A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke [Hardcover]

James Horn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2010

In 1587, John White and 117 men, women, and children landed off the coast of North Carolina on Roanoke Island, hoping to carve a colony from fearsome wilderness. A mere month later, facing quickly diminishing supplies and a fierce native population, White sailed back to England in desperation. He persuaded the wealthy Sir Walter Raleigh, the expedition’s sponsor, to rescue the imperiled colonists, but by the time White returned with aid the colonists of Roanoke were nowhere to be found. He never saw his friends or family again.

In this gripping account based on new archival material, colonial historian James Horn tells for the first time the complete story of what happened to the Roanoke colonists and their descendants. A compellingly original examination of one of the great unsolved mysteries of American history, A Kingdom Strange will be essential reading for anyone interested in our national origins.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. A leading historian of early Virginia, Horn (A Land as God Made It) relates the convoluted, fascinating story of the failed 1598 venture on Roanoke Island: a British settlement whose 100 men, women, and children disappeared without a trace. Horn teases from the record as no one before the Lost Colony of 1587, which had not even been intended to settle on the island. Horn recounts its travails, hostilities with the Indians, requests to England for support that failed to arrive for three years, by which time the settlers were gone. Based on the available evidence, Horn finds that the colonists did not die but intermarried with local Indians. Over a century later, a North Carolina settler, venturing to Roanoke Island, found Indians who claimed Englishmen among their ancestors (and some gray-eyed tribesmen seemed to support the claim). He places it all in the context of the political and economic tumult of the time for an outstanding historical mystery/adventure tale with an ending perhaps less tragic than historians have long believed. Illus. (Apr.)
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Review

Kirkus Reviews
“[Horn] creates an engaging, you-are-there feel to the narrative, with rich descriptions of European politics, colonists’ daily struggles and the vagaries of relations between Native American tribes…. A satisfying recounting of some of the earliest American history.”

Daniel B. Smith, co-author of The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America
“With impressive research and nuanced understanding of early Virginia, James Horn has crafted a vivid and lucid account of the mysterious history of the lost colony of Roanoke. A Kingdom Strange delivers the definitive treatment of a fascinating story from England's earliest explorations in the New World—a story long on speculation and intrigue, but until now, short on evidence and historical truth.”

Peter C. Mancall, author of The Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson
“With deep research and precise prose, James Horn has come closer to finding the “lost” English colonists of Roanoke than any previous historian. A Kingdom Strange, a superb reconstruction of grand dreams and dashed hopes, overflows with new insights about the very real human consequences of the encounter between Europeans and Native Americans.”

Washington Post
“The fate of the Lost Colony is a mystery at the heart of the nation’s founding, chock full of odd characters, conspiracy theories, strange turns of events – even enigmatic carvings left behind on trees. James Horn resists the temptation to sensationalize any of that in his new book, A Kingdom Strange. Instead [he] has written a lucid and readable account of the Roanoke colony and the forces that created it. He makes a persuasive case for what must have happened to the settlers.”

Christian Science Monitor
“Horn has done a magnificent job of researching the mystery of England’s ‘lost’ colony, crafting a compelling narrative that places the luckless settlers in the middle of a global, imperial struggle between Spain and England.… Horn’s winning account is a gripping adventure story about global ambition, individual hardship, and an unsolved historical mystery.”

Richmond Times Dispatch
“[A] fascinating new book…. Horn’s theory is well researched and compelling, but A Kingdom Strange isn’t a narrowly focused work aimed solely at specialists. He has done yeoman’s work describing the political and economic reasons for creating an English colony in the New World, as well as exploring the Indian communities into which the colonists stepped…. Forget toting James Patterson’s thrillers to the Outer Banks this summer. Pack a copy of A Kingdom Strange instead. It’s far more enthralling than what passes for standard beach-reading material.”

Roanoke Times
“Horn’s skill as a historian is amplified by his ability to craft a story…. By the time you finish the prologue, you will not want to stop reading, and as you read, you will discover some of the cultural roots that gave birth to a quirky nation. You will also become aware of the challenges of expanding an economy on a global scale without the support of satellite communication and instant messaging.”

Associated Press
“Exhaustively researched, Horn’s book sheds new light on the colony’s purpose and the social backgrounds of the settlers and offers a new theory or two about where they went…. [I]t’s worth getting lost in.”

The Weekly Standard
“The strength of [Horn’s] approach to his subject lies in his mastery of sources. He shuns the layers of secondary works that, after four centuries, have piled up rumors and half-truths on top of one another. Instead, he prizes only documents written close to the events he relates. Even without the embellishments of popular writers, this is still a story of overweening ambition, heartbreak, greed, and repeated failure that only much later, and in ways unimagined by the original advocates, stamped Britain’s culture and power on North America.”

Chicago Sun-Times

“Horn’s book can be approached in one of two primary ways: As a saga of the indomitable human will attempting to conquer sometimes balky nature, or as a saga of poorly prepared dreamers about to place themselves in the path of death…. For already existing enthusiasts of colonial history, Horn’s research is quite likely to fascinate. For readers who have never [paid] close attention to colonial history, Horn’s narrative might result in converts.”

Seattle Times

“Horn’s version of the Roanoke story draws heavily from previous historians. But he’s also done his own digging in English church records and other archival material, and some of his conclusions differ from the standard account…. [A] fast-paced tale of greed, adventure and tragedy that distills pretty much all that is known and most of what is surmised about the Lost Colony.”

Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
“To follow up his masterful exploration of England’s first successful New World colony, A Land as God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America, James Horn offers a nuanced, lively narrative of England’s earlier failure at Roanoke. The available evidence is sparse and subjective – created by Englishmen with a particular audience and agenda in mind . . . It is a credit to Horn’s skill as a writer and his capacious understanding of English America that he produced from this evidence a confident, character-driven, compelling story . . . Horn does not close the case on Roanoke. But he has found the lost colonists in an even more important way: they and their Indian neighbors come to life in this splendid book.”

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 16 and up
  
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1St Edition edition (March 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465004857
• ISBN-13: 978-0465004850
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #345,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Horn was born in Kent, England, and grew up on the outskirts of London. He taught for 20 years in British universities before moving with his family to the US in 1997. He has worked at the College of William and Mary, Monticello, and is now Vice President of Research and Historical Interpretation at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. He is the author most recently of A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America; Captain John Smith, Writings; and A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. He lives in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A well written, rather derivative, history of an early American mystery, May 2, 2010

By 

Robert C. Ross (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke (Hardcover)

Roanoke Island is a popular tourist attraction in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, eight miles filled with beaches, shops, and tourist attractions. One of the most popular is the Lost Colony, with a replica of a fort built by the first British settlers and a well done symphonic drama about the colony. (This drama is said to be the longest running outdoor theater production in the United States.)

If you decide to visit, it's worth reading one of the many books written about the 120 men, women and children who tried to establish a settlement here. The effort was led by Sir Walter Raleigh who attempted to establish a permanent English settlement in 1585 and 1587.

The story is intriguing: colonists who endured one disaster after another; Native American tribes battling each other; piracy and the Spanish Armada; governor John White's frantic efforts to return to Roanoke from England -- the Spanish Armada prevented him from doing so; and, the great mystery itself, the abandoned settlement itself, a few fortification and two clues: the letters "CRO" and "CROATOAN" carved on a tree and gatepost.

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.

James Horn has written a serviceable history, concluding that the colonists' fate has been surmised ever since John Smith of Jamestown began looking for them in the early 1600s. After White's resupply mission, the colonists left the island to live with friendly tribes. Horn argues that they lived with the tribes until they were killed by the Powhatans. A handful may have inter-married with Native Americans, and their English roots were forgotten in later generations.

Horn's book adds little to the three previous histories I've read; in fact he gives full credit to earlier historis. But he did some original research in English church records and other archives. He suggests that many of the colonists may have been Puritans, like those who would come to Plymouth three decades later. Horn does reject the idea that the colonists went to their original objective on the Chesapeake Bay, but makes a good case that they went inland.

Of course, apart from the two written clues, much of the story is conjectural, and the last few chapters read like historical fiction. You may enjoy visiting The Lost Colony Center for Science and Research, which is devoted to studying the colony and Native Americans in the area. The following list of its high quality research papers gives you idea of the scope of their work:

The Roanoke Sagas
Disappearing Indians
Migration of Croatan / Hatteras / Mattamuskeet Indians
Cultural Anthropology
Trade Items
Location of Roanoke Fort
Search in Beechland
Role for Sassafras in the Search for the Lost Colony
Published Works

Another interesting project is Searching for the Lost Colony DNA blog, which promises to solve the mystery scientifically and definitively.

The Roanoke Island visitor's center suggests a number of other books on the colony, which include:

Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony by Lee Miller.

Roanoke: The Lost Colony--An Unsolved Mystery from History by Jane Yolen and others.

Roanoke Island: The Beginnings of English America by David Stick.

The Carving on the Tree a True Account of America's First Mystery: The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island.

I enjoyed reading Horn's history and am sure it will be added to this list of popular sources of information; it reminded me of a visit to the island several years ago, and the haunting mystery of what really did happen to the colonists.

Robert C. Ross 2010

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gripping Read, April 24, 2010

By 

Sarah Mellon - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke (Hardcover)

I am not a history buff but I read James Horn's "A Land As God Made It" so decided to read "A Kingdom Strange." I could not put this book down. it is a gripping story with high drama and pathos. I learned a great deal about the background of some of the individual settlers and was particularly interested to find out that Horn thought some of them might have been Puritans who left England to escape persecution. The wonderful descriptions of London added to the picture of who the colonists were and what their lives were like before their great adventure began. Horn gives a real sense of how hard it was to leave all that they knew, including close family members, behind. He also portrays well how much John White suffered as a result of being unable to locate the colonists on his return to Roanoke.
I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone interested in the early history of America. It is exciting, full of adventure and beautifully crafted.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Roanoke Mystery in Historic Context, July 20, 2010

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke (Hardcover)

The Lost Colony of Roanoke was a failed initial effort of England to colonize America. It may have been a failure, but it continues to fascinate people; there is a famous outdoor stage production with music that attempts to dramatize the settlement at its site, and a reconstructed fort. The fascination isn't so much because of historic significance, but because the 117 settlers vanished without a trace. That is, almost without a trace. In _A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke_ (Basic Books), historian James Horn finds all the traces we can ever expect to turn up, and speculates on answers as close as we are going to get. That ought to make it an attractive volume for anyone who has heard of the colony's mysterious disappearance. The larger attraction of the book, however, is to put the colony into historic context. The colony was an attempted blow by Britain against Spain, and what's more, it became lost at least partially because of the larger war between Britain and Spain. The hapless colonists, who if things had gone differently would have been celebrated as the Jamestown settlers are now, were instead the victims of a global war.

Spain had conquered a region of the New World that had gold for the taking, and the new riches had caused a shift in the balance of power within Europe. In 1583, Walter Ralegh assumed the role of promoting colonies in America, which he told Queen Elizabeth was the best way of undermining Spain's power, not only by means of being competitive colonizers but also by providing a base from which British privateers might harass Spanish ships. He wanted to go to America himself, but he knew Elizabeth would not let her favorite take such a risk. He gathered around him scholars, mariners, and merchants who would go on his missions. One of his selections was particularly important, that of John White, who had made an Atlantic voyage before and rendered maps and portraits of the people that were found there. White and the other colonists got to Roanoke in 1587, and almost immediately found themselves in trouble with the Indians and in danger of starvation. They petitioned their leader White to return to England and urge Ralegh to send supplies and military reinforcement. The colonists felt that White was the most likely person to influence Ralegh; he reluctantly returned in late 1587, leaving behind his daughter and her baby, Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World. The timing for White's campaign could not have been worse. England was obsessed with preparing for war with Spain, and indeed, the Spanish Armada was being readied with the aim of defeating England for good. It was not until 1590 that White was able to arrange a return to Roanoke, and then because of a series of misadventures, it was he alone returning, with no supplies or reinforcements. He found that the Roanoke settlement had been abandoned. It seemed to have been a planned move; the settlers' boats were gone, and it seemed that only after the settlers had left did the Secotans ransack the site. The word "Croatoan," which was the name of a friendly tribe and also of a nearby island, was carved on a gatepost, a pre-arranged way the settlers could have told where they were headed, and they had not included a code that would have indicated that they were under attack. If he were returning with reinforcements, White certainly would have headed to hunt for the settlers using these clues; but he was essentially operating independently, and the crew of the ship that brought him had no interest in following up the mystery. When bad weather came up, they returned to England.

And there is where the mystery has always stood. We don't have diaries or first hand reports about any of the members of the colony. There have been various explanations, all of which Horn considers in the final pages of his book. Maybe the soldiers of Philip II moved in to kill the settlers. Perhaps they simply moved away and starved. The most likely outcome, Horn says, is that the colonists moved inland in expectation of White's imminent return. When that didn't happen, they probably simply joined Indian communities and lived with them for decades. There may well have been a disastrous end for them once the Indian tribes suspected that they might be serving the newly arrived soldiers in Jamestown. Suffice it to say that Horn does not clear up the mystery once and for all; a mystery it will remain, and this important episode in the steps toward colonization is all the more interesting for it. This is a fast moving account, agreeably focused on the personalities of Ralegh and White. Ralegh is well known, of course, but the heartbreaking fate of the thoughtful and sad White, who had to abandon his family at Roanoke and then was not able to return to rescue them, bears much contemplation. He did all that his duty compelled him to do, but could not overcome the forces of nationalism or human nature to find his colony and family again. After he returned to England, he was never able to resume any search. "I would to God my wealth was answerable to my will," he wrote.