Roanoke, 2nd Edition: The Abandoned Colony

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The story of Roanoke is a tale marked by courage, miscalculation, exhilaration, intrigue, and enduring mystery. Now in its second edition, Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony tells the tragic and heroic story of the lost colony during the years between Columbus's voyages and the landing of the Mayflower. Award-winning historian Karen O. Kupperman brings to life the struggle of the settlers and the complex Native American cultures they encountered; and examines reasons for the colony's failure and what might have become of the first English settlers in the New World.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting and relevant history........2006-05-06

I'm not certain why, but books on the "lost" colony of Roanoke seemed to catch my eye, so I added several to my wish list. I selected Karen O. Kupperman's volume as the first to read and found it interesting and insightful.

Roanoke, the Abandoned Colony is a little old and reflects it's 1984 vintage. Settlement of the North and South American continents is described as having occurred by way of a "land bridge" during the glacial epic 10,000 to 40,000 years ago. Native people are depicted as having followed their game animals across the Bering Strait into the Americas. Today this is considered somewhat less likely than it was prior to the 1990s, and alternative possibilities are usually given in more recent works on the topic.

Once beyond the background history of the native population, however, the author is on firmer ground. The ample documentation of early English settlement provides her with evidence for a thorough discussion of the period. Much of her background information, however, is taken from secondary rather than primary sources. The notes to the edition contain references to works written in the 1960s, 70s, and 80's about Roanoke, Raleigh, the Southeastern Indians, and so on, rather than documents by early explorers, although she consults those doing original research with primary sources or with archaeological field data.

I had rather expected a more sensational approach to the topic; most of us who know anything at all about Roanoke simply know of the mysterious disappearance of its colonists and the name Virginia Dare. Neglected beyond that introduction by most high school American history courses-in fact many college courses-the average reader is left with a lacuna in his/her understanding of the colonial era.

Ms Kupperman ably fills that breach. Her discussion of Indian culture and politics during the age is very insightful. When I studied American colonial history years ago, the Indian people were hardly considered at all, and then mostly as "background noise," sort of part of the flora and fauna of the continent. That they had political acumen, let alone a political agenda, was not even considered, a lapse that made the history of the period lopsided and confusing. The academic perspective at the time-prior to the establishment of American Indian Studies programs in colleges and universities-was no doubt an outgrowth of the European point of view. Historians and like minded individuals in US society saw the expression of expansionism and the displacement and even extermination of native peoples as part of its "manifest destiny." So integral is this perspective to society's concept of itself even now, that it requires works like Roanoke to remove the cultural blinders. Through it all, though, the author neither blames nor excuses. Like a good journalist, she describes and explains what occurred, giving cultural background information on all parties that helps clarify interactions. Her discussion of 16th century English policy with respect to Ireland is especially relevant.

One of the most interesting facets of the book, but definitely one that took me a while to appreciate, was the degree to which it involved the history of Elizabethan England and the life of Sir Walter Raliegh and other English explorers. In fact this period of North American history from the perspective of its European heritage is pretty much about England and its relations with others: its international fortune, its social structure and social outlook, and so on.

While the story of Roanoke is part of US history, understanding its experience and demise only makes sense when placed in the context of what was going on world wide at the time. In fact, it's possible that the history of no specific place on the globe ever makes complete sense without referring to world context.

Overall the book gives a very detailed and informative account of early English experience in North America. With the above caveats, it would make an excellent source book for high school history and a good addition to a school library.

Quite dull.......2004-06-18

The prose is dry, and the book didn't provide any insights you couldn't get from just asking someone on the street -- no new material, no interesting conclusions.

This is THE book to read on Roanoke.......2004-03-25

Well written, researched and documented. A fascinating mystery told in a great way.

Surprisingly interesting!.......2001-11-10

I bought this book because I needed to write a book review for my American History review course. I was expecting to trudge through a hundred and some odd boring pages, but was pleasantly surprised.

It was very well written, and read more like a short novel than a history book. While providing information on the many people involved in the Roanoke adventures, it also reviewed the general socio-economic factors influencing American colonization in general. It really contained a ton of information on American colonization and the European factors behind it, and it presented it in such a way that it told a story, rather than simply jumping from time-period and event to time-period and event! (like many of those so called "textbooks")

The author is a noted authority on the early contacts between Europeans and Native Americans.

Book Description

John Lawson's amazingly detailed yet lively book is easily one of the most valuable of the early histories of the Carolinas, and it is certainly one of the best travel accounts of the early eighteenth-century colonies. An inclusive account of the manners and customs of the Indian tribes of that day, it is also a minute report of the soil, climate, trees, plants, animals, and fish in the Carolinas.

Lawson's observation is keen and thorough; his style direct and vivid. He misses nothing and recounts all—from the storms at sea to his impressions of New York in 1700, the trip down the coast to Charleston, and his travels from there into North Carolina with his Indian guides.

The first edition of this work was published in London in 1709. While various editions followed in the eighteenth century—including two in German—this edition is a true copy of the original and is the first to include a comprehensive index. It also contains "The Second Charter," "An Abstract of the Constitution of Carolina," Lawson's will, and several previously unpublished letters written by Lawson. A number of DeBry woodcuts of John White's drawings of Indian life, sketches of the beasts of Carolina which appeared in the original 1709 edition, and Lawson's map contribute additional interest to this volume.

Customer Reviews:

Gov. James Hunt should name US Rt. 85, John Lawson Highway.......1998-12-06

Young John Lawson describes his adventure canoing and hiking through the Carolina Coastal Plain and Piedmont in the winter of 1700. Lawson's descriptions are detailed, especially of the many generous Native Americans who helped him on his way. His journey started in Charleston, continued through the Charlotte area, then east to Okeneechee Village on the Eno River (now Hillsborogh) and on to the coast near New Bern. This book is an unknown classic.

South Carolina Colony (Fact Finders: American Colonies)

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South Carolina Colony (Fact Finders: American Colonies)
Susan E. Haberle
Manufacturer: Capstone Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0736861106

Unification of a Slave State: The Rise of the Planter Class in the South Carolina Backcountry, 1760-1808

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Unification of a Slave State: The Rise of the Planter Class in the South Carolina Backcountry, 1760-1808
Rachel N. Klein
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807843695

Book Description

This book describes the turbulent transformation of South Carolina from a colony rent by sectional conflict into a state dominated by the South's most unified and politically powerful planter leadership. Rachel Klein unravels the sources of conflict and growing unity, showing how a deep commitment to slavery enabled leaders from both low-and backcountry to define the terms of political and ideological compromise.

The spread of cotton into the backcountry, often invoked as the reason for South Carolina's political unification, actually concluded a complex struggle for power and legitimacy. Beginning with the Regulator Uprising of the 1760s, Klein demonstrates how backcountry leaders both gained authority among yeoman constituents and assumed a powerful role within state government. By defining slavery as the natural extension of familial inequality, backcountry ministers strengthened the planter class. At the same time, evangelical religion, like the backcountry's dominant political language, expressed yet contained the persisting tensions between planters and yeomen.

Book Description

Back in print after 68 years, this anthology of essays is a classic survey of the Catholic reaction to problems created by the industrial revolution and socialism and is a unique milestone in the history of social thought. Reacting to the depression and the seeming inadequacies of capitalism and socialism, these thinkers contributed landmark essays on the topics of property, craftsmanship, industrialism, and more. With an introduction by Hilaire Belloc, this volume contains a coherent representation of one of the principal schools of thought applying Christian theory to the socioeconomic problems of early- to mid-20th-century Europe. This work will be of interest to anyone concerned with the history of social thought.

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Theology of Homesteading.......2007-05-08

I, as an Independent Sacramental priest, have been for years looking for a theology that would promote getting back to the land and getting rid of industrialism without turning into New Age non-sense or becoming radical and xenophobic. I have worked hard to develop my concept in this, but "Flee to the Land" has given me a wonderful articulation of this theology, which arises from the Catholic Land Movement of early 20th Century Britain and Scotland.

The names of the authors are all the chief members of the Catholic Land Movement and the Distributism school of thought: Hilaire Belloc, Fr. Vincent McNabb, Harold Robbins, et al. They present the ideals of the Catholic Land Movement from the diagnosis of the problem and its causes, the steps to overcoming it on through various stages until the ideal is presented in a fashion that appears very workable.

The best part about this book is that 73 years after it was first published, there is little about it (aside from a few specific historical references) that is not still very timely. If anything, the premise and thesis of this work has only grown more true and more important.

I would recommend this book to any Christian who wanted a theological or a specifically Christian philosophical basis for a back to the land movement that is based in reality and doesn't overlook the potential problems in achieving the goal.

I am planning to implement a more ecumenical version of the plan herein described in the relatively near future and hope that others will, too. I think the inspiration for those who would like to see this is present in this book and should be looked to for a road map that can be used almost anywhere toward this end.

Anyone who loves Dorothy Day or the Catholic Worker Movement, the Distributivist Movement and related themes will love this book.

South Carolina: The History of South Carolina Colony, 1670-1776 (Wiener, Roberta, 13 Colonies.)

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South Carolina: The History of South Carolina Colony, 1670-1776 (Wiener, Roberta, 13 Colonies.)
Roberta Wiener , and James R. Arnold
Manufacturer: Raintree
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0739868888

Colonial South Carolina: A History (A History of the American colonies)

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An excellent combination of social and political history
Palmettos, Planters, and Patriots---a detailed history
Good reading for a colonial vacation

Colonial South Carolina: A History (A History of the American colonies)
Robert M. Weir
Manufacturer: Kraus Intl Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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South Carolina: A History

ASIN: 0527187216

Customer Reviews:

An excellent combination of social and political history .......2006-10-03

Colonial South Carolina played an undervalued role in early American history. New England and Philadelphia had a corner on European shipping routes, but South Carolina played just as a significant role in the very lucrative Caribbean trade. University of South Carolina history professor, Robert Weir, has admirably filled in a lot of gaps in the public's mind regarding early American with his excellent Colonial South Carolina: A History. Considering South Carolina's preeminent role in British America south of Williamsburg, VA, the role that the colony played extended far beyond its natural borders, which were set by the mid 1700's.

Books like this, covering a large time period from before recorded history to roughly 1775 in a few hundred pages are by nature very selective. Weir does an admirable job of describing South Carolina's history before European colonization. His main goal is to describe the land and the native people's in relationship to how they affected and altered the English attempt to establish a colony south of Virginia.
What made Carolina different, for it was just one colony at the time, was that it was settled by business leadership from the island of Barbados. So total was the Barbados influence, that Carolina could be said to be the only mainland location that was settled from the Caribean, rather than the other way around. The story that Weir tells of South Carolina is that of a trading colony that remained a transitional land between the raw commercialism of the Caribean islands and the settled little British communities of the rest of British North America.

Carolina's growth, and by extenstion, eventually the deep South's growth and culture had its origin's at the very start in the late 17th century. Relationships with native tribes were seen as potential trading partners, and due to clan warfare, as the first slaves on some of the early populations. Weir's presentation of Carolina as an extension of the British aristorcracy, even to the famed eight Lord Proprieters led by Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, fits into the cultural model of Carolinians being aristocratic, yet demanding fairness and equity.

Weir's history of the Carolina colony can be divided into three sections:

* Founding by the Lord Proprietars and early settlement, including the division of the two Carolina's
* Revolt against the investors and establishment of direct royal rule
* Growth of an independent South Carolina culture that attempted to be more English than native England

Along the way, Weir does an excellent job of describing the rising three different South Carolina's, the Charleston aristocracy that quickly established themselves as a new power with new traditions more powerful than across the Atlantic, the growing African slave population designed to provide the ease of life that the Charlestonians were becoming used to, and the small, but growing backcountry settlements from Scotch-Irish and Germans who came South from Virginia and Pennslyvania.

While the history of colonial South Carolina can be easily put into the context of the Atlantic, British, Caribbean world of the mid-18th century; Weir's book excels at describing the culture of early South Carolina. The economy, the hopes of the first generation settlers who hacked their homes out of the wilderness, the decaying relationship to the Indian tribes that coalesced into just a handful of opposition groups are placed in the context of not only how it relates to the rest of the British Empire, but how individual factions in South Carolina shaped the society for generations to come.

The rising arguments and disagreements that led to the Revolution had a distinct South Carolina influence. Wrapping up the book, Weir builds his case of how the distinct and at times factional South Carolina added its own flavor to what was a New England led (at first) revolt against Great Britain. It can be argued that were it not for the commercial and equity concerns of South Carolina, by far the most populous of the three colonies south of Virginia, the American Revolution might have remained a local concern of New England, rather than the opportunity to establish a continent long nation.

Weir's story is a fascinating look into how a factionalized, aristocratic, backwoods, slave-based coastal colony grew to be special and unique land, part Caribean, part English, part frontier. Colonial South Carolina, A History, is a defnitive modern work for establishing the role of the origins of the Southern half of the United States.

Palmettos, Planters, and Patriots---a detailed history.......2003-01-22

Sometimes it happens that you read a book for a different reason from the one which made the author write it. In that case, when writing a critique, you must be very careful not to fault the author for not "living up to" your requirements. That is the case here. For many years, I have been intrigued by the question, "Why are states like South Carolina so different from my own state of Massachusetts when they were settled largely by people from the same country at around the same time?" I never did much about finding the answer, but some time ago I did buy this book. I have only just read it. OK, so it wasn't such a burning question ! But that is what impelled me to undertake to read COLONIAL SOUTH CAROLINA and I'm glad I did.

Weir's clearly-written history provides a detailed look at the colony, which began to emerge in the 1630s under the rule of proprietors who brought in colonists. He gives background on Spanish and French incursions and battles over the area, as well as on the various Indian peoples, who might not have been as numerous as those to the south or west. Weir's main interest, however, is political and legal---in the growth of laws, political institutions, and people in government---and how these led eventually to rebellion against Britain. For an amateur, these sections get rather detailed. I was interested in almost everything else---the relationship with the Indians, the economy (naval stores, rice, indigo), slavery, social classes, and their standards of living. Because of his focus, he begins with political developments instead of with economics and the society, which I feel is a mistake. In his way, amateurs like me can hardly grasp the motives or the players in the political game until we reach subsequent chapters.

If I have not found my answer (and maybe there is no definite answer), I got a lot of valuable things to think about. Though South Carolina was founded more for economic interests than as a refuge for a persecuted minority (like Massachusetts), both Huguenots and English dissenters played a major role in the state. There is not a clear difference there. Perhaps the tenor of life differed. Weir notes, "Not everyone in South Carolina during the early years was a scoundrel though some...suspected that was the case." (p.61) There was, however, a large contingent of adventurers, connections to pirates, and some mighty loose living. South Carolina did not develop towns with self-governing traditions, nor was there much government at the county level. Instead, large tracts were granted to individuals, and words like "barony" and "seignory" were mentioned in laws. A more feudal atmosphere then, culminating in the "Margravate of Azilia" a feudal style buffer state that was nearly founded in the wild territory between South Carolina and Spanish Florida (now mostly Georgia). Unlike New England, South Carolina suffered constant raids by the Spanish and French, a war with pirates, wars with powerful Indian tribes several times in the 18th century, hurricanes, a huge fire in the capital, and yellow fever. Despite all this, secret ballot and religious freedom flourished, the colonial government---once the proprietary relationship ended in 1719---was not less progressive than others. However, what distinguished the two regions most of all was the extent of slavery. For most of its colonial history, blacks were a majority in South Carolina. The fear of uprisings and the terror used to control the slaves set the tone of life in this, the richest of the 13 colonies. Any disunity among whites could have been fatal, thus an inordinately large amount of central control. Weir also discusses the sectional division between lowland planters and upland small farmers; the composition of white society; and questions of social stability. All these things aided me immensely in trying to answer my question.

In addition, readers will find a great amount of fascinating information in this book---how to make tar and pitch, South Carolina style---the use of indigo as currency during the Revolution---the importation of the original rice seeds from Madagascar (was it the pirate connection ?)---the development of black cowboys whose work patterns appeared over a century later in the oft-glorified West and a lot more. COLONIAL SOUTH CAROLINA is indispensable for anyone who wants an overall picture of this colony, whose history is often ignored in favor of Virginia, New York or Massachusetts. I believe, though, that I must read Judith Carney's "Black Rice" (2001) and Michael Stephen Hindus' "Prison and Plantation" (1980) for a more complete answer to my own question.

Good reading for a colonial vacation.......2000-07-14

I acquired this book while on vacation at Kiawah Island, SC. If you fancy yourself an amateur historian, this is the book for you. Prof. Weir provides a detailed review of the formation of South Carolina and its growth from proprietary colony to royal colony to free state. He blends social, economic and political history with fascinating tidbits about the geography around you. It is a little heavy on the political aspects, however, and sometimes my mind glazed over with governor-this and who owned what. But all in all, I quite enjoyed reading it as I toured the area. One of the most interesting parts was the extensive information he included about the interactions between the colonists and the native American populations which they ultimately destroyed or enslaved.

The Colony of South Carolina: A Primary Source History (The Primary Source Library of the Thirteen Colonies and the Lost Colony)

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The Colony of South Carolina: A Primary Source History (The Primary Source Library of the Thirteen Colonies and the Lost Colony)
Melody S. Mis
Manufacturer: PowerKids Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 1404234381

An Historical Account Of The Rise And Progress Of The Colonies Of South Carolina And Georgia

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An Historical Account Of The Rise And Progress Of The Colonies Of South Carolina And Georgia
Alexander Hewatt
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1419106538

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An Historical Account Of The Rise And Progress Of The Colonies Of South Carolina And Georgia
Alexander Hewatt
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1419106546

Book Description

He assured the Governor, that though he had been wounded in his younger years, and was now old, yet he would meet him half way for this purpose, if he should even be carried on the backs of his people. Accordingly, Governor Glen appointed a place for holding a congress, and agreed to meet the warrior; for as the clouds were gathering every where on the American horizon, the friendship of the Cherokees at such a time was an object of too much importance to Carolina to be overlooked or neglected.

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