This article was originally published on WHerMoments
In the early 1600s, hundreds of bachelors lived in their own colony — free, but lonely. It was obvious what they needed, but how could all these rough-and-tumble bachelors find wives in an unexplored land? The answer, to them, was simple: they'd have to send for wives via mail. Yes, mail-order brides have existed since well before the dawn of the internet — even before there was a proper postal service. And although it may seem unbelievable today, mail-order brides were essential to the foundation of the United States.
The first settlement
After an expedition spearheaded by the Virginia Company of London, English settlers founded "James Fort" — later known as Jamestown — in Virginia. Their first attempt at establishing a colony in Roanoke had resulted in the mysterious disappearances of over 115 people, so it was essential that Jamestown was a success.
While it eventually became famous as the first permanent English settlement in the U.S., Jamestown was characterized by its wild and rebellious atmosphere in its early days. The settlers were unruly, adventurous, and undisciplined.
Finding their feet
Their bad tempers may have been motivated by very real fears, however. You see, life in Jamestown was far from a picnic. Starvation and disease ravished the Jamestown population, and it forced the settlers to adapt by expanding their agricultural abilities. They diversified into tobacco crops, for instance, and it made some folks wealthy.
Despite this, not everyone was happy. Aside from the case of successful tobacco pioneer John Rolfe marrying the famed Native American princess Pocahontas, most men were single.
The grave imbalance
And by 1619, almost all of the inhabitants of Jamestown were male. A society governed by rugged, 17th-century-era masculinity could physically survive, but could it thrive? Well, without women, the male settlers couldn't marry. Although this inability to find love was indeed a legitimate concern, there was an even larger issue at play.
Without women who could conceive children, Jamestown wouldn't last beyond one generation. Obviously, life without women wasn't only an empty one, but an untenable one.
An unattractive pitch
Why was there such an enormous gender imbalance in Jamestown? The women had a good reason for staying at home while the men sailed off in search of new lands. Many women were reluctant to leave behind their comfortable lives for a future of uncertainty in North America.
Then, when reports of famine, starvation, and disease reached England, any open-mindedness the women may have had was likely quashed. If their lives were already difficult in Great Britain, imagine how much worse it would be in an unruly colony! And from there, Jamestown only continued to deteriorate.
The mass exodus
Naturally, the lack of women frustrated the male masses. And it was this deficiency, coupled with the wild, unpredictable nature of life in a struggling colony on unfamiliar soil, that led to men deserting Jamestown.
After all, what was the point of working to the bone if you didn't have a warm home, an agreeable wife, and a couple of kiddos to go home to? Clearly, the Virginia Company had to come up with an initiative to save the settlement — and fast.
Let's make a plan
Determined to secure Jamestown's survival, Virginia Company treasurer Edwin Sandys came up with an idea that was ingenious — if a little unorthodox, especially by modern standards. As he put it, increasing the female population was the only way to make “the men more settled [and] lesse moveable.”
But there had to be a way to convince the ladies across the pond that life in a colony would be worth the struggles. So, why not reach out to women directly and attract them to Jamestown with an appealing offer?
Taking action
Nowadays, most people would be repelled by the idea of essentially "ordering" a complete stranger to marry. But back then, the need for a growing population outweighed decorum for many men. So, it didn't take long for the other board members to agree to Sandys' proposition. They quickly put out an advertisement targeting potential wives for the unattached male residents of Jamestown.
And the women who responded became the first-ever mail-order brides in America. But how exactly were these ladies persuaded to leave their homes for lives of hardship in North America?
Overcoming the initial hurdle
Basically, Sandys and his colleagues offered a solution to an existing problem. Back in England, marriage required enormous financial commitment. Women who didn't come from wealthy families would often have to do years of domestic work to earn enough money — or a "dowry" — to wed.
Women needed a sizable dowry back then in order to "attract a husband," as historian Nancy Egloff noted. For women in tough situations, emigration was a healthy alternative to years of hard domestic work.
Upping the incentives
The Virginia Company offered women diverse dowries that would've taken them years to earn otherwise. These dowries consisted of decent clothing and well-made furniture, as well as transportation to the colony. Even more attractive to the women, however, was the Virginia Company's promise that they'd give each woman a small plot of land.
And then and now, land = freedom! An unattached woman would also receive her pick of a range of wealthy bachelors. A pretty good deal, right?
A wrench in the works
Over 100 women in England thought so, as they immediately agreed to the terms and prepared to make the long, one-way journey to Jamestown. In order to finance the Virginia Company's end of the deal, the bachelors who were due to receive wives had to reimburse the Virginia Company with 120 pounds of "good leaf" tobacco — an amount later upped to 150 pounds.
As this was the equivalent of $5,000 in today's currency, only the relatively wealthy were able to afford spouses. But this wasn't the only flaw in this new system.
A bad reputation
Soon after the first of the mail-order brides arrived in the colony, they soon began to be known as "tobacco wives" because most of them were traded for the "good leaf" tobacco. Imagine finding out that your husband and the government thinks you're worth just one hundred pounds of tobacco?!
Before long, this system earned a nasty reputation, and it's easy to see why. People complained that the women were being traded like property. But as it turns out, this may be a misconception.
The true source of trouble
In truth, the merchants only put those financial rules in place in order to recover the costs of transporting the female settlers. (Yeah, that wouldn't make us feel any better about the situation, either.)
According to some accounts, however, the Virginia Company often wasn't that concerned with being paid back, and it had even made peace with the possibility that some women would choose love over financial stability (AKA, men who lacked the necessary funds to "trade" for their wives). The truly unethical practices arose later on.
The new incentive
Yes, while the Virginia Company may have had the means to send people to the colonies, they never forced brides to cross the Atlantic. This not only ensured that very few people would return to England, but it helped keep peace among the settlers, most of whom were keen on starting a new life in the colony.
But a little later on, another incentive motivated many folks to commit actual crimes in order to obtain what they felt was their rightful property from the government. That's when the Virginia Company had a true scandal on its hands.
Manipulating the facts
According to the Virginia Company's new policy, any settler who financed their own journey to Jamestown would receive a 50-acre plot of land; needless to say, this was much more land than the average mail-order bride and her husband would be given. The same deal was offered to those who sponsored another settler.
Eager to take advantage of these offers, wealthy citizens would snatch up others and bring them to the colony as servants to grab as much land as possible. Yes, you read that correctly — we're talking kidnapping!
It only gets worse from here
While kidnappings were illegal, they were very rarely — if ever — punished. One woman named Ann Servant was fined only 13 shillings and sixpence for kidnapping a 16-year-old girl named Alice Flax. That's a crime that would land you in prison for years these days!
Even young children were forcibly relocated during this time period, and one man was believed to have kidnapped an astounding 6,000 people. Surely this had a detrimental effect on the mail-order bride service, right?
Beating the odds
Despite the increase in kidnappings, the Virginia Company maintained the integrity of the mail-order bride system, ensuring that only willing women entered the program. By providing fair dowries to the brides, the Virginia Company ensured the loyalty of the women. And by providing wives for the men, the Company gained the men's trust.
And because both male and female participants were invested in the success of the program and the settlement itself, it all contributed to the flourishing of Jamestown.
An unexpected advantage
Contrary to the social stigma, the mail-order bride system actually contributed to female empowerment in the colonies. The women of Jamestown received far more freedoms than had been afforded to them in England. They were allowed to own land, for example, as well as dispose of property, make wills, and appoint executors without first obtaining spousal consent.
Back in England, they would've been lower-class domestic servants; in Jamestown, they answered only to themselves (and their husbands). But what made this lifestyle possible?
Making compromises
In order to attract female settlers, colonial leaders simply overlooked many of the laws that governed women back in England.
In addition, members of the Virginia House of Burgesses pressured the Virginia Company to set aside parcels of land for new arrivals as a token for their bravery; as we've established, women never would've been permitted to own their own land in England. Mail-order brides were eligible to own land as well, but there was also a grim issue that spurred on women's equality.
The silver lining
Throughout the 17th century, malaria, dysentery, and influenza ran rampant throughout Virginia, killing many. These diseases cut countless marriages short and sent the mail-order bride "business" into a free fall. To keep the colony afloat, then, the Virginia Company handsomely provided for young widows. While women in England commonly received one-third of their late husbands' estates, those in Virginia would inherit far greater portions.
But none of this accounted for one of Colonial America's most enduring mysteries. Before Jamestown even took root, English colonists tried to settle in what's now known as Dare County, North Carolina.
A missing colony
Back then, however, it was called Roanoke. The colony was started in the early days of the New World, when a band of settlers arrived on an island off the coast of North America. They built homes, began farming, and ultimately created a small community. Within just a few years, though, they had disappeared, never to be seen again.
The "lost colony" of Roanoke has become one of the country's earliest and most enduring mysteries. So where did they go? Well, compelling new evidence could now finally solve the puzzle.
The Governor returned to find no one
Even today, the fate of the missing inhabitants remains one of American history’s most captivating puzzles. And you should know that the colony was barely off its feet when governor John White left Roanoke on a mission to source much-needed supplies.
By the time he returned, however, the rest of the settlers – including members of his own family – were nowhere to be seen. At one point between 1585 and 1590, over 100 people seemingly disappeared into thin air. What really happened?
What happened to the colonists?
Did the settlers perish in a violent battle with the forces struggling for control of the New World? Did a nearby Native American tribe fight for — and win — their land back? Or did the colonists starve as they waited in vain for John White to return? Perhaps, alternatively, they survived, and for whatever reason, they abandoned Roanoke?
Over the centuries, the case has grown colder and colder... until now. Yes, in October 2020 a new chapter in this fascinating story began to unfold.
Researchers find new evidence
According to the First Colony Foundation, a research group based in North Carolina, evidence has emerged that sheds new light on the settlers’ ultimate fate.
But you can't attempt to solve Roanoke's centuries-old mystery without returning to the day John White and his ship of settlers first set sail for the shores of what is now North Carolina's Outer Banks. It was May 1587, and surprisingly, it wasn't the first time that a group of ambitious settlers hoped to make their home in Roanoke.
They tried to succeed where others failed
A small spit of land off the coast of what is now North Carolina, Roanoke Island was named for the Roanoke indigenous people who had called the land home for generations. The area had already been the setting for one English community established two years previously.
But, perhaps tellingly, that earlier venture had failed, and most of the inhabitants had evacuated back to their homeland. Roanoke Island, you see, wasn't the easiest land for the English to build a home on.
The settlers
Undeterred, the second group of settlers arrived on Roanoke Island in July 1587. As previously mentioned, they were led by a man called White. He had been a member of the first aborted colony.
And according to the records, there were approximately 115 men, women, and children among their ranks, including the governor’s daughter, who was expecting a baby of her own. Before long, she would have the first English child born in North America. She named the child "Virginia" in honor of Queen Elizabeth I.
Forced to leave
But just ten days after this momentous occasion, White was forced to leave the fledgling colony — and his family — behind. Supplies were dwindling, it seems, and he needed to return to England to drum up additional resources.
So, towards the end of August, the governor left his family on Roanoke Island and embarked on the long journey across the Atlantic. His plan was to sail back to England, collect more supplies for the colony, and then sail return to Roanoke, all in 3 months.
Side-tracked for years
Unfortunately, White’s trip took far longer than he had anticipated. Back in England, he found his mission sidelined by the threat of the Spanish Armada, which was intent on invading the British Isles. Eventually, Sir Francis Drake’s forces vanquished the enemy, and the governor of Roanoke was finally able to return to his family in Roanoke... at least, that was his hope.
You see, by the time White arrived back on the island, almost three years had passed. And anything could've happened to the colonists during those three years.
What he found upon returning
White knew that the colonists hadn't had enough supplies to last them more than a few months; if they were to survive, they would've had to have miraculously adapted to their new environment. Because of this, White had no idea what condition he'd find the colonists in when he finally got back to Roanoke. Sure enough, when he finally arrived, he didn't find a thriving settlement.
When White first arrived, it was the silence that told him something was very wrong. The sounds of a thriving community were absent; only birdsong and wind reached his ears.
One significant clue
The colony he'd left was now abandoned, and judging by the overgrown foliage infiltrating the former community, it had been abandoned for quite some time. But how did the more than 100 colonists, including the governor's daughter and granddaughter, vanish into thin air?
On closer inspection, White realized that the people of Roanoke hadn’t quite disappeared without a trace. Almost as famous as the eerily deserted colony is the message that the vanished inhabitants apparently left behind.
Storm forces them out
Carved into a tree, White found the word “CROATOAN” spelled out in capital letters. And nearby, another trunk bore a similar legend: “CRO.” But before White and his men could investigate any further, a dreadful storm hit the abandoned settlement. And with their ships damaged, they had little choice but to turn around and head back to England.
There, the governor of Roanoke lived out the remainder of his days, unable to raise enough money to return to the New World and seek out his missing kin.
The most common theory
So what happened? Over the years, a number of different theories have emerged to account for what White found when he returned to the colony. One of the most popular, though, is the idea that the settlers abandoned Roanoke and relocated to Croatoan Island some 50 miles to the southeast.
Of course, this idea is seemingly supported by the carved messages the colonists left behind. But why would they have chosen to leave Roanoke in favor of Croatoan, which is known as Hatteras Island today?
Carved message
According to some experts, the settlers may have found themselves struggling to survive without resources in a foreign land. To make matters worse, Roanoke Island was far from the most hospitable region in the country. It was difficult to access by boat due to the dangerous North American continental shelf, which made establishing a harbor nearly impossible.
The island also experienced (and still experiences) heavy snowfall in the winter and humid heat in summer; it definitely wasn't the easiest place to establish a colony.
Joining forces with the Croatoan
As the theory goes, the inhabitants of Roanoke knew they wouldn't be able to survive for long without more supplies, so they chose to join forces with the Hatteras people living on Croatoan.
Certainly, the natives’ knowledge of the region would have helped the colonists to survive as their supplies dwindled to nothing. In fact, some believe that White’s descendants, along with the rest of the settlers, simply blended themselves into the indigenous tribe.
Backed by personal accounts
Interestingly, this theory was lent further credence in the early 18th century when the English explorer John Lawson arrived in North Carolina and visited the Hatteras people. When he spoke to them, he was apparently startled to discover that some of their number claimed to be of partly Caucasian heritage.
A few of the people he encountered had gray eyes, which would certainly appear to suggest some kind of European genetic influence. Were these people the descendants of the original Roanoke colonists?
Securing their future
Lawson seemed to believe so. In his 1709 book A New Voyage to Carolina, he theorized that the colonists had abandoned all hope of White’s return — and therefore all hope of ever getting more supplies.
Instead, he concluded, they had chosen to secure their future in North America by intermarrying with the Hatteras people, who established themselves as allies early on. Of all the potential theories of what happened to the colonists, this is by far the most optimistic.
A different theory
Other theories have been bandied about over the years, and most of them suggest a much darker turn of events for the lost colony of Roanoke. According to legend, later colonists in the region embarked on a mission to find out the fate of their predecessors.
Eventually, they met a chief of the Powhatan people — and his version of events was grim. While the Hatteras people were friendly with the colonists, other tribes weren't so quick to offer their support.
A grim end
The chief of the Powhatan tribe claimed to have slaughtered the colonists. This is definitely a possibility, as the tension between the Native Americans and the English colonists is well documented. Plus, the Native Americans were far more equipped for war than the colonists.
It's believed that the Powhatan people may have attacked the colonists in an attempt to avert predictions from native holy men about threats from foreign marauders. But while the tale is certainly a dramatic one, there is little in the way of hard evidence to support this particular version of events.
Or was it a rival empire?
So were the Roanoke colonists wiped out by hostile natives? Did they merge peacefully with the Hatteras people? Or, perhaps, did something else occur altogether? In the 1930s, the playwright Paul Green was researching a piece about the mystery when he realized that Spanish settlers had recorded the settlement in great detail.
Could the rival empire, then, have launched an attack on the unprepared colonists? It's not out of the realm of possibility, especially since the "New World" was prime real estate back then.
They had access to ships
Yet another theory suggests that the colonists grew tired of waiting for supplies, but instead of trying to stick it out on Roanoke or seeking assistance from nearby Native American tribes, they decided to attempt a return trip to England. After all, they owned a ship and probably had a few sailors capable of making the voyage.
But even if they did embark on such a mission, they still lacked supplies they needed to survive. And obviously, if this did happen, their ship must have sunk, bringing all of them along with it.
Researchers make a discovery
Despite all this speculation, though, there has never been a definitive answer as to what happened to the people of Roanoke. We may have gotten closer than ever before to answer, though, in 2012. In that year, researchers discovered something interesting about an artifact in the British Museum.
Known as the La Virginea Pars map, it was painted by White himself back in 1585... and the truth may have been under historians' noses this entire time.
Mysterious patches on the map
The map shows some of the early colonies along the eastern coast of North America, including the fledgling settlement on Roanoke Island. But when a team from the First Colony Foundation took a closer look, they discovered something unexpected. There, on the surface of the ancient paper, were two mysterious patches.
They weren't symbols you'd normally find on a map, and there was no way those patches appeared due to time or age. No; White had added those patches for a reason.
Shone under a light
Intrigued, the researchers shone a light through the map, and that was when they spotted it: a secret symbol hidden beneath one of the patches. In the shape of a star with four points, it is thought to represent the location of a fort some 50 miles northwest of Roanoke.
Could this previously unknown location be where the colonists ended up? Or did the symbol represent some other meaning that was as yet unknown to modern historians?
They launched an excavation
Historians figured that the symbol most likely showed another location where the colonists had been — perhaps after Roanoke fell through. After all, the spot, dubbed Site X, was near to an indigenous settlement, and the Europeans are known to have established their towns in similarly positioned locations.
But to really get to the bottom of the matter, the First Colony Foundation needed to conduct a proper excavation. And so a team headed by archaeologist Nick Luccketti arrived in North Carolina’s Bertie County in 2015.
Fragments spoke volumes
Before long, the team stumbled upon something promising. Although they could find no evidence of any kind of fortification, they did uncover more than 20 fragments of pottery that appeared to be English in origin. And the shards were similar in appearance to those unearthed at Roanoke Island itself.
The chances that the pottery once came from Roanoke's colonists were higher than ever before. Unfortunately, something happened years after the Roanoke colonists disappeared that poked a hole in this theory.
Pre-dating Jamestown
As it turned out, the area surrounding Site X was eventually populated by English colonists moving south from Jamestown in Virginia. But this didn’t occur until the latter half of the 17th century, and the pieces of pottery are thought to pre-date this migration.
This seems to suggest, then, that the artifacts were left behind by Europeans who traveled to North Carolina before the first known settlers. So, the theory is still alive: could the pottery have been brought there from Roanoke?
Ground-penetrating radar
Using ground-penetrating radar, Luccketti and his team tracked down another potential site of interest just two miles away from where they found the pottery. And in December 2019 they returned to conduct additional excavations. There, just as in the previous location, they unearthed pieces of European pottery believed to date from the time of the Roanoke colony.
They felt they were closer than ever before to shedding light on what had really happened to the "lost" colonists — who, perhaps, had never really been "lost" at all.
Trace back to England
According to reports, the fragments at what became dubbed “Site Y” are thought to have come from a number of different locations. Among them, experts believe, are pieces of ceramic from North Devon, Essex, and London in England as well as stoneware from France and Germany. So how did they end up here?
According to the team, the pottery pieces came from jars that were used to keep and prepare food, indicating that they had once belonged to an established community.
The tell-tale sign
But even though it is possible that they were left behind by later settlers, Luccketti and his team do not believe that is their likely origin. One of the most convincing tell-tale signs that the pottery dates to the Roanoke era? It’s all to do with pipes – or, rather, the lack of them.
Apparently, the settlers and traders from Jamestown would have habitually smoked from distinctive clay vessels. But according to the excavators, none of these were found at either of the Bertie County sites.
Experts are confident
“We are very confident that these excavations are linked to the Roanoke colonies,” a representative of the First Colony Foundation told Artnet in November 2020. “We have considered all the reasonable possibilities and can find nothing else that fits the evidence.”
With primary sources from the Roanoke era in their hands, historians must have considered this centuries-old case to be closed, right? Not exactly. Not everyone, it seems, is in agreement with First Colony Foundation's conclusions... not even their fellow archaeologists.
But not everyone is convinced
“I am skeptical,” archaeologist Charles Ewen, from East Carolina University, told National Geographic. “[The First Colony Foundation] are looking to prove rather than seeking to disprove their theory, which is the scientific way.” So if these pottery shards are not evidence of the colonists migrating to Bertie County, then what are they?
If we have to try to disprove the theory set forth by the First Colony Foundation, then we have to consider other possible origins for the excavated pottery.
Potentially belonged to other groups
And that's exactly what one archaeologist did. In a 2015 interview with National Geographic, archaeologist Brett Riggs pointed out that the artifacts did not necessarily mean Europeans had settled in Bertie County.
In fact, the pottery could simply have been discarded, then later foraged by members of the indigenous community – only to turn up and baffle experts centuries on. “Anything of utility they took back to their homes,” Riggs explained. “They would vacuum it all up.”
The flaw in the theory
After all, if the colonists were truly dangerously low on supplies — and multiple accounts confirm that they were — then why would they have discarded the few supplies they had? Ivor Hume, an archaeologist who once excavated Roanoke Island, added that it was problematic to attach such a precise timeline to the finds.
He said, “I couldn’t date artifacts between 1590 and 1630. Did someone keep something for six weeks or six years? It is very hard to know.”
An unlikely location
That’s not all. According to Scott Dawson, who co-founded the Croatoan Archaeological Society, Bertie County would have been an unlikely destination for the lost colonists. Speaking to Artnet, he explained, “[It] was the heart of enemy territory. It is the last place they would go. They literally wrote down [that] they relocated to Croatoan.”
Dawson is referring, of course, to the mysterious "CRO" that was carved into a tree in what was once the colonist settlement. Who's to say that the colonists hadn't left the carving as a message to White, who they'd hoped would eventually return?
Archaeologists unearth a golden ring
This theory makes sense, and Dawson is not the only person who prefers the Croatoan theory. In 1998 archaeologists on Hatteras Island unearthed a golden ring inscribed with heraldic symbols. It was believed to be from 16th-century England. Could it have been brought as a treasured heirloom all the way from Roanoke?
Even hundreds of years later, it's obvious that the ring was once someone's prized possession, so it certainly seems possible that one of the colonists had kept it with them.
They've found other artifacts
The ring is only one of the many treasures found by historians that may date back to the Roanoke colony. Since 2009, Dawson and his partner have been sponsoring excavations at a site on Hatteras Island known as Cape Creek. And over the years, they have recovered several European artifacts.
Among these are part of a sword known as a rapier, an ingot of copper, and stoneware from Germany – all discovered in a soil layer from the late 1500s.
Brought or bartered?
Of course, it’s possible that these objects could simply have been bartered by the colonists rather than brought with them to Hatteras Island. But excavators have also discovered personal items, such as a piece of slate marked with the letter “M.” Speaking to National Geographic, archaeologist Mark Horton speculated, “This was owned by somebody who could read and write.
This wasn’t useful for trade but was owned by an educated European.” Of course, as interesting as these artifacts are, none of them can fully answer the question as to what happened to the lost Roanoke colony.
The theories still on the table
So did the lost colonists of Roanoke end up on Hatteras Island, in Bertie County, or somewhere else altogether? According to Ewen, the jury is still out. He said, “We still don’t know what happened, and we are waiting to be persuaded. I don’t think anything is off the table.”
For some, though, the artifacts discovered by Dawson’s foundation provide substantial evidence that the colonists headed inland when they ran out of supplies. The carved "CRO," the unearthed artifacts from educated Europeans; to many, these are proof that the Roanoke colonists lived among the Hatteras people.
What the evidence points to
Some historians are certainly convinced. Speaking to Artnet, William M. Kelso of the preservation group Jamestown Rediscovery said, “What has been found so far at Site Y in Bertie County appears to me to solve one of the greatest mysteries in early American history: the odyssey of the ‘Lost’ Colony.”
But since the artifacts and their true origins are subject to so much historical debate, the mystery prevails. We may never know what really happened to some of the first English colonists to set foot on the New World.