The Disappearance of Roanoke Colony
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The History
In 1584, the English tried to establish a colony in Roanoke Island, an island of present-day North Carolina, with no success due to poor relations with Native tribes, harsh climate, and lack of supplies. Three years later, Governor John White, with 115 other colonists, once again tried to establish Roanoke Island in July 1587. A month after arriving the colonists were encouraging the governor to go back to England in order to get more food, tools, and people. Thus, White left his family and the colony behind to go back to England. Once he arrived in England, his return trip was delayed for three years due to the war with Spain. Upon his arrival back to the island, White found that no colonists remained, the only evidence that anyone had been there at all being the words “Croatoan” carved into a fence post, “CRO” carved into a tree, and possibly, but unlikely, one single skeleton. White then tried to travel to an island inhabited by the Croatan Native American tribe, 50 miles south of Roanoke Island, present-day Hatteras Island, but was unsuccessful both times because of storms. White then returned to England and lived out his days creating a map of Roanoke Island, presumably among other things.

The Theories
Because of the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the colonists of Roanoke Island, there are a lot of theories surrounding this event, including that they either assimilated with, were enslaved by, or were killed by a nearby Native American tribe, the colonists moved inland, the colonists were victims of alien abduction, they tried unsuccessfully to sail back to England, they were murdered by Spanish soldiers who were in Florida, or they were somehow transformed into trees. While these theories offer bold, if not humorous, historical accounts of the event, I will be focusing on an explanation that proposes that there was an outbreak of either zombies or mass cannibalism on Roanoke Island.

This theory suggests that when the colonists were left by John White, a drought occurred on the island (which there is evidence of), causing their already low sources of food and water to dwindle quicker. Because of this, colonists resorted to cannibalism. In colonial days, this was not unheard of, as there is evidence that the colonists of Jamestown also resorted to cannibalism due to scarcity of food. Furthermore, local Native American tribes also declared that the colonists were having battles among one another. As well, Lawrence Stager, Harvard archeologist, has supposedly found and published evidence of cannibalism on Roanoke Island. However, I cannot find the primary source for this.

While the colonists weren’t great people to begin with, as they came to America and stole the Natives land without a second thought, I personally don’t want to believe that the entire colony was wiped out due to cannibalism and that none of the colonists were like, “Hey, maybe we could find an alternative to this?” So here’s the zombie theory, which is slightly better in that, if the colonists were turned into zombies, they couldn’t exactly help themselves to resort to cannibalism: the colonists were somehow turned into zombies and then proceeded to eat or zombify other colonists. Andre Freeman, a researcher of Zombie Research Society, cites aforementioned archeologist Lawrence Stager and reports from Native tribes claiming the colonists were fighting with one another as proof of this theory. Freeman says, “A sudden undead plague sweeping through the unprepared colony would quickly become a horrific, violent feast, leaving not a single man, woman or child alive.”

Both of these theories are upheld by the fact that the disappearance of the colonists was swift, happening in just three years with no (or almost no) bodies or skeletons discovered. Perhaps the zombie outbreak started almost as soon as White left, which would have given the colonists’ bodies and bones time to decay or be eaten by animals. In the zombie theory, the zombies did not spread because they were on an island and, once their food supply was gone, they died out.
However, neither of these theories have substantial evidence; unlike in the case of Jamestown, there is no hard evidence of cannibalism (other than that of Stager, which, again, I cannot find), so, thankfully, I can sleep at night knowing that it is very improbable that my hometown has the same name as a former colony of cannibals.

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Bibliography
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjmXzYdxuTQ
2. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/roanoke-colony-deserted
3. https://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/mysterious-lost-colony-roanoke-island-020289
4. https://www.littlethings.com/lost-colony-of-roanoke
5. https://www.littlethings.com/roanoke-mystery-theories
6. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/5/130501-jamestown-cannibalism-archeology-science/#close
7. https://zombieresearchsociety.com/archives/2190
8. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/5/130501-jamestown-cannibalism-archeology-science/#close

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