Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony

by Lee Miller

Overview

In November of 1587, a report reached London claiming Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition to land English settlers in America had foundered. The colony on Roanoke Island off of the coast of North Carolina-115 men, women, and children-had disappeared without a trace. For four hundred years, the question of what became of the doomed settlers has remained unanswered. Where did they go? What really happened? Why were they on Roanoke Island in the first place, as that was not their destination? Using her consummate skills as an anthropologist and ethnohistorian, Lee Miller casts new light on the previously inexplicable puzzle of Roanoke, unraveling a thrilling web of deceit that can be traced back to the inner circle of Queen Elizabeth's government to finally solve the lasting mystery of the Lost Colony.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780142002285
Publisher:	Viking Penguin
Publication date:	05/28/2002
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.42(w) x 7.96(h) x 0.84(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Lee Miller holds a master’s degree in anthropology from Johns Hopkins University. She was head of research and a writer for the CBS TV series 500 Nations and a consultant for the BBC TV series Land of the Eagle. She has also served as a consultant for various Indian nations, as well as for U.S. federal and state agencies, including the Library of Congress. Of Kaw heritage, she is the founder of the Native Learning Foundation and the author of From the Heart: Voices of the American Indian. She lives in upstate New York.

Table of Contents

Roanoke Preface
Acknowledgments
Maps

Part One: A Case Of Missing Persons
1. The Disappearance
2. A Case of Missing Persons
3. John White: Governor
4. Of London
5. Of Population
6. Of Religion
7. The Colonists
8. In Certain Danger

Part Two: A Case Of Murder
9. Sabotage
10. The Second Roanoke Expedition: Grenville and the Secotan (1585)
11. The Second Roanoke Expedition: Lane's Command (1585-1586)
12. Chaunis Temoatan and a Murder (1586)

Part Three: A Case Of Conspiracy
13. The Lost Colonists (1587)
14. Raleigh's Rise to Power
15. Political Turmoil
16. The Players
17. The Motive
18. The Game
19. The Fall

Part Four: Who Are The Mandoag?
20. Raleigh's Search
21. Jamestown
22. War on the Powhatan
23. Requiem
24. Deep in the Interior
25. Who Are the Mandoag?
26. Epilogue

Appendix A: Wingina and the Secotan
Appendix B: The Meaning of Mandoag and Nottoway
Notes and References
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Lee Miller offers enlivening insight and astounding detail as she resurrects a four-hundred-year-old American mystery." —Chicago Tribune

Editorial Reviews

Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony by Lee Miller provides clear and convincing explanations for the disappearance of the late 16th-century British settlement on Roanoke Island off North Carolina. In probing Native American land disputes and intrigue, Miller uncovers the reasons for the colonists' disappearance. Miller's prose is commanding as she speculates on what really happened to the colonists after they left Roanoke and on the inevitability of their leaving. An ethnohistorian and anthropologist, Miller authoritatively removes the fog she claims was intentionally wrapped around this mystery. ( June) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

The story of Roanoke Island's lost colony<-->115 men, women, and children who vanished from an abandoned military fort off the North Carolina coast around 1587<-->has been repeated so many times it's taken on the status of myth: America's longest-unsolved mystery. Miller, a TV documentary researcher trained as an anthropologist, offers a dramatically told solution based on the evidence left behind and shows the reasons<-->largely political<-->the colonists were probably destined to fail even before they left England. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

A remarkable book…deeply compelling, so much so that it is surely destined to claim a permanent place in the American colonial record.

Dr. A. David Napier

Lee Miller offers enlivening insight and astounding detail as she resurrects a 400-year-old American mystery.

Associated Press Staff

A remarkable book…deeply compelling, so much so that it is surely destined to claim a permanent place in the American colonial record.

Doctor - A. David Napier