Lost Colony of Roanoke | In the Name of the Queen | 1

American History Tellers

Wondery

History, Education For Kids, Kids & Family, Society & Culture

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2021

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth the First of England was locked in a battle for global dominance with Spain. She picked her favorite advisor, Walter Raleigh, to claim land in North America. In the coming years, Raleigh’s men made several voyages and explored the area known as the Outer Banks, in what is now North Carolina. There, they identified one island as a promising site for a future colony: Roanoke.

But as relations with the area’s indigenous people soured, and a drought brought famine to the region, England’s first attempts to establish a permanent base on Roanoke ended in failure. Still, the Queen knew that success on the new continent was key to her empire. Soon, she would send 117 men, women, and children to establish a permanent colony in the New World. But none of them could possibly imagine the hardships that lay ahead.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:07.0	Imagine this July 22nd 1587.
0:21.7	You're the captain of a small sailing ship, and you're preparing to deliver a landing
0:26.6	party to an island called Roanoke off the eastern coast of the new American continent.
0:32.2	Its daybreak and very foggy.
0:34.5	You can barely see your mother vessel delaying, even though it's just yards away.
0:39.4	With you on deck is John White.
0:41.6	He's to be governor of a new colony, Virginia, named in honor of England's Virgin Queen,
0:46.7	Elizabeth I.
0:48.2	The chosen site of the colony is another 100 miles up the coast.
0:52.2	At first you're stopping here at Roanoke to look for a group of soldiers left behind by
0:57.0	a previous expedition.
0:59.1	White turns to you and smiles.
1:01.0	Oh, it'll be good to be off the ship for a few hours, back on dry land.
1:05.5	Can we cast off soon?
1:07.3	Yes, as soon as the fog lifts.
1:08.9	I can't sail blind through waters this shallow.
1:12.1	For both you and White, this is your second expedition to Roanoke.
1:16.0	As a sailor you despise this place, it has no natural harbor, just exposed beaches surrounded
1:21.4	by treacherous sandbars that shift with every tide.
1:24.6	But White, an artist and scientist, seems to love it here.
	...

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