Roanoke Island and the Questions Rap

Spooky Szn Special (Episode 110)

October 31st 2020

Roanoke Island's Lost Colony

 

Today on Baked and Awake

My First Conspiracy- The Lost English Colony of Roanoke Island. This is both a Ghost Story, therefore fitting for a show released on Halloween, and to my mind a compelling example of competing versions of history that can be found not only here, but in so many stories we have preserved and related as "facts" throughout human history. I'm about to share with you a whole bunch of very well documented details that I nevertheless doubt you've heard anywhere else. As I am indicating, this is a story many, if not most of you think you already know.  I hope today to at least tell those of you in that camp a little bit more than you knew before, maybe a lot more- and for those fortunate enough to be learning about the Lost Colony for the first time today, I welcome you most warmly of all, and I promise to treat this opportunity of telling you this tale as the honor that in many ways it is. As always I'll remind you that there are detailed show notes for every episode and I usually include just about every source I cite during the show so that you can perform your own research to your satisfaction should you care to investigate further. talktous@bakedandawake is the email to use if you want to get in touch and talk further about any questions you have, or for anything else, really. Now, to do this Roanoke story any justice whatsoever, we are gonna have to use my personal Temporal Panopticon, otherwise known as a 2018 Mac Mini with two thrift store displays and a just decent broadband internet connection. We will use this magic mirror in order to peer into the mists of time. And since this time machine is so powerful, we have the opportunity to not only travel back to 1587, the year of the founding of the famed Lost Colony, but indeed to two years earlier, when the first colony at Roanoke was founded, only to be abandoned in only about 9 months. But really, why would we stop there?  Because even in 1585 there were more colonies and "expeditions" also known as "raiding parties" than I can easily count, so much so that we will come back to this point in a few minutes after we ever so briefly take a moment to remember, and to a small extent name, the existing inhabitants of the lands in question, which were at the time of this particular moment in history, already engaging in persistent, decades long campaigns of trading, raiding, and enslaving the indigenous people of North America for the enrichment of themselves and their European Patrons, and with an eye to completely acquiring said lands while subduing the People of those lands. This destiny and mission was laid out from just about Day One, as far as I can tell. This episode promises to be a long one.  I'm talking plug in your phone, grab a cup of tea, roll something extra frosty up and probably pack a backup bowl because the ride is long and bumpy, and ends in a book from the 1970's that I found on my own bookshelf that I just knew had to have a little tidbit for me.  And that book did not disappoint. And now, away we go, starting with...

 

Background on the context, or  prologue: https://www.popsci.com/descended-from-royalty/

 

The Big Picture Context, or a Timeline of Pre European Civilizations of North America

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_era

 

The Timeline of Events leading up to the story itself: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_European_colonization_of_North_America

 

Aw shit- you mean there were TWO Roanoke Colonies? What the flip, Man? https://sites.google.com/site/atimelineofamerica/1585---the-first-roanoke-colony

 

A 2019 YouTube Video that I used to refresh my memory on the story of the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke Island on the Weird History Channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDdt_ZHGcUA.