Virginia Dare was the first English baby born on American soil, on August 18, 1587, in the Roanoke Colony (present day North Carolina). The Roanoke Colony was an early attempt to establish an English settlement in what later became the Virginia Colony, and was financed by Sir Walter Raleigh. Little Virginia’s grandfather, John White, was governor of the small colony; he returned to England for fresh supplies in that year, but was unable to get back to the New World for three more years. When he did, what he found was – nothing and no one – the village had been systematically dismantled and all the inhabitants were gone. The only clue was the word “Croatan†carved on a tree, indicating a local Indian tribe. In spite of extensive and repeated searches, no answers were ever found (although fraudulent artifacts were presented). From this humble beginning sprang the legend of the “Lost Colony†and the adulation of Virginia Dare as an angel, a saint, a proto-feminist and a demon – anything the imagination might seize upon. The generally accepted theory is that the ill-supplied colonists assimilated into the Croatan tribe (and perhaps others) and moved accordingly. Whatever her fate, Virginia Dare’s legacy as our first little American has been rich in story and myth, and has never lost its appeal.
