Searching for the Roanoke Colonies: An Interdisciplinary Collection.

Searching for the Roanoke Colonies: An Interdisciplinary Collection. Edited by E. Thomson Shields Jr. and Charles R. Ewen. (Raleigh: Office of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, c. 2003. Pp. xvi, 214. Paper, $15.70, ISBN 0-86526-309-4. Order from Historical Publications, Office of Archives and History, 4622 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4622.)

More than four centuries after their disappearance, Roanoke's so-called lost colonists continue to haunt the American memory. Generations of historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, folklorists, novelists, poets, and playwrights have searched for the lost colony in what remains perhaps the greatest American mystery. This continuous search by diverse specialists demonstrates the potential of collaborative, interdisciplinary investigation. The editors of Searching for the Roanoke Colonies: An Interdisciplinary Collection envisioned this collective endeavor when they assembled Roanoke experts in 1993 and again in 1998. This volume includes selected papers from those meetings and represents the most recent Roanoke scholarship, thus making it useful for scholars, students, or anyone else who wants to understand Roanoke's hold on our imagination.

The editors grouped the essays into three categories: folklore and literature, history, and archaeology and anthropology. However, beyond the table of contents, these divisions are not so clear. There are no page breaks or section markers to distinguish folklore from history or anthropology. The intentional effect blurs the boundaries between disciplines and suggests the usefulness of each specialty to the other. Methodologically, the essays are different from one another. What they share is their attention to place, which confirms the power of place to shape people's identity, perceptions, and memory.

These essays show that, when searching for Roanoke, it is not always easy to distinguish popular perceptions from reality. To wit, editor E. Thomson Shields Jr. concedes that "[h]umans need a good story, factual or not" (p. 2). However, in his subsequent essay, Shields aptly distinguishes between the fictionalized portrayals of Ralph Lane's villainy and the rhetorical realities of sixteenth-century promotional literature: the former "need[s] more clear-cut 'good guys' and 'bad guys,'" while the latter sought to cultivate financial support and willing colonists (p. 26). Essays by David Beers Quinn, Thomas E. Davidson, and Joyce Youings further explore the connections between money and manpower. William S. Powell examines the ethnicity of those who went to Roanoke. He finds that, despite the perceptions of English homogeneity, there was a surprisingly multi-ethnic mix that also included "German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Irish, Scottish, Danish, Flemish, and Welsh" (p. 52). But perceptions are still powerful, and as Olivia A. Isil concludes, it was misperception that sank the reputation of Simon Fernandez, the capable Portuguese pilot blamed for dumping the colonists on Roanoke Island so that he could prey on Spanish shipping. Few have appreciated that Roanoke's concealed location made it an ideal base from which Sir Walter Raleigh's privateers could operate.

But there was more to Roanoke than mere piracy. John J. Mintz and Thomas E. Beaman Jr. find that the presence of Spanish olive jars at Fort Raleigh complicates what we think we know about Anglo-Spanish antagonism and transatlantic trade. Though trade is typically considered the domain of European colonizers, Seth Mallios offers a considerable corrective with his insightful essay on native gift-exchange networks and the expectations of reciprocity that Carolina Algonquians placed upon the English. To remind us that "Native American history ought not to be divorced from its broader transatlantic context," Michael Leroy Oberg tells the story of Manteo and Wanchese, two Carolina Algonquians who went to England in 1584 and returned in 1585 (p. 82). Oberg finds that Manteo and Wanchese reflect the diversity of native responses to Europeans, that of accommodation and resistance, respectively.

This sampling of new interpretations about Roanoke shows the strength of interdisciplinary research. Archaeologists benefit from historical research. Historians and folklorists can better contextualize their stories when they build on archaeology, incorporate anthropological theory, and employ the literary devices that fabricate accessible fiction. To understand more about "lost" places like Roanoke, the archaeologists Bennie C. Keel, Fred Willard, and Barbara Midgette agree that more of the Outer Banks must be explored. Therein lies the collective conclusion of this most useful volume: for all that is known, there is still more to learn. In that, the ongoing search for Roanoke says more about who we are as Americans than its discovery ever could.

EDWARD D. RAGAN

Syracuse University