The Secret Token

1. The Roanoke Mystery: A National Origin Myth

Our lurid fascination with the disappearance of these Elizabethans stretches back to the early nineteenth century, when a Harvard historian and several women writers transformed an obscure and embarrassing debacle at the nation’s dawn into the origin myth of the United States, adding a twist of gothic horror in the process.

A persistent riddle. The disappearance of the Roanoke colonists, comprising 85 men, 17 women, and 13 children, has transcended a mere historical puzzle to become a foundational American mystery. Unlike the well-documented struggles of Jamestown or Plymouth, Roanoke's ambiguity allowed it to be reinterpreted by each generation, reflecting evolving national dreams and anxieties. This "Area 51 of colonial history" invites democratic speculation, from supernatural theories to intricate conspiracy plots.

Beyond historical curiosity. The enduring allure of Roanoke is not just about solving a cold case; it's about its role as an origin myth. It offers a narrative more romantic and mysterious than the "gold-obsessed gentlemen of Jamestown and the sanctimonious Pilgrims." The story's lack of definitive facts allows it to serve as a "blank slate," enabling Americans to project their deepest fears and hopes onto the vanished settlers, making it a haunting as much as history.

A mirror to ourselves. The mystery of the Lost Colony is less about what happened to the Elizabethans and more about what it reveals about us. It taps into a primal fear of getting lost, a "quiet fear" that resonates with the human condition. This deep psychological connection ensures that Roanoke remains a powerful, if often kitschy, touchstone in American popular culture, from horror stories to academic debates.

2. Early European Ambitions and Misconceptions

You could argue that the American colonies and the United States are based on a single cartographic blunder.

Verrazano's blunder. Early European exploration of North America was driven by the search for a shortcut to Asia. Giovanni da Verrazano's 1524 voyage along the Outer Banks led to a crucial misinterpretation: he mistook the Pamlico Sound for the Pacific Ocean, believing a narrow "isthmus" separated the Atlantic from Cathay. This geographical error, preserved in maps, profoundly influenced subsequent English colonization efforts, directing them to the Outer Banks.

Spanish and French failures. Prior to the English, both Spain and France attempted to establish colonies in the region, but these ventures were plagued by similar issues:

• Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón (1526): A Spanish judge's feudal empire in "Chicora" (South Carolina) failed due to disease, starvation, Native American hostility, and slave rebellions.
• French Huguenots (1560s): Two attempts in South Carolina and Florida collapsed due to lack of supplies, internal strife, and Spanish massacres, with survivors resorting to cannibalism.
  These early failures highlighted the immense challenges of New World settlement and Spain's fierce defense of its claimed territories.

England's late entry. In the mid-16th century, England was a "weak, and poor state" compared to Philip II's vast Spanish Empire. Early English ventures, like Martin Frobisher's search for gold in the Arctic, ended in "fool's gold" fiascos, making Queen Elizabeth I skeptical of New World gambles. This context underscores the audacious nature of Raleigh's later Roanoke efforts, which aimed to challenge a global superpower.

3. Raleigh's Grand Vision: Science, Profit, and Geopolitics

The Roanoke venture lasted for six years and involved two dozen vessels and well over a thousand people crossing the treacherous breadth of the Atlantic to establish England’s first beachhead in the New World.

An Elizabethan Apollo program. Sir Walter Raleigh, a flamboyant courtier and Queen Elizabeth I's favorite, transformed England's New World ambitions. Despite initial failures and the queen's skepticism, Raleigh leveraged his newfound wealth and influence to launch the Roanoke ventures, an undertaking of immense scale and cost, comparable to a modern space program. His vision was multifaceted:

• Privateering base: To harass Spanish treasure fleets along the Gulf Stream.
• Resource extraction: To find gold, copper, and valuable commodities like sassafras and timber.
• Strategic outpost: To control a "northern Panama" and challenge Spanish global dominance.

A formidable scientific team. Raleigh assembled an unprecedented team of experts, recognizing the need for more than just soldiers:

• Thomas Harriot: An Oxford-trained scientist, cartographer, and linguist, fluent in Carolina Algonquian, who meticulously documented the region's flora, fauna, and people.
• Joachim Gans: A Jewish metallurgist from Prague, the first acknowledged Jew in North America, tasked with finding and processing ores.
• John White: An artist and later governor, whose watercolors provided the first detailed visual record of Native American life.
• Simão Fernandes: A Portuguese pilot, pirate, and master navigator, whose expertise was crucial for transatlantic voyages.

The geopolitical chessboard. The Roanoke ventures were deeply intertwined with the Anglo-Spanish Cold War. Philip II viewed English attempts to settle North America as a direct threat to his empire's economic lifeline. Raleigh's efforts, fueled by Hakluyt's vision of a global trading network, aimed to establish an English foothold that would eventually lead to the rise of the British Empire, a seemingly outlandish fantasy at the time.

4. The Fateful 1587 Colony: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Circumstances

The colonists as a whole were remarkable in their sheer ordinariness.

A new model for colonization. Unlike the military-focused 1585 Lane expedition, the 1587 "Cittie of Raleigh" led by Governor John White adopted a novel approach:

• Civilian settlement: Composed primarily of middle-class Londoners, including families with women and children.
• Land ownership: Settlers could purchase shares for 500 acres, appealing to land-hungry English.
• Long-term commitment: The inclusion of families aimed to ensure stability and permanence, a model for later successful colonies like Jamestown and Plymouth.
  Their goal was not quick gold, but a better material life and social advancement, resembling later waves of American immigrants.

A tragic confluence of events. The colony's fate was sealed by a series of unfortunate circumstances, both internal and external:

• Wingina's assassination (1586): Ralph Lane's brutal killing of the local Secotan chief alienated crucial Native American allies, turning Roanoke Island into a dangerous place.
• Fernandes's alleged betrayal: The Portuguese pilot, against Raleigh's orders, insisted on landing the settlers on Roanoke Island instead of the planned, more fertile Chesapeake Bay, citing "the summer was far spent."
• Anglo-Spanish War: The impending Spanish Armada invasion of England severely delayed White's return with supplies, turning his six-month mission into a three-year nightmare.

White's personal tragedy. Governor White's desperate attempts to return to his daughter, Eleanor Dare, and infant granddaughter, Virginia Dare, were thwarted by storms, pirates, and the war. His final, empty-handed return in 1590, finding only the cryptic "CROATOAN" carving, marked the personal and historical vanishing point of the Lost Colony. This agonizing separation underscores the human cost of early colonial ventures.

5. The "Secret Token" and Conflicting Clues

"I greatly joyed that I had safely found a certain token of their safe being at Croatoan," he wrote.

The enigmatic carving. John White's 1590 discovery of "CRO" carved on a tree and "CROATOAN" on a palisade post, without a distress cross, became the central clue to the colonists' fate. White interpreted this as a sign that the settlers had relocated to Croatoan Island, home of their allies, Manteo's people. However, his account is riddled with inconsistencies, leading to centuries of debate.

Archaeological searches and elusive evidence:

• Roanoke Island: Despite over a century of digging, including Talcott Williams's early efforts and Jean Harrington's reconstruction of "Lane's Fort," significant Elizabethan artifacts remain scarce. Noël Hume's 1990s discovery of Joachim Gans's metallurgical workshop provided a rare glimpse into the 1585 colony's scientific work, but not the 1587 settlers.
• Site X (Mettaquem): A hidden fort symbol on White's map, revealed by modern imaging, pointed to an inland location "fifty miles into the main." Excavations by the First Colony Foundation uncovered early European pottery (Border ware) and other artifacts, suggesting a small group of survivors might have settled there, but definitive proof remains elusive.
• Cape Creek (Hatteras/Croatoan): Hurricane Emily (1993) exposed artifacts, leading to David Phelps's and later Mark Horton's excavations. Finds included a brass signet ring (initially thought gold), a rapier hilt, and smelted copper, suggesting a European presence and metalworking. However, these were often mixed with later 17th-century artifacts, complicating definitive dating.

The academic deadlock. The archaeological evidence, while intriguing, remains ambiguous. The "smoking gun" — such as reliably dated European skeletons or a colonist's personal effects — has yet to be found. This lack of conclusive physical evidence fuels ongoing debates and highlights the challenges of interpreting fragmented historical and archaeological data.

6. The Dare Stone: A Mother's Cry and a Century of Deception

"It has all the plausibility of Dick Van Dyke’s Cockney accent in Mary Poppins," he responded after viewing the stone’s images. "You can rest assured that it is a risible forgery."

A sensational discovery. In 1937, Louis Hammond presented Emory University with a stone purportedly carved by Eleanor Dare, Virginia Dare's mother. The inscription detailed a massacre of the colonists, the deaths of Ananias and Virginia Dare, and Eleanor's plea to her father, John White. This "Dare Stone" ignited a national sensation, aligning with President Roosevelt's call for new clues to the Lost Colony.

The unraveling of a hoax. While initial academic reviews, including one led by Harvard's Samuel Eliot Morison, cautiously leaned towards authenticity, doubts quickly emerged:

• Hammond's disappearance: After selling the stone, Hammond vanished, leaving no verifiable contact information.
• Eberhardt's forgeries: A stonecutter, Bill Eberhardt, produced dozens of subsequent "Dare Stones" with increasingly elaborate tales, which were definitively exposed as fakes by journalist Boyden Sparkes in 1941.
• Linguistic and geological inconsistencies: Later analyses revealed anachronistic language and carving techniques in the Eberhardt stones.

The first stone's lingering mystery. Despite the widespread fraud, the authenticity of Hammond's original Dare Stone remained debated. While some experts, like Oxford's Diarmaid MacCulloch, dismissed it as a "risible forgery" due to linguistic anomalies, others, like graffiti expert Matthew Champion, found its weathering and carving style consistent with 16th-century inscriptions. This academic deadlock leaves the first Dare Stone in a state of "academic limbo," a testament to the enduring power of the Roanoke mystery.

7. Virginia Dare: A Blank Slate for American Identity

Virginia Dare is a blank slate that people can project on.

The birth of an icon. Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World, became a powerful symbol long after her presumed death. George Bancroft's 1834 history resurrected her, and Eliza Lanesford Cushing coined "Lost Colony" in her 1837 romantic fiction, casting Dare as a fair-haired beauty lost among "swarthy Indians." This narrative filled a void in early American history, providing a romantic origin story.

Symbol of white supremacy. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Virginia Dare was co-opted by white supremacists, particularly in the Jim Crow South:

• Racial purity: She was hailed as the "first infant child of pure Caucasian blood," symbolizing Anglo-Saxon dominance.
• "White Doe" myth: Sallie Southall Cotten's popular poem depicted Dare as a white doe, fatally wounded by a "wicked Wanchese," her death justifying the "supplanting" of "vicious, incompetent, and immoral races."
• Political tool: Suffragettes used her image to argue that granting white women the vote would ensure "white supremacy."
  Her image was used to reinforce racial hierarchies and justify the marginalization of African Americans and Native Americans.

A chameleon of meaning. Virginia Dare's image has proven remarkably adaptable, reflecting diverse American aspirations:

• Commercial icon: Her name adorned tobacco, wine, and dresses, becoming a popular brand.
• Feminist inspiration: For some, she represents a brave pioneer woman, a "sixteenth-century feminist" facing harsh realities.
• Bridge to diversity: More recently, some see her as a symbol of racial mixing, a "blood sacrifice to atone for European sins against Native peoples," embodying the convergence of different ancestries.
  Her ability to embody such conflicting ideals underscores her power as a "mythic token" in the ongoing struggle to define American identity.

8. Assimilation: The Uncomfortable Truth of the Lost Colonists

Most historians now accept that the Lost Colonists, if they survived, merged with indigenous society.

The most plausible fate. Despite centuries of romanticized tales, the simplest and most logical explanation for the Lost Colonists' disappearance is their assimilation into Native American societies. This was a common phenomenon in colonial America, where Europeans, particularly men, often chose to live with indigenous communities, finding acceptance and a new way of life.

• Survival skills: The city-bred colonists lacked survival skills and would have relied heavily on Native American expertise for food, shelter, and knowledge of the land.
• Cultural exchange: Over time, English customs, language, and clothing would have given way to Algonquian ways, with some European technologies (like metalworking) potentially being adopted by the tribes.
• Manteo's role: As an English lord and a Croatoan, Manteo was a crucial bridge between the two cultures, likely facilitating the integration of settlers into his tribe.

The "mongrel remnants" taboo. The idea of English settlers "going native" was deeply unsettling for white Europeans and later Americans, particularly due to anxieties about racial mixing:

• Laws against intermarriage: English colonies, unlike Spanish or French, quickly enacted strict laws prohibiting marriage between Europeans and Native Americans or Africans.
• "Degeneracy" fears: Commentators like John Lawson expressed disgust at the "degeneration" of human nature implied by such mixing, especially if white women found Indian husbands.
• Historical erasure: The likely truth of assimilation was often suppressed or reframed as massacre to avoid acknowledging the blurring of racial lines.

Lumbee connections. The Lumbee tribe of North Carolina, a diverse group with Algonquian, Iroquoian, Siouan, European, and African ancestry, has a long-standing oral tradition of descent from the Lost Colonists. While academically debated, this claim highlights the historical reality of mixed-race communities in the South and the complex, often politically charged, nature of identity.

9. The Enduring Legacy: A Mirror of American Anxieties

The fascination that the Lost Colony inspires is, in the end, not about settlers getting lost in the woods; it is about our primal fear of losing our identity in a land constantly reshaped by new arrivals.

The "horror within." The persistent allure of the Lost Colony, often imbued with supernatural elements, reflects deep-seated American anxieties about racial identity and immigration. The fear of "mongrel remnants" and the "degeneration" of white bloodlines, prevalent since the 19th century, transformed the colonists' likely assimilation into a veiled national nightmare.

• Racial boundaries: The mystery emerged as racial boundaries hardened in the 1830s, following events like Nat Turner's rebellion and forced Indian removals.
• "Lost" to avoid "mixed": The colonists were declared "lost" to obscure the inconvenient truth that survivors likely ceased to be "white" in the eyes of later European Americans.

A dynamic identity. The story of the Lost Colony, particularly through figures like Virginia Dare, serves as a powerful, if often uncomfortable, mirror to America's evolving identity. It reflects:

• The melting pot reality: The historical mixing of Native American, European, and African genes and traditions, despite legal and social taboos.
• Fear of replacement: The anxiety that new arrivals will "kill theirs and take their places," echoing a Secotan prophecy recorded by Harriot.
• The courage to adapt: The colonists' likely adaptation to a new world, shedding old ways for new, offers a model for navigating change and embracing new forms of identity.

A brave kingdom. Roanoke, initially a symbol of English imperial ambition, ultimately became a testament to human adaptability and the complex, often violent, intermingling of cultures. The "brave kingdom" envisioned by early settlers, and later by Union ministers for freed slaves, continues to be reshaped by its diverse inhabitants. The mystery of the Lost Colony, therefore, is not a static historical puzzle but a living narrative that continues to impart wisdom about what it means to be American in a constantly changing land.

Last updated: December 9, 2025