John White
Portrait of a A Young Woman of Aquascogoc
England (c. 1585)
Watercolor on paper; 386 x 255 mm.
The British Museum
I’ve posted some of John White’s watercolors before, but this one in particular stands out because of the charismatic young woman whose portrait survives, although her name doesn’t appear to have been recorded anywhere. White was commissioned by Sir Walter Raleigh to paint the scenes and peoples living in what the Roanoke area of what is now North Carolina. White was also the grandfather of Virginia Dare.
The whole supposed “mystery” around the disappearance of the colonists at Roanoke is contingent on the dehumanization of the people who already lived there; people like the young woman pictured above. The British invaders who were abandoned by White and Raleigh left clear indication that their departure was not forced, and that they had been adopted by a community of indigenous people living on a nearby island. They carved the name of their new home in both a post and a tree nearby, in case anyone should later try and find them again.
They abandoned their British-style houses, clothing, and farming implements, which were ill-suited to life in that environment, and instead were allowed to come live with indigenous people in the nearby town of Croatoan, which would have likely resembled this one:
British farthings and a gold ring were found later by archeologists at Croatoan, adding physical evidence to the surviving records. This is further supported by information given by various indigenous people later, who explained thusly:
A farther Confirmation of this we have from the Hatteras Indians, who either then lived on Ronoak-Island, or much frequented it. These tell us, that several of their Ancestors were white People, and could talk in a Book, as we do; the Truth of which is confirm’d by gray Eyes being found frequently amongst these Indians, and no others. They value themselves extremely for their Affinity to the English, and are ready to do them all friendly Offices. It is probable, that this Settlement miscarry’d for want of timely Supplies from England; or thro’ the Treachery of the Natives, for we may reasonably suppose that the English were forced to cohabit with them, for Relief and Conversation; and that in process of Time, they conform’d themselves to the Manners of their Indian Relations.
[Lawson, John (1709). A New Voyage to Carolina. London. p. 48.]
The whole crux of the colony at Roanoke being considered a “Failure” is not because the people didn’t survive; all evidence indicates that they did survive, and that they thrived. What failed to survive was British values, religion, houses, and other cultural objects that seemed to have been mourned more than the actual people were. It’s very telling that once it was made clear to White and the others that the community they’d abandoned had adopted another culture and community, they stopped looking for them completely. They never went to Croatoan to discover what had become of their family members, possibly out of shock and disgust that they had “abandoned their ways” instead of just dying, I suppose.
The idea that both individuals and communities “disappeared” through some kind of supernatural circumstances are almost as pervasive of a cultural myth as the idea that the Americas were “unoccupied” when European invaders arrived. There are a lot of people who’ve written about and argued over the details, and a few who still believe, for example, that the Spanish destroyed the town and killed the people who lived there, but it’s my opinion that the evidence really doesn’t support it.
