The secret token
Subtitle: myth, obsession, and the search for the lost colony of Roanoke
By: Andrew Lawler
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Doubleday
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 426
ISBN-13: 9780385542012
Subjects: History
Description: "A sweeping account of America's oldest unsolved mystery, the people racing to unearth its answer, and the sobering truths--about race, gender, and immigration--exposed by the Lost Colony of Roanoke. In 1587, 115 men, women, and children arrived at Roanoke Island on the coast of North Carolina. Chartered by Queen Elizabeth I, their colony was to establish England's first foothold in the New World. But when the colony's leader, John White, returned to Roanoke from a resupply mission, his settlers were nowhere to be found. They left behind only a single clue--a "secret token" carved into a tree. Neither White nor any other European laid eyes on the colonists again. What happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke? For four hundred years, that question has consumed historians and amateur sleuths, leading only to dead ends and hoaxes. But after a chance encounter with a British archaeologist, journalist Andrew Lawler discovered that solid answers to the mystery were within reach. He set out to unravel the enigma of the lost settlers, accompanying competing researchers, each hoping to be the first to solve its riddle. In the course of his journey, Lawler encounters a host of characters obsessed with the colonists and their fate, and he determines why the Lost Colony continues to haunt our national consciousness. Thrilling and absorbing, The Secret Token offers a new understanding not just of the first English settlement in the New World but of how its disappearance continues to define--and divide--America."--Dust jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Part one: The planting. Some delicate garden ; All signs of joy ; Firing invisible bullets ; Small things flourish by concord; title: Part two: The search. A whole country of English ; Child of science and slow time ; A four-hundred-year-old cover-up ; Pot of brass ; Rejoicing in things stark naughty ; We dare anything ; Heap plenty wampum; title: Part three: The revelation. Who's afraid of Virginia Dare? ; Swamp saints and renegades ; Return to Roanoke ; An old buck Christmas; title: Coda : a brave kingdom.