Friday, August 26, 2016

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

England’s expeditions to the New World between 1584 and 1590, including the Lost Colony.
In 1584, explorers Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe were the first known Europeans to set eyes on the island. They had been sent to the area by Sir Walter Raleigh with the mission of scouting the broad sounds and estuaries in search of an ideal location for settlement. Barlowe wrote glowing reports of Roanoke Island, and when the explorers returned to England a year later with two Natives, Manteo and Wanchese, all of London was abuzz with talk of the New World’s wonders.
Queen Elizabeth, impressed with the results of the reconnaissance voyage, knighted Raleigh as a reward. The new land was named “Virginia” in honor of the Virgin Queen, and the next year, Raleigh sent a party of 100 soldiers, miners and scientists to Roanoke Island.
Under the direction of Ralph Lane, the garrison was doomed from the beginning. They arrived too late in the season for planting, and supplies were dwindling rapidly. To make matters worse, Lane, a military captain, alienated the neighboring Roanoke Indians, and ultimately sealed the fate of English colonization on Roanoke Island by murdering their chief, Wingina.
By 1586, when Sir Francis Drake stopped at Roanoke after a plundering expedition, Lane and his men had enough. They abandoned the settlement and left behind a fort, the remains of which have never been located. Ironically, two supply ships from England arrived at Roanoke less than a week later. Finding the island deserted, the leader of the second ship left behind about 15 of his men to hold the fort and returned to England.
Raleigh was angry with Lane but not deterred from his mission. He recruited 117 men, women and children for a more permanent settlement, and appointed John White governor of the new “Cittie of Raleigh”. Among the colonists were White’s pregnant daughter, Eleanor Dare, his son-in-law Ananias Dare, and the Indian chief Manteo, who had become an ally during his stay in Britain.
Raleigh had since decided that the Chesapeake Bay area was a better site for settlement, and he hired Simon Fernandes, a Portuguese pilot familiar with the area, to transport the colonists there. Fernandes, however, was by trade a privateer in the escalating war between Spain and England. By the time the caravan arrived at Roanoke Island in July, 1587, to check on the 15 men left behind a year earlier, he had grown impatient with White and anxious to resume the hunt for Spanish shipping. He ordered the colonists ashore on Roanoke Island.
Raleigh decided that the Chesapeake Bay area was a better site for settlement.
The colonists soon learned that Indians had murdered the 15 men and were uneasy at the prospect of remaining on Roanoke Island. But Fernandes left them no choice. They unloaded their belongings and supplies and repaired Lane’s fort. On August 18, 1587, Eleanor Dare gave birth to a daughter she named Virginia, thus earning the distinction of being the first English child born on American soil. Ten days later, Ferndades departed for England, taking along an anxious John White, who hesitantly decided to return to England for supplies. It was the last time he would ever see his family.
Upon his arrival in Britain, White found himself trapped by the impending invasion of the Spanish Armada. Finally, two years after the stunning defeat of the Armada, he again departed for Roanoke Island. He arrived on August 18, 1590–his granddaughter’s third birthday–and found the Cittie of Raleigh deserted, plundered, and surrounded “with a high pallisado of great trees, with cortynes and flankers, very fort-like”. On one of the palisades, he found the single word “CROATOAN” carved into the surface, and the letters “CRO” carved into a nearby tree.
White knew the carvings were “to signifie the place, where I should find the planters seated, according to a secret token agreed upon betweene them and me at my last departure from them…for at my coming away, they were prepared to remove 50 miles into the maine”. He had also instructed the colonists that, should they be forced to leave the island under duress, they should carve a Maltese cross above their destination. White found no such sign, and he had every hope that he would locate the colony and his family at Croatoan, the home of Chief Manteo’s people south of Roanoke on present-day Hatteras Island.
Before he could make further exploration, however, a great hurricane arose, damaging his ships and forcing him back to England. Despite repeated attempts, he was never able to raise the funding and resources to make the trip to America again. Raleigh had given up hope of settlement, and White died many years later on one of Raleigh’s estates, ignorant to the fate of his family and the colony.

The 117 pioneers of Roanoke Island had vanished into the great wilderness.



Lost Colony of Roanoke Theories

Scenario 1: Taken Hostage Or Killed By The Spanish
Saint Augustine was a colony Spain had in the New World. This colony is located on the eastern coast of what is now known as the state of Florida, USA. Spanish soldiers who were living there in 1588 heard reports that England had established a new colony in the New World. The English were at war with Spain and if the location of their settlement got out, the Spanish would find and kill the colonists. The Spanish had already killed off a French attempt to settle down in Florida back in 1562, killing over 130 men. Spain knew that this English colony was located north somewhere near Chesapeake Bay. The Spanish sent their ships up the coast to destroy the English colonists. The English colonists were
seen by the Spanish ships as they sailed their small boats south from Roanoke Island to live with the Croatoan Indians on Croatoan Island. The Spanish ships attacked the English colonists and took them hostage. They may have killed them. This is the reason why English settler's boats were missing when John White returned in 1590 to Roanoke.

1.) If Spain did in fact kidnap or kill the colonists, they would have had to travel 540 miles. If they could travel 70 miles a day, how long would it have taken them to arrive at Roanoke Island?
2.) What about if they could travel 100 miles a day?
3.) Why would Spain have done this? (Read carefully above)
4.) Think of the journey the Spanish would have taken. What challenges would they have faced?
5.) How likely is it that this scenario happened? Explain your answer.


Scenario 2: Starvation / Lost at Sea
Others speculate that the colonists simply gave up waiting, tried to return to England on their own, and perished in the attempt. When Governor White left in 1587, he left the colonists with a pinnace (a small boat) for exploration of the coast or removal of the colony to the mainland. Another claim suggests that, with the region in drought (a period of very low rainfall), the colony must have suffered a massive food shortage. The researchers concluded that the settlers of the Lost Colony landed at Roanoke Island in the summer of the worst growing-season drought in 800 years. "This drought persisted for 3 years, from 1587 to 1589, and is the driest 3-year episode in the entire 800-year reconstruction," the team reported in the journal Science. A map shows that "the Lost Colony drought affected the entire southeastern United States but was particularly severe in the Tidewater region near Roanoke [Island]." The authors suggested that the Croatan who were shot and killed by the colonists may have been scavenging the abandoned village for food as a result of the drought.

1.) Look at the map. What other locations is Roanoke Island close to? What is Croatoan Island located close to?
2.) Use the scale to determine distance. How far would the colonists had to travel IF they chose to travel to
Croatoan Island?
3.) Is it possible they would have gotten lost in their journey? Why or Why not?
4.) What other problems might they have run into on this journey?

Scenario 3: Native Americans Killed Colonists
Before the second attempt to set up a colony, the English set up an expedition led by Ralph Lane to establish a colony in North America. Things went well until Sir Ralph Lane, the colony commander, angered the Indians with his harsh policies (captured Indians for ransom and planned attacks on tribes to get more land). The natives fought back, killing one of the settlers. The rest of the colonists were forced to leave the colony, but the natives would not forget. Several explorers who helped set up the Ralph Lane colony returned to check on their progress. Because of the tense relationship with
the natives, the colonists had left, so when the explorers arrived, they did not find anyone. However, what they did find was interesting. They found remnants of one dead body, killed by tomahawk and scalp wounds. The body was found in several pieces, in several different places, giving the thought that the natives tried to hide the remains. From this past event, we know that the Natives were capable of such horrific acts. We also know they were capable of hiding the bodies. After what the residents of the Ralph Lane colony did to the natives, it is easy to believe they would seek revenge. When the leader of the Lost Colony, John White, returned to England for more supplies, is it possible the natives would attack the second group of colonists? Remember: when he returned several years later, all houses and forts had disappeared. That would be more than enough time for the natives to tear everything and down and hide all the evidence.
Questions

  1.         How likely is this scenario?
  2.       What evidence is given to support your theory in question #1
Scenario #4 - The whole population of Roanoke Island was killed by a disease.  
 It is true that the English had brought over some diseases. However, note, there were no bodies found and the houses had disappeared. The only body that was ever found was shortly after the Ralph Lane colony left for England. No bodies were ever recovered from the Lost Colony expedition. While most diseases were brought from the Old World to the New World, there were several diseases that future colonists would die from, including dysentery, cholera, and “BurningFever.”


1.        On a scale from 1 (least likely) to 10 (most likely), how likely
do you think the “disease theory” is? Explain

     Scenario #5 - The village was destroyed by a severe storm such as a hurricane.
     Another possible theory is the one that perhaps a hurricane destroyed the Lost Colony. A hurricane could have washed away the colonists and it could have been powerful enough to destroy all of the houses and forts, true. However, there is a huge problem with this theory. See if you can find why this theory is very unlikely. Search back through your files and see if you can solve this.

1.        On a scale from 1 (least likely) to 10 (most likely), how likely
do you think the “disease theory” is? Explain



Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Body Ritual Among the Nacirema


1. What is the basic focus of Nacirema society? Do you agree with these beliefs? Why?
2.  Describe the Nacirema shrine. Do we have anything like this in our culture? Explain
your answer.
3.  Describe the job of the holy mouth man. Why do you think the Naciremas visit him?
4.  What are your general feelings about the Nacirema civilization? Would you like to live
in this society? Explain your answer.