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Searching for Virginia Dare Paperback – May 22, 2007

by Marjorie Hudson (Author)

7 customer reviews

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In 1587 America's first English child was born in a remote island wilderness. They named her Virginia Dare. Soon after her birth, Virginia and more than a hundred men, women, and children disappeared, leaving a cryptic message carved on a tree. What became of that infant girl and her people, now known as the Lost Colony? In search of an answer, Marjorie Hudson wanders the back roads of North Carolina and Virginia in an aging Dodge Caravan with a satchel of research notes and a head full of memory and imagining. Amazed by abandoned farmhouses wrapped in kudzu, the Great Dismal Swamp "dripping with spotted snakes," the bones of the Jamestown colony, and the living nation of the Lumbee, Hudson discovers an epic story more complex and more deeply moving than she ever imagined. Weaving research and interview, memory and imagination, Hudson's tale is a spellbinding journey, an invitation to deep mysteries that lurk in the history of America and in ourselves.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"As fascinating as a detective story . . . . An absorbing, intelligent consideration of national and personal identity, beautifully written." -- Lee Smith, author of The Last Girls

"Hudson ultimately argues that the mystery and loss surrounding Virginia Dare represent a quintessential American story.'" -- Publisher's Weekly

"[Hudson] set off on the cold trail like a determined bloodhound . . . and stirred up the ghosts of our first settlers." -- Durham Herald-Sun

"{Hudson} challenges us to plumb our own dark interiors and seek out new shores of self." -- Sheri Holman, author of The Dress Lodger and A Stolen Tongue

Marjorie Hudson has fashioned an intertwined tale of obsession, loss, and hope--in part truth, myth, and fiction." -- Clyde Edgerton, author of Where Trouble Sleeps and Raney

Paperback: 184 pages
Publisher: Press 53 (May 22, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0979304962
ISBN-13: 978-0979304965
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.4 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
Average Customer Review: 7 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,306,185 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2329 in Books > History > World > Expeditions & Discoveries
- #3416 in Books > History > Americas > United States > Colonial Period
- #22115 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > United States

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J. Keith Jones

Enjoyable journey of self discovery

January 2, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

In this book, Marjorie Hudson, traces her quest across North Carolina to discover for herself what may have become of the nearly mythical first born of America. But Virginia Dare was not a myth, she was a real person. One who likely had a very short life... or did she? Many theories abound about what became of the "Lost Colony." Were they slaughtered by the local Indians? Did they move inland to healthier areas that were less disease prone and better suited to raising food crops? If so, did they survive this move and if so, what became of them? These are all questions that Hudson explores in this book.

If you are looking for a dry, "hard hitting" history to help you fall asleep at night this is not it. You see, this is as much a story of a modern woman's journey of self discovery as it is of her scholarly and journalistic findings. This is a very well written and enjoyable book and from the first chapter, I knew I was in for something good. I wasn't disappointed.

Keith Jones
Reviewer
Author of In Due Time

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Karen

NOT WHAT I EXPECTED

November 4, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Both my husband and I read this book after we came back from the outer banks. We saw the lost colony play
while we were there. This book has some good facts about what happened to Virginia Dare , but not many, and
I got tired of reading about the author's life and comments. It is not a hard read, and it took us a very long
time to finish, just because it wasn't captivating or very good in our opinion. My husband, especially was
annoyed by her comments and talk about her driving around NC. I think it was more about her, than Virginia.

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Joseph M. Logan

Four Stars

July 18, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Good book and the missing families.

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Laurel Johnson

Intriguing and compelling

August 19, 2009

Format: Paperback

I've often wished it possible to see America before urban sprawl, mechanization, smog, technology and other taints of modern life took over the wild places. In this book, Marjorie Hudson granted that wish. Through an engrossing mix of fact, fiction, and imagination, she took me on a journey through the centuries to that moment when Britain first colonized our eastern shores. Long before the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies existed, there was Roanoke.

In 1587, Spain dominated the New World and Britain hoped to claim America by establishing settlements along our eastern coastline. In those days, the east coast of America was like a frightening Eden. The settlers at Roanoke found deep, dark, fragrant forests overgrown with unfamiliar plants, savage storms, blistering heat in summer, swarms of mosquitoes, bone chilling winters, dangerous predators and strangely dressed native tribes whose intents were uncertain. It was during that first summer, August 18,1587, that the first British child was born on American soil. Virginia Dare was that baby, granddaughter of the first American Governor, John White. White's illustrations, maps and written journals - the ones that survived at least - documented pre-colonial America and the Native tribes that thrived along the coast. The Roanoke, Hattorask, Chesepiuk, Chowanok, and Croatoan tribes fascinated White.

White leaves his daughter and granddaughter behind and returns to England for supplies. When he returns months later, every settler in the Roanoke colony has disappeared without a trace. No bodies, no evidence of foul play, only empty spaces where settlers once lived. His only clue is the word "Croatoan" carved into a tree. White searched for Eleanor and Virginia Dare for years but found no trace of them. Where did they go? Were they taken as slaves by Native tribes? Did friendly Natives take them to safety in some distant place? Or did the settlers strike out on their own for places unknown?

Marjorie Hudson begins her search for Virginia Dare at Roanoke and works her way outward. Her discoveries along the way are compelling. Her imagination colors the empty spaces, combines the real, the fanciful, personal, past and present. We don't find Virginia Dare, but we discover gray and blue eyed Native Americans whose language has always been English back as far as anyone can remember. And many of the English words they speak today are Elizabethan in origin.

This book was intriguing and beautifully written. If you love American history and enjoy good writing, The Search for Virginia Dare is well worth the read.

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Cat Bird

From [...]

October 19, 2009

Format: Paperback

In the year and half since we relocated to Atlanta, I have not felt displaced. This city suits me. Like me, Atlanta has no idea what it wants to be or where it wants to go. It meanders around in circles, and eventually I get where I need to be. I think I might have found my town.

At least I thought so, until I read SEARCHING FOR VIRGINIA DARE. Now I find myself downright homesick. My second grader is studying the great state of Georgia, and I have an overwhelming desire to take her to the Outer Banks, show her the Elizabethan Gardens, Tryon Palace, Old Salem. The other day she asked me what Krispy Kreme was! What have I done!?

Perhaps more disturbing is my discovery that she will not learn a thing about Virginia Dare. Virginia Dare does not belong just to North Carolina. She was the first English child born in America, though she was lost to history just a few days after her birth in 1587 when her grandfather, the expedition's governor, left his destitute colonists and family behind to return to England for supplies. Three years later he returned to ransacked, abandoned huts and a cryptic message carved on a tree that still remains a mystery.

Marjorie Hudson chronicles history's attempt to solve the mystery of our first colonists, from Depression era plays, a French sculptress's obsession,an epic poem, and modern archaeological digs to her own quest through the Great Dismal Swamp and into the overlooked world of the Lumbee Tribe. There are libraries devoted to the Lost Colony, but what sets Hudson's effort apart is her connection to the child, Virgina Dare. Hudson opens her heart to the reader, immersing herself in this story as old as our nation. It is difficult not to get swept away with her compassion. She relates her own trials, her own family history, her own maternal desires and brings us closer to those who sacrificed everything to become legend and to the daughter that vanished with them.

Hudson's conclusion is optimistic, but logical. In the same spin it is ironic in that it ties the first Americans to the most displaced Native American tribe, the Lumbees. SEARCHING FOR VIRGINIA DARE lands in your own backyard, where you least expect.

North Carolina is studied by every 4th grade student in the Old North State. My 4th grade teacher was fanatical. We memorized every date, every symbol. We jogged the miles from Murphey to Manteo on the schoolyard track. My education of the Lost Colony, however, cast Virginia Dare as a mere infant, important in statistics only as the first English child. Marjorie Hudson has made Virginia so much more to me. She is our first missing child.

Read more of my reviews of Press 53 titles at [...]

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