Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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

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.

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.

Touching and engaging account of the first attempts of Englishmen to settle North America. Does a good job of putting the events and explorations in their historical context.

I hadn't realized that the Spanish Armada's sailing to conquer England was a contemporary event. This took Sir Walter Raleigh's eye off the ball and doomed the small colony on Roanoke Island.

James Horn's writing places you at the scene and carries you through the hopes and fears of the Colonists. Poor souls, so ignorant of their surroundings and local Native American Tribes and politics. They appear deaf, blind and with one hand tied behind their backs.

It is a good book to read in the comfort of our modern life. You need the reassurance.

Book is OK read, a little heavy on the English politics, but overall easy to follow. Problem is that there is a HUGE literature on what came after the settlers were found missing. Yes, the author does go into some theorizing about what might have happened to the "lost ones," but there was so much more to tell about 19th and 20th century efforts to prove theories, some great hoaxes about stones, etc. Why this was not included is not stated, but it flaws an otherwise worthwhile read.

Colonizing a new land, whether on another planet or even just across an ocean, can be perilous work--obstacles are often insurmountable and constant danger close. We also dream of colonizing other planets in our fiction, but we actually just have to look to our past to witness how difficult this task truly was. Indeed, lest we get too complacent about the luxuries and comfort we all take for granted today, it is sometimes useful to remind ourselves of the sacrifices made by those in the past who struggled to establish footholds in foreign lands, and of the inhabitants of those lands who tried to defend themselves against exploitation.

One such reminder is A Kingdom Strange: A Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke by James Horn, a history of the effort in 1587 to establish the first English colony in America. Horn, Vice President of Research and Historical Interpretation at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and author of, among other U.S. history books, A Land as God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America, delivers a solid narrative in A Kingdom Strange of the main social, political, military, and economic issues surrounding England's effort to colonize America. It is a history most likely only vaguely familiar to most Americans. To fulfill Sir Walter Raleigh's plan for establishing the first English colony in America, in April 1587 118 men, women, children set sail from England on a long, risky voyage to the New World. Their target was the Chesapeake Bay area of Virginia, but the captain of the ship dropped them on Roanoke Island, part of the barrier islands just off the coast of modern day North Carolina, and refused to take them further. Back then that island was part of Virginia, named after England's Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen.

These were heady times, full of dreams of discovering in the New World gold and silver deposits, bountiful resources, and routes to the Pacific ocean. And these were also times of sharp conflict and danger: religous wars, fighting within and between American Indian tribes and European countries, unforgiving epidemics, starvation, and pirates, and even nature itself. The plucky volunteers who made up the Roanoke Colony risked everything for a chance to start a new life in a land of mystery and promise. But with supplies running low and attacks by Indians increasing, governor John White sailed back to England for supplies and reinforcements. Due to difficulties in raising sufficient funds and the diversion caused by a war between England and Spain, White was delayed three years in returning to the colony. By the time he returned, the colony was deserted, the fate of the colonists unknown.

Horn's narrative blends historical fact with historical fiction, since there are many details of the events surrounding the Roanoke Colony that are simply unknown. He makes his best guesses about what might have happened though based on his immersion with the historical sources. Horn also crafts his history by focusing on specific people in the saga, mostly on the activities of John White, explorer, writer, and soldier Sir Walter Raleigh, and, briefly, the founder and leader of Jamestown, Captain John Smith. This character-based narration helps keep the reader invested in the reconstructed storyline.

While there are many interesting facts and details that Horn presents in the book, there are a few key takeaways that really make this book a worthwhile read. First, Horn does a good job painting the tempestuous socio-ethno-political soup that was late 16th century Europe and America, a time rippling with uncertainties and dangers. Second, contrary to some modern pastoral depictions of American Indians, Horn shows how early Virginia contained many Indian tribes who, like early Europe, were often in viscious conflict with each other as much as they were with European explorers. Third, by detailing the "unfortunate luck" of White in returning to the Roanoke Colony with help, the utter difficulty of the effort needed to successfully fund and outfit a ship, sail it across hostile waters to unknown lands, rampant with many opportunities for death by disease, starvation, and murder, is vividly captured here.

Surely John White, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Captain John Smith could not have envisioned the growth and progress made in America since their time, but in A Kingdom Strange we are well reminded about their tragic experiences and herculean struggles in trying to establish a foothold in America. There are still mysteries surrounding those events, but Horn paints a vivid and compelling picture of what did and what might have happened to those early colonists.

Great Synopsis of the latest research on Roanaoke, along with some feebly supported best guesses on what played out in the years after 1587. "feebly supported" is the best we can hope for, given the timespan, dearth of sources, and lack of evidence pointing to one inescapable conclusion. I really wish I knew what happened to them, and Horn gives you more than anyone has dared, as far as I'm aware. Buy now. You'll read it in two days. I dare you to put it down!

I have mixed feelings about this book. As indicated in the subtitle, the main theme is the first English colony in America, including the hardships and problems that the colonists faced. But, as it turns out, these details form a small part of the overall story presented here. Much space is devoted to the religious and political situation in Europe, particularly the conflict between England and Spain. There is also much on the preamble to the colonization, the various personages that were involved to varying degrees, the evolving mindsets in England during the attempted colonization and, of course, the aftermath. Although the European history presented is generally quite interesting, some information seems like a bit of a digression from the main topic. The parts where the actual colonization is discussed, the interactions with local natives, the search for the lost colonists and the theories on what could have happened to them make for very captivating reading and do make up, at least in part, for some of the other issues that seem rather dull in comparison.

The prose is clear, friendly, authoritative, accessible, sporadically lively but, as pointed out, occasionally a bit monotonous - especially for a reader expecting much more on the colonists themselves. The book should attract those seriously interested in the many issues that played various roles in the early European colonization of North America.

I personally found this book exciting and informative. it was well written and the historical content was on key.

This is a readable book, with interesting background about the founding and demise of Roanoke by the English. There is good detail about the context in which the events occurred and a plausible theory, summarized in the final chapters. Unfortunately, there is not much that is new. The conclusions reached by this author can pretty much be found in the 1983 work Roanoke Island by David Stick. This book being reviewed is nicely packaged and reads quickly, but does not add much to our historical knowledge.