Roanoke Island
The origins of one of the America’s oldest unsolved mysteries can be traced to August 1587,
when a group of about 115 English settlers arrived on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now North
Carolina. Later that year, it was decided that John White, governor of the new colony, would sail back to
England in order to gather a fresh load of supplies. But just as he arrived, a major naval war broke out
between England and Spain, and Queen Elizabeth I called on every available ship to confront the mighty
Spanish Armada. In August 1590, White finally returned to Roanoke, where he had left his wife and
daughter, his infant granddaughter (Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the Americas) and the
other settlers three long years before. He found no trace of the colony or its inhabitants, and few clues
to what might have happened, apart from a single word—“Croatoan”—carved into a wooden post.
Investigations into the fate of the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke have continued over the centuries,
but no one has come up with a satisfactory answer. “Croatoan” was the name of an island south of
Roanoke that was home to a Native American tribe of the same name. Perhaps, then, the colonists were
killed or abducted by Native Americans. Other hypotheses hold that they tried to sail back to England on
their own and got lost at sea, that they met a bloody end at the hands of Spaniards who had marched up
from Florida or that they moved further inland and were absorbed into a friendly tribe. In 2007, efforts
began to collect and analyze DNA from local families to figure out if they’re related to the Roanoke
settlers, local Native American tribes or both. Despite the lingering mystery, it seems there’s one thing
to be thankful for: The lessons learned at Roanoke may have helped the next group of English settlers,
who would found their own colony 17 years later just a short distance to the north, at Jamestown.
Jamestown
In May 1607, 104 Englishmen dropped anchor and began to build America's first permanent
English colony in Jamestown, Virginia. The colonists built a triangle-shaped log fort on a peninsula in the
James River, 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, and named it James Fort in honor of King
James I of England. A number of other historic "firsts" happened in Jamestown, including the first
cultivation of tobacco for export, the first representative government on the continent in 1619, the first
import of African slaves into the colonies, and the first Anglican church in America.
The Virginia Company
In 1606, James I had granted a charter to a group of London entrepreneurs to form the Virginia
Company. Those wealthy gentlemen formed a joint stock corporation that was charged with the
settlement of Virginia in the New World. They invested their money in shares of the company and hoped
to earn profits from the colonization of Virginia. The company had the power to appoint the people who
would govern the settlement and the responsibility to provide settlers, supplies, and ships for the
venture.
Economic Motives
The investors in the Virginia Company wanted to open new lands for exploration. They hoped that
exploration would yield such lucrative resources as gold. In their search for profits, they also planned to
build industries in the New World. For example, as England was running out of timber, they hoped to
harvest lumber and send it back to England for shipbuilding and home construction. Furthermore, they
wanted to experiment at making products like glass and silk. In addition, they hoped to discover a
quicker route to the Orient that would lower the cost of bringing spices back to England.
A Bad Investment
During the first two years, Jamestown proved to be an extraordinarily bad investment for the Virginia
Company. This was due to several factors. First of all, many of the early colonizers were English
gentlemen and were therefore unwilling to do the work necessary to provide for themselves. Second,
Jamestown was situated in a marshy area, and many of the colonists died from disease. Third, when the
fort was barely a year old, it was accidentally burned to the ground, and the colonists had to rebuild it.
Fourth, there was almost constant warfare with Native Americans, primarily the Algonquian people.
Fifth, there were many internal disputes among those appointed to govern the colony. Finally, with the
prospects for profit growing ever dimmer, there was a chronic shortage of money to keep the venture
going.
Measured Success
New settlers arrived in June 1611. A year later, tobacco was planted, and the colony finally had an
export. Hoping to introduce stability by the development of families, the Virginia Company arranged for
the immigration of large numbers of women to the colony. Nevertheless, unrealized profits continued to
reduce the ranks of investors, and in 1624, the Crown finally revoked the charter of the Virginia
Company and placed the colony under royal control.
Georgia
A man of vision as well as action, James Edward Oglethorpe was so moved by the plight of imprisoned
debtors in England that he founded Georgia, the last of the original 13 American colonies, as a haven for
them.
The watershed event of Oglethorpe's life occurred in 1728. That year, a friend of his was sent to London's
Fleet Prison for failure to pay his bills, a common fate for English debtors. The condition of the prison was
very poor, and the friend contracted smallpox and died. Oglethorpe was deeply upset by this, and he
resolved to do something about it. He began a campaign in Parliament to improve prison conditions and
to free men who only owed small sums.
To give debtors a way to start new lives, Oglethorpe decided to start a colony for them in America. He
also wanted the colony to serve as a refuge for people of oppressed Protestant sects. He was joined in
his efforts by Thomas Bray, an Anglican clergyman, and after Bray's death, by his followers. With their
help, he was able to obtain a charter in 1732 from King George II for a tract of land between the Altamaha
and Savannah Rivers. That was considered a good location because it would provide a buffer area
between the English colonists in the Carolinas and the Spanish settlers in Florida. The new colony,
Georgia, was named after the king.
In late 1732, Oglethorpe set out with 114 settlers on the Anne, which stopped to pick up food and
equipment in Charleston, South Carolina before entering the mouth of the Savannah River in January
1733. Oglethorpe carefully chose a site along the river that he thought would be defensible against attack.
Although not officially governor of the colony, he served as its leader and used his own money for its
benefit. A kind and disciplined man, he banned slavery and hard liquor in the settlement and established
peaceful relations with the local Indians.
In 1734, Oglethorpe returned to England to report on Georgia's progress. Because of his glowing reports,
he was accompanied by some 300 new colonists when he sailed back to the colony in late 1735,
including the brothers John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism.
Meanwhile, tensions between England and Spain had been increasing, and in 1736, Oglethorpe built Fort
Frederica on St. Simon's Island as his main defense against the Spanish colonists in St. Augustine,
Florida. Three years later, England declared war on Spain, and Oglethorpe was ordered to attack St.
Augustine. His army of volunteers proved unable to penetrate the heavily fortified settlement, but they did
manage to repel a Spanish counterattack on Fort Frederica in 1742.
While Oglethorpe busied himself defending Georgia, a handful of his disgruntled followers were
complaining to London about his policies restricting slaves and liquor. A few others also charged him with
pocketing public funds and mishandling the raid on St. Augustine. In 1743, Oglethorpe returned to
England for a trial, which cleared him of all charges. He was never to return to Georgia again.