NORFOLK — Their story is older than our nation, but what happened to them remains a mystery, still captivating the populace and mystifying expert researchers.
Some 430 years ago 115 people – men, women, and children – disappeared from the first English settlement attempted in North America in what remains one of the biggest and most hotly contested mysteries in history.
Thursday the Norfolk Public Library is bringing acclaimed journalist and author Andrew Lawler to the Slover Library at 7 p.m. to shed some light on the topic that has confounded historians and others for generations.
Lawler is the author of a new book on the topic, “The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke.”
“I have been impressed by how many people know this story and are eager to share their own ideas and theories – which always makes for a fun discussion,” Lawler said. “I’m sure people in Tidewater will be particularly interested in this story, given that the events took place so nearby.”
Using images taken by a National Geographic photographer along with historical maps and drawings, Lawler said he will walk the audience through the history of the Roanoke voyages, the clues to the lost colonists’ disappearance, and share what he discovered in his search for an answer to the mystery.
“I discovered far more than clues to what happened to the vanished settlers,” he said. “What was most fascinating for me was finding a hidden history that tells us as much about today’s America as the lost Elizabethans – and I think this will spark fresh interest in the topic.”
The mystery
Despite taking place more than four centuries ago, the story itself remains familiar: In 1587 an English ship appears off the coast of Roanoke Island carrying brave settlers, who row their way onto the wild shore. They begin working to establish the first English settlement in the New World, but the leader of the expedition, Gov. John White, needs to return to England. So he jumps back onto one of the ships they came on and sails east, leaving behind in a wild and strange land his own daughter and granddaughter, as he treks back across the Atlantic Ocean.
One thing after another delays White’s return, and by the time he gets back to America three years have passed and his daughter, granddaughter, and the rest of the settlers have vanished.
The only clues he found on his return were “Cro” etched into a tree, and the word “Croatoan” carved into the gatepost of a fort that was erected while White was away. Exactly when the settlers abandoned their settlement – and why – remains a topic of much discussion.
“The biggest myth is that they were lost,” Lawler said. “We only lost them in the 19th century because the possibility that they intermingled with the Native Americans -the idea most favored by today’s historians and archaeologists – went against the strict codes of the day prohibiting racial mixing.”
About 20 years after the failure at Roanoke Island, Jamestown became the first successful English settlement in the New World.
Other work
In addition to discussions about the Lost Colony, Lawler will sign copies of his new book.
Lawler is the author of “Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird That Powers Civilization.”
He has written more than a thousand newspaper and magazine articles from more than two dozen countries, his byline has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many other publications.
He is a contributing writer for Science and a contributing editor for Archaeology. His work has appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing.
