Roanoke Group

The Roanoke group was sent from England in order to colonize the New World. It is much more economical to send men, women, and children on a colonization mission because that would ensure the growth of the colony. One cannot predict that an expedition of only men would be able to secure suitable females for procreation from the natives. The idea of appropriating the new world through colonization rested on the assumption or hope that the new world would belong to the English, and in order to make it truly theirs, they would have to instill their values into the citizens of the land. It is a lot easier to raise English children than convert native adults of an alien culture. There were also concerns that other European countries such as Spain and France, who were already sending expeditions to the new world, might beat England in colonizing the new world and taking all of its resources for themselves, so there was a bit of a rush to make sure that England had a stake. 

There were a lot of problems faced by the colonists. The new world’s landscape was strange and unfamiliar while also being untamed. There was a lot of work that had to be put into the wildlands in order to make it fit with the English way of life. There were also natural circumstances that affected the colony. It was too late to plant anything when they first arrived, which made the threat of starvation very real. It would have been much easier on the colony had they arrived in spring, which would have assured that they could grow crops to survive on. They were later plagued with drought, a hurricane, incivility of the natives, and hostile attacks from the Spanish. There was also the fact that the colony was made up of men, women, and children—the women and children, while good for procreation and town-building, would hold back able-bodied men from being able to escape to safety or fight hostiles or the elements for survival. 

The local native Americans were a mixed bag. Some of them were hostile and others were friendly. It did not help matters that some of the hostile natives were made that way by a murderous colony leader who took the stealing of a cup way too personally. He murdered the native chief on principle, which ended up hurting the settlers in the long run. They should have sent a diplomat or a strategist to head the colony instead of a soldier. There are lots of different theories about where the colonists went—some say they were murdered by hostile natives, whereas others say they were appropriated into the tribe by friendly natives. There are also theories involving alien abduction, strange stone writings, cannibalism, and being lost at sea; but I am of the mind that the theory that bears striking anthropological coincidence is the best one. It states that there is a native tribe in an area close to where the colony went missing that had members who spoke fluent English, had grey eyes, and Anglo facial features. This theory may even go so far as to be proven one day if DNA study can confirm the claim.