Becoming the Lost Colony: The History, Lore and Popular Culture of the Roanoke Mystery

Headlines declare after each new hint of evidence that the Lost Colony--the English colonists left on Roanoke Island in 1587, including Virginia Dare--has been found. None of these claims pass muster as the historical, archaeological, and literary evidence presented here demonstrate.

This book analayzes several hypotheses and demonstrates why none have been shown to be more probable than any of the others. To understand how the 1587 colonists became The Lost Colony, the authors recount the history of the English expeditions in the 1580s and the original searches for the colonists from 1590 until the 1620s. The archaeological evidence gathered from the 19th through the 21st centuries is presented. The book then examines how the disappearance of the colonists has been portrayed in pseudoscience, fiction, and popular culture from the beginnings until the present day. In the end, readers will have all the data they need to judge new claims concerning the fate of The Lost Colony.

Charles R. Ewen is Harriot College Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He is an archaeologist whose research has focused on the early Contact/Colonial Period, the archaeology of piracy and cemetery studies and has authored or edited 10 books. E. Thomson Shields, Jr. is emeritus in the English Department at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. His research has focused on American exploration and frontier literature.