Hi, a quick question. How well is the story of the Roanoke colony and the name Virginia Dare are known in the US? I’m plotting a comic book set in the US in the 90s and I need to know how characters should react if they hear someone is a direct descendant/reincarnation/shares the same soul with her.
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I think the Roanoke story is relatively well known, but that is from my perspective. It’s not something that comes up in conversation, but considering the fact that I’ve seen it come up multiple times in my life over the past decades means it must have some reasonable visibility in our conscious.
I think in the scope of a fictional story, if you had a group of people who heard Roanoke in a scene, I bet you at least one person would know the reference but I seriously doubt everyone would, if that makes sense.
Pretty well known, though I might be biased (see my flair as to why). That said, I’ve seen Roanoke mentioned in pop culture before so that’s for sure well known enough that any group of people will have at least one person who knows about it.
The lost colony is a staple in early colonial history education. Most Americans will know the stories.
I grew up driving by the billboards for The Lost Colony (a play about Roanoke) on a regular basis. It shows up in pop culture pretty regularly, if you’re into mysteries.
Roanoke is taught throughout school here.
To me it is well known but I enjoy studying colonial history. Spoiler alert. They just joined the local native tribe. That’s it.
The rough outline is well-known to anyone who paid attention in school, although some of the more specific details might be more obscure for the general public.
i’ve never heard of it
I’d say Roanoake is something everyone at least half-remembers from school (they taught it to us, of course, why wouldn’t kids be into a mysterious vanishing colony story?). Virginia Dare would be a bit of a stretch.
If someone claimed to be a descendant of hers… I don’t know Dare’s life history enough to know how unlikely that would be. (I mean, I’ve heard conspiracy theories that would have required one of the most scrutinized and known-to-be-childless people in history to have had secret babies.) If it was plausible, I’d file it with “My ancestors came over on the Mayflower” (it’s an interesting bit of info, but it’s not like you *get* something for it.).
For the second part… now, I may have lived an outlier, but your example wouldn’t even be the first person to come up to me claiming to be a reincarnation of a historical figure. (If anything, it’d come off as something of an unambitious choice- people often go for the big ones, like Pharaohs or something.) In the moment, I’d be trying to remember who Virginia Dare was, while judging what *kind* of weird situation we were now in.
Roanoke Colony? Very well known
Virginia Dare? Not as much
Pretty well known
I learned about the lost Roanoke Colony in 3rd grade in the early 80s in Maine. The lost colony should be familiar to very familiar to most Americans. Reading your question places Virginia Dare in context so I remembered who she was, if I had just heard her name without the context linking her to the Roanoke Colony I probably would’ve thought her name sounded familiar but most likely I wouldn’t have been able to tell you why. The few people here claiming that they weren’t taught about Roanoke in school are probably people that didn’t pay much attention in class.
Most people know of Roanoke. Not so much Virginia dare.
Most people have probably at least heard of Roanoke. Exactly how much they know about it will vary a lot.
Like I know that Roanoke was a colony in Virginia whose colonists mysteriously disappeared. I don’t know the name Virginia Dare
Much of the average American’s knowledge probably comes from popular media. Several popular shows have featured stories about Roanoke. American horror Story and Supernatural come to mind
The chances of someone in the 1990s knowing would have been very good.
It was a better episode of Leonard Nimoy’s TV show in search of. Which was on TV a lot in the 1970s. 4 TV channels no cable, most everyone over a certain age would have seen it in 1990.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/horror/comments/61qauz/who_remembers_in_search_of_1970s_leonard_nimoy/](https://www.reddit.com/r/horror/comments/61qauz/who_remembers_in_search_of_1970s_leonard_nimoy/)
If you can find the episode you might want to watch, one possibility is that they went to live with an Indian tribe.
I would love to know more about your comic. I will ask the local shop to get it when it is out.
Thanks!
Direct descendant? “Huh, that’s cool I guess.” Might need a reminder who Virginia Dare was.
Reincarnation/shares the same soul? Far more disturbed about confirmation of these metaphysical ideas than than the identity of the soul.
Everyone knows the Roanoke story, but most people don’t know the name of Virginia Dare off-hand.
Most Americans I feel know the general gist of that story: First English colony disappeared, maybe into the natives, maybe into death. Croatan was scratched into the tree. Anything more deep than that I feel might be relegated to people who really enjoy learning about colonial history
The interaction would likely be this:
“I’m a direct descendant of Virginia Dare.”
“Who?”
“First English child born in the New World. Part of the lost Roanoke colony.”
“Oh yeah, I remember hearing about that.”
Grew up in NC, so I’m very familiar with the Lost Colony & Virginia Dare.
If I met someone who claimed to be a direct descendant of Virginia Dare, my response would be “how could you possibly know that?” Virginia Dare disappeared with the rest of the colony and she was a child at the time. There’s no way someone can credibly claim to be a direct descendant.
We all know the name, but in the 90s, it would be a bit more obscure, to say the least outside the south and Virginia. Jamestown was abandoned for Williamsburg, let to pretty much decay. It was a thing in some history books but not all, if you know the state the book was set in, you could go to that sub and ask if anyone knows if it was taught.
This is not really “everyday knowledge.”
Pretty much all of us learns about it in elementary or middle school, but for most people they’ll just be names that are vaguely familiar. It may take them a moment or two to recall the details.
Roanoke is taught in high school, so most people should be familiar with it. Though somebody who either didn’t pay attention in class or summarily forgot everything as soon as they graduated might not remember.
I don’t recall Virginia Dare’s name being mentioned in my history textbook (but keep in mind it’s been over 20 years since I graduated) though, so her name might not be as recognizable as Roanoke in general. Or maybe my high school history textbook was just weird.
The colony might be fairly well known via pop culture. It’s been featured on shows and games like Supernatural, Haven, Mind Hunters…and Tomb Raider.
If Virginia Dare has direct descendants, they probably wouldn’t know it although the Lumbee Tribe in NC claims to have connections to the lost colonists. Maybe ask one of them.
I think most people in the eastern region would know Roanoke, but not her name specifically.
The general story of Roanoke colony is pretty widely known and recognized.
As for “Virginia Dare”? I’d guess not many people at all. Hell, I’ve got a history degree and I have no clue who that is.
In North Carolina schools it was a major point of history. In other parts of the US probably the Mayflower/Plymouth Rock story is more popular. You could write it like “Virginia Dare – wasn’t that the lost colony thing?”
Very. Even if you ask someone and they don’t know exactly what they were, they’ll know they’ve heard it.
It’s very integral to the way the Colonial history is taught.
Growing up in North Carolina, it was part of all: state history curriculum, US history curriculum, and world history/exploration curriculum. I don’t know about the direct descendant part; there’s no evidence Virginia Dare ever saw her first birthday.
Roanoke Colony I know the head of the colony went back to England for supplies, but got caught up in a war in Europe, then came back and everyone was gone, but they wrote Croatoa on the wall, which was a native tribe in the area and many of them joined the tribe.
Virginia Dare rings a bell, but I couldn’t tell you anything other than I think it was a ghost story.