and Queen Elizabeth I was not satisfied.

Another colony would be founded soon, in Jamestown, but an entire colony

vanishing is not a great start to starting a new life in a new world!

Before you leave today, note down one thing that England
gained from the mysterious lost colony of Roanoke Island.