The Lost Colony of Roanoke: New Perspectives

by Brandon Fullam

When Governor John White sailed for England from Roanoke Island in August 1587, he left behind more than 100 men, women and children. They were never seen again by Europeans. For more than four centuries the fate of the Roanoke colony has remained a mystery, despite the many attempts to construct a satisfactory, convincing explanation. New research suggests that all past and present theories are based upon a series of erroneous assumptions that have persisted for centuries. Through a close examination of the early accounts, previously unknown or unexamined documents, and native Algonquian oral tradition, this book deconstructs the traditional theories. What emerges is a fresh narrative of the ultimate fate of the Lost Colony.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

268 pages, Paperback

Published April 11, 2017

About the author

Retired educator Brandon Fullam, B.A., M.A., has been researching and writing for more than a decade about England’s first attempts to establish a permanent colony in present-day North Carolina. Much of his work has focused on the disappearance of what has become known as the 1587 Lost Colony.
His books on this topic are The Lost Colony of Roanoke: New Perspectives, Manteo and The Algonquians of the Roanoke Voyages, and A Lost Colony Hoax: The Chowan River Dare Stone.
His most recent book is Edgar Allan Poe: A Scrapbook which contains nearly 500 clippings, records, notices, documents, and other contemporary ephemera pertaining to the life of Edgar Allan Poe and his parentage from 1788 to 1849.
He is a member of the Virginia Historical Society the Library of Virginia, and the Chesterfield Historical Society of Virginia. He lives in the Richmond, Virginia area.

Reviews

[Nicole Gibas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling and well-researched, offering exciting and plausible new theories and written in a thorough yet interesting manner. A welcome antidote to Lee Miller's disappointing book on the same topic.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to agree with the readers who said this book was full of good information but oddly dull.
For one thing I got completely lost in the names of the Native tribes and people who interacted with settlers at Roanoke or some about them in later years. Perhaps there might have been a way to anticipate this and mitigate it.
For another, I dislike books that constantly begin sentences with "as mentioned earlier." Seems like this should not be necessary as item as it was done here.
Having made those gripes, I think Fullam's theories make a lot of sense, and he has spent a lot of time reading primary sources as well as modern historians. It does seem likely that the 1587 settlers moved to the mainland in the area he suggests. Whether or not they in fact sent a ship to Newfoundland to look for British vessels, the hurricane in 1589 would have done in most of whoever was left. His overview of local Native legends about white ancestors was interesting and it is plausible that a small number of survivors of the hurricane would have integrated into a friendly Native tribe.
I was expecting information about archaeological explorations like in the Jamestown book I read some time ago, but that is not what is going on here.

[Douglas Love · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched but...

While the author has obviously researched all of the theories concerning the fate of the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke, the book is, generously put, pedantic. The author takes over 200 pages to reach the conclusion that we may never solve the monastery of the "Lost Colony" and that the likelihood of any identifiable descendants of the colonists existing today is remote, to say the least.

[Pamela · Rating 2 out of 5]

So much research and so much explanation made it hard to slog through---almost like a court case. However, the author's conclusions really made sense.

[Shannon McNear · Rating 3 out of 5]

I sometimes decline to rate books I've read for research because what I glean from them can't always be quantified as a "I liked this" or not. Some of Fullam's conclusions I strongly disagreed with (I have a completely different take on the dynamics between John White and Simon Fernandes) but he offers some outstanding information on hurricanes and their effect on the Outer Banks that I couldn't find anywhere else. So I'd have to say, where this book is good, it's great! I just found his tone in places a bit, oh, offputting. :-)