Roanoke help!

[chija]

Hey folks

Comments

[kutsuwamushi]

Well, one problem you're going to run into here is that American schools don't have a standardized curriculum, and so what people learned in school is going to vary a lot.

I don't remember the Lost Colony of Roanoke even being mentioned in school. I only know about its existence due to infotainment channels (like Discovery or History) that sometimes do specials on historical mysteries.

Otherwise I doubt I would know about it at all. I'm not too interested in early American history, so I haven't done much independent reading about it, and it's not exactly a common pop culture reference, either.

I'm sure that plenty of people did learn about it in school, though.

[magenta_girl]

I read about it on my own when I was 8 or 9. I don't know if we covered it much in school. As I recall, it was colonized, and then some of the people left. When they returned, everyone had disappeared. And weren't some things carved on the trees?
There was some book I just read recently where the colonists were attacked by vampires and that explained what happened to them, but I don't remember which book.

[buboniclou]

This, pretty much.

[subluxate]

This. Plus the carving on trees.

[pelethetart]

Yup. Add in the tree carvings and theories about Natives. Though in school it was glanced over with a paragraph or two.

Then I did independent research a bit older.

It's also prominently featured in an episode of the tv show Supernatural (Croatoa).

[donutsweeper]

I remember first learning about Roanoke in elementary school, maybe 4th grade or so (9/10 years old) and again in American history in High School. But I also love the subject and have looked into it elsewhere. It's a great subject for history articles and podcasts, like this one from "Stuff You Missed In History Class." They also have articles on it at their website.

[akiko]

I learned about it on a family vacation to the Outer Banks when I was 10, but other than that... not much. I grew up in Maryland, so I learned about the Calverts and Baltimores in local history; my NC-born friends probably got more. (As kutsuwamushi says, we don't have a standard curriculum from state to state, or even within a single state.)

There's only one pop culture reference I know of: Neil Gaiman's 1602. Virginia Dare was the first child born to colonists, and she's a starring character. (wikipedia lists more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Dare)

[akiko]

1602 is pretty cool, even if you're not a superhero fan (I can't even remember if it's Marvel or DC. Whichever set has Spiderman.) You miss a few references that would be totally obvious if you know everyone's non-superhero names, but the story holds together well.