A Collapsed Colony

One of the greatest mysteries in American history is the fate of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. In the 16th century the English traveled to America and settled in Roanoke, a coastal island in what is now North Carolina. On August 22, 1587 the leader of the colony set sails for England to get more supplies. No ships could be spared for going back to the New World because the Spanish Armada was going to be meeting the English and the English were preparing for them. Finally, three years later they returned to Roanoke. What they saw was dreadful, there was no one in sight. All the colonists had disappeared!

Roanoke

There are a lot of different ideas on how these people suddenly vanished. But, one of these ideas can be proven, by the trunks of extremely old cypress trees.

I was interested in the “Lost Colony”of Roanoke because I heard a little about it in class but I wanted to know more. I came across a very interesting article about what may have triggered the collapse of this colony. William K. Stevens gives his clear opinion of why Roanoke disappeared in his article Drought May Have Doomed the Lost Colony; he talks about how drought could have been a leading cause of the collapse of Roanoke.

You might be asking, how could anyone in the 21st century know that there was a drought in the 16th century. The answer is found in century old cypress trees. The annual growth rings of trees in southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina (near Roanoke) were analysed. As shown in the photo below if the rings are close together then there was a drought during that time because the tree did not get enough water so the trees growth was hindered.

Annual Growth Rings of a Tree

The analysis of these trees shows that the English arrived in Roanoke during a major drought, in fact, during the worst drought the east coast had had in 800 years. This major drought could have affected the settlers in many ways; the local Indians, the Croatans, could have killed them in a dispute over food. After all both groups would have had a lack of food because there was not enough water for crops to grow successfully. The settlers could also have attempted to travel north to their original destination, the Chesapeake bay, and died on the way or when they got their. They could have collaborated with Croatans and moved south to escape the drought.

As we have recently learned in History class there was also a major drought during the time the English settled in Jamestown. The Jamestown drought is also addressed in the article, Drought May Have Doomed the Lost Colony because the colonists of Jamestown and those in Roanoke were in very similar situations.

Jamestown

In Jamestown there was an extreme lack of water just like in Roanoke and this caused many deaths. There was not enough fresh water so the colonists had to drink dirty river water filled with waste. They also had to resort to awful measures to get food because of the lack of water for crops. The colonists of Jamestown were so deperate they had to eat their own dogs, rats, cats, horses, snakes, there is even some evidence of cannibalism. Jamestown was at the collapsing point. The colonists had actually packed up and were ready to leave when a ship from England came and they were saved.

Jamestown was ready to perish and if that ship from England had never come it would have ended in disaster like Roanoke did. We still don’t know exactly what happened from 1587- 1590 to cause every colonists to vanish but we do know that the worst drought that had hit this area in 800 years could have played a big role in this disaster.

 

 Photos: Image one, Roanoke: http://ncpedia.org/sites/default/files/roanoke.jpg

Image two, annual growth rings on tree: http://www.serc.si.edu/education/resources/watershed/stories/images/rings.jpg

Image three, Jamestown Virginia: http://web.scott.k12.va.us/martha2/images/Jamestown%20Fort.jpg