In 1587, more than 100 men, women, and children traveled to the New World from England to found a colony on Roanoke Island. The colony鈥檚 governor went back to England later that year to get more supplies and returned in 1590. But by then, the colonists were gone.
The story of the 鈥渓ost colony鈥� took center stage in the American imagination in the 1830s, when a historian wrote a bestselling account of the mystery. At that time in American history, there were lots of immigrants coming to the United States. White people clung to the story of these lost white founders and especially to Virginia Dare, the first child born in the colony. People at the time said she was the first white child born on American soil.
Host Frank Stasio talks to about the role Virginia Dare and the rest of the lost colonists have played in American culture. Lawler is the author of 鈥溾�� (Doubleday/2018) He鈥檚 also a contributing writer for Science and a contributing editor for Archaeology Magazine.
He will be at . On Saturday, June 9, he will be at and at . Lawler will be at , and he will be at . On Friday, June 15, he will be at .
