a history of north carolina

Do you know how Dare County got its name?

Who were the first people to live in Burke County?

Who was Nathaniel Greene?

What was the Trail of Tears?

What NC county’s name means “across the woods”?

Who was James Iredell?

What were the Mecklenburg Resolves?

Why is James K. Polk considered the best one-term POTUS?

Why were Clay and Jackson mortal enemies?

How many NC counties are named for Indian words or tribes?

Is Lincoln County named for Abe Lincoln?Is Lee County named for Robert E. Lee?

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Where is “old” Hanover?

Is Carolina named for a woman, like Virginia?

Who was the notorious pirate from Beaufort County?

The Colony At RoanokeThe Colony At RoanokeThe Colony At RoanokeThe Colony At Roanoke

by Ralph Lane

1586

To the Northwest the farthest place of our discovery was to Chawanook distant from Roanoak about 130 miles. Our passage thither lies through a broad sound, but all fresh water, and the channel of a great depth, navigable for good shipping, but out of the channel full of shoals...

Chawanook itself is the greatest province and Seigniorie lying upon that river, and that the town itself is able to put 700 fighting men into the field, besides the force of the province itself.

The king of the said province is called Menatonon, a man impotent in his limbs, but otherwise for a savage, a very grave and wise man, and of a very singular good discourse in matters concerning the state, not only of his own country, and the disposition of his own men, but also of his neighbors round about him as well far as near, and of the commodities that each country yields.

When I had him prisoner with me, for two days that we were together, he gave me more understanding and light of the country than I had received by all the searches and savages that before I or any of my company had had conference with: Among other things he told me, that going three days' journey in a canoe up his river of Chawanook, and then descending to the land, you are within four days' journey to pass over land Northeast to a

certain king's country, whose province lies upon the Sea, but his place of greatest strength is an island situated, as

The Colony At Roanoke by Ralph Lane 1586 (excerpted)

certain king's country, whose province lies upon the Sea, but his place of greatest strength is an island situated, as he described unto me, in a bay, the water round about the island very deep.

Out of this bay he signified unto me, that this King had so great quantity of pearls, and does so ordinarily take the same, as that not only his own skins that he wears, and the better sort of his gentlemen and followers are full set with the said pearls, but also his beds, and houses are garnished with them, and that he has such quantity of them, that it is a wonder to see...The king of Chawanook promised to give me guides to go overland into that king's country whensoever I would: but he advised me to take good store of men with me, and good store of victual, for he said, that king would be loth to suffer any strangers to enter into his country, and especially to meddle with the fishing for any pearls there, and that he was able to make a great many of men in to the field, which he said would fight very well...

And for that not only Menatonon, but also the savages of Moratoc themselves do report strange things of the head of that river, it is thirty days, as some of them say, and some say forty days' voyage to [a mine].... which has a marvelous and most strange mineral. The mineral they say is Wassador, which is copper. Of this metal the Mangoaks have so great store, by report of all the savages adjoining, that they beautify their houses with great

plates of the same.

Spanish Exploration of the Carolinas

The first European to explore North America was Spaniard Ponce De Leon. In 1513, de Leon led an expedition of the Florida peninsula. The Italian, Giovanni da Verrazano followed for the French in 1524. he sailed up and down the Carolina coast between the Cape Fear River and the Roanoke River before sailing north to what is now New York and New England.

Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón was a Spanish conquistador and explorer who tried to start a colony in North America in 1526. He was the first European colonizer of what is now South Carolina.

De Ayllón's expedition sailed from Hispaniola to South Carolina on two ships; the settlers included African slaves. The colony, called San Miguel de Guadalupe, was disrupted by a fight over leadership. During this turmoil, the slaves revolted and fled the colony to live among the Cofitachiqui Indians. Thereafter, De Ayllón and the other colonists died in a fever epidemic.

In 1539, another Spaniard, Hernando de Soto, led an expedition into the interior of southeastern North America. In winter of 1540, having heard of possible gold mines, the expedition turned north-east through Georgia to the Piedmont of South Columbia. They did not find the gold and so the de Soto led his men north into the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina where he spent one month resting the horses. De Soto then entered Tennessee and Northern Georgia, where he spent another month eating native foods, then turned south toward the Gulf of

Mexico to meet his two ships bearing fresh supplies from Havana.Heading west and south into Alabama, on May 8, 1541, de Soto's troops reached the Mississippi River. It is unclear whether he was the first European to see the great river. However, his expedition is the first to be documented in official reports as seeing the river.

An English Empire

To understand the story of the Lost Colony, we have to step back and fill in some historical details.

Great Britain, in 1588, was the separate nations of England, Scotland and Ireland. It would not be until 1691 that England gained control of Ireland and 1707 that Parliament would unite England and Scotland to create Great Britain.

Under Queen Elizabeth I, the “Virgin Queen,” England enjoyed peace and prosperity as it morphed from a minor backwater island into a dynamic commercial society.

A key reason for her success was that Elizabeth proved to be the only monarch of the 1500s able to handle the religious issue.

To back up a bit, in 1547, King Henry VIII split with the Roman Catholic Church and created the Church of England (Anglican Church). But the early English Reformation had little to do with religion. The Anglican Church was imposed from above and little was changed save that the king became the religious head, instead of the pope. After Henry's death Queen Mary Tudor, “Bloody Mary,” an arch Catholic, reunited England and Rome and burned at the stake several hundred persons who dared to protest. When she involved England in a losing war with France, her reign was in jeopardy. She died in 1558, before she could be overthrown.

Elizabeth and Parliament worked out a compromise to reorganize the Church of England. All citizens were required to attend public worship in the national church, but no one's inner conscience was publicly scrutinized.

This kept things peaceful during her reign, although the compromise would fall apart after her death.

English Economics, Exploration, and the Lost Colony, 1496-1600

Although England was but a negligible world power in the late fifteenth century, it mustered enough

resources to begin its own age of exploration. In 1496, King Henry VII commissioned the Genoese sea captain John Cabot, “to seeke out, discover, and find whatsoever isles, countreys, regions, or provinces of the heathen and infidels whatsover they be” and to look for a shorter sea route to China. Cabot did not find the Northwest Passage, but he did discover the Grand Banks, a fishing region at the edge of the continental shelf of North America and claimed them for England. Cabot was lost at sea on his second voyage. His son, Sebastian, retraced Cabot’s route and reached as far as the entrance into Hudson’s Bay

In the 16th century (1500s), England underwent a significant economic reorganization. As wool prices rose, landowners began fencing land (enclosing the land) to make more room for grazing sheep. Englishmen greatly increased the production of wool, channeling it through the Antwerp Wool Market. Huge profits were made, bringing more people into the market and increasing production even

more. By mid-century England produced more wool than Europe could consume. The price crashed. The collapse of the market led policymakers to search for ways to avoid such economic disaster in the future. The English sought new markets as outlets of wool and cloth. And to get more capital into the economy, individual investors pooled their money in proto-corporations, or joint-stock companies.

The Enclosure Movement forced poor tenants off large estates that had been their home for

The Enclosure Movement

The Enclosure Movement forced poor tenants off large estates that had been their home for centuries. Population posed no problem in England, but the visible presence of vagabonds and unemployed

disturbed many powerful Englishmen.Many believed England was over-populated and looked for some outlet.

Meanwhile, European rivals, Spain and France, had created colonies in the Caribbean and Florida causing further concern in England.

The three elements (markets, surplus population, and international rivalry) created a nexusthat provided the impulse for colonization.

The book suggests ways colonies could benefit England: (1) to extend “the reformed religion”(2) to expand trade(3) to provide England with needed resources and markets(4) to enlarge the Queen’s revenues and navy

English Motives for Colonizing

The key architects of English colonization were two cousins, prominent in the court of Queen Elizabeth:Walter Raleigh and Richard Hakluyt. Raleigh provided the money; Hakluyt, the reasoning.

Hakluyt’s Discourse of Western Planting, (1584) offers the clearest expression of why England should create colonies in the New World. The Oxford clergyman wrote it to convince Queen Elizabeth I to grant permission to colonize America

(4) to enlarge the Queen’s revenues and navy(5) to discover a Northwest Passage to Asia(6) to provide an outlet for the growing English population.

“This westerne discoverie will be greately for the inlargement of the gospell of Christe [and] the refourmed relligion. This will yelde all the commodities of Europe, Affrica, and Asia, as far as wee were wonte to travell, and supply the wantes of all our decayed trades. This will be for manifolde imploymente of nombers of idle men. This will be a great bridle to the Indies of the kinge of Spaine; and [will be] a means that one or twoo hundred saile of his subjectes shippes [may go] at fysshinge in Newfounde lande.” Richard Hakluyt

Elizabeth granted Raleigh a charter to organize a private expedition to North America in 1584.

Raleigh sent Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe to lead a “reconnaissance mission” (a fact-finding trip), which left Plymouth in April 1584. The ships found an inlet through the Outer Banks, sailed into Pamlico Sound, and explored the territory.

They met a friendly welcome from the Indians.

They returned to England, taking with them some

The Amadas-Barlowe Expedition

They returned to England, taking with them some plant samples; and two Indians, Manteo (a Croatoan) and Wanchese (a Roanoke). This was the first time people in England saw American Indians.

Their report to Raleigh so impressed the Queen that she knighted him. He, in turn, named the colony Virginia, after her.

The Ralph Lane Colony

The following year, Raleigh sent a fleet of ships under the command of Ralph Lane and Richard Grenville to establish a colony in “Virginia.” Among the 108 travelers were Manteo and Wanchese.

The fleet landed at the northern end of Roanoke Island in July. In August, Grenville took the fleet back to England, planning to return to the colony with more supplies, and Lane became Governor. It was too late in the year to plant crops; so the colonists relied on fishing and gifts from the Indians for food. As winter approached, food sources became more scarce and the colonists began stealing food from the Indians. Tensions grew. Making matters worse for all, the friendly Roanoke chief died, leaving his sonWingina the new chief. Wingina planned to murder Lane. Friendly Roanoke warned Lane, and Lane’s men led a surprise attack on Wingina’s village. With the Indians defeated, Lane had Wingina beheaded.

Tensions continued to plague the English settlement as spring arrived in 1586. Grenville’s fleet had not yet returned with supplies; so when Francis Drake’s ship unexpectedly arrived in June, the colonists returned to England. Days later, Grenville arrived and when the Indians told him of the colony’s departure, he set sail back to England. He left fifteen volunteers behind to secure the English claim.

The Lane Colony was not a total failure. It introduced tobacco, maize, and the marsh potato to England. The last would become an essential element of the Irish diet, and tobacco would become the crop that saved America.

A second attempt at colonizing the region landed off Hatarask Island in July 1587. Led by Governor John White, its 117 men, women, and children resettled on Roanoke Island. White left the settlers, including his granddaughter, Virginia Dare (the first English child born in the New World), and returned to England for supplies. Before leaving, White carved the letters C.R.O. into a tree and told the men to carve a cross over them as a distress signal should they run into trouble before he returned. He did not return for three years because of the conflict with Spain and the Spanish Armada.

Roanoke, The Lost Colony

When White reached the place of the settlement in 1590, no one was there. He looked for a cross on the tree, but found none. He found only the word Croatoan carved into a post. Taking it to mean that the mission had moved to Croatoan Island, he sailed south in search of the settlers. He found no

English settlement on Croatoan.

War with Philip II of Spain during the 1590s kept England from making another stab at colonizing the New World until the early 1600s. until the early 1600s.

No trace of the Lost Colony of Roanoke has ever been found.