Is there wild life on Roanoke Island?
74546#14
The Roanoke People of the Tillett site had a semi-seasonal life style inhabiting the area from early Spring to early Fall, primarily the village existed for fishing. Shellfish was the main diet of the inhabitants with oysters and clams being the most common food source. Plants including acorns and hackberry nuts. Ronaoke Indians had smoking pipes and used plants such as Cleaver and Plaintain seeds for medicinal purposes. Four burials of Roanoke Indians of various social positions have been found at the site. Roanoke believed that their great warriors and kings lived on in the afterlife but commoners lived only a mortal existence.
Roanoke Island
74546#33
With Roanoke Island open for settlement, English Virginians moved from Tidewater Virginia to settle in Northeast North Carolina's Albremarle Region. In 1665 The Carolina Charter established the colony of Carolina under rule of landowners called the Lord Proprietors. Carolina under its original name "Carolana "included the territory of modern North and South Carolina. Early organized English towns in North Carolina include Elizabeth City and Edenton. Pioneers crossed southwards across the Albremarle Sound to settle in Roanoke Island. They came primarily to establish fishing communities but also practiced forms of subsistence agriculture on the Northern parts of Roanoke Island. Most of the Pioneers had originally immigrated to the American Colonies from Southern English Paraishes such as Kent, Middlesex and Westcountry.Upon the creation of the Royal British Province of North Carolina in 1729 Roanoke Island became part of Currituck County. During the rule of the Lord Proprietors Roanoke Island had been a part of the earlier Currituck Parish. It was during this time that historical families arrived including the Basnights, Daniels, Ehteridge, Owens Tillets,and others.
Roanoke Island
74546#53
In response to the crisis, the New Deal came to Roanoke Island to provide desperately needed employment and to highlight Roanoke's importance for the history of the United States. The outdoor theater play "The Lost Colony" written by Paul Green began in 1936 and attracted the visit of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1937. The Lost Colony continues its performance every summer season. The onset of WWII with the German declaration of war in December, 1941 affected the island directly.Possibly the oldest cultivated grapevine in the world is the 400-year-old scuppernong "Mother Vine" growing on Roanoke Island. The scuppernong is the state fruit of North Carolina.
Roanoke Island
74546#15
There were other villages on Roanoke Island prior to European Contact as indicated by English maps and written accounts. Englishman Arthur Barlowe
described a palisaded town with nine houses made of Cedar bark on the far north end of Roanoke Island. This second village according to historian David Stick was based on hunting of land animals. All Ronaoke Island villages were likely outlying tributaries of the Sectoan's capital, Dasamonguepeuk, located on the western shore of the Croatan Sound in the modern day mainland of Dare County. Upon contact with the English the Ronaoke Tribe had anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 members. The Roanoke Tribe, like many other tribes in the area were loyal to the Secotan. In 1584 WIngina was their king.
Roanoke Island
74546#29
After the failure of the English Roanoke Colony, Native peoples on the island endured for seventy more years. Archaeology from the Tilliet site indicates that the Roanoke population persisted until 1650. Written accounts indicate visible remnants of the final native presence survived long after the end of the island's native population. A large mound 200 feet tall and 600 feet wide was recorded to exist Wanchese in the early 1900s, now little evidence remains.
Roanoke Island
29820694#10
The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony was a safe haven for slaves seeking refuge with the Union Army during the Civil War. Most freedmen on Roanoke Island assisted the Union Army: others joined the army as soldiers when the United States Colored Troops were founded, and some men worked as spies, scouts and guides, since they knew the area and its waterways well. They completed dangerous and crucial missions for the Union cause. Freedmen recruited from Roanoke Island formed the "first company of the North Carolina Colored Volunteers".
Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island
74546#35
There were no incorporated towns until Manteo was founded in 1899. From the 1650s to the Civil War period the Virginia settlers developed the distinct "Hoi Toider" dialect across the Outer Banks. The island was ill-suited for commercial agriculture or for a deep water port and remained isolated with little interference from outsiders. The nearby community of Manns Harbor came into being as a small trading post where goods were transported across the Croatan Sound. Unlike inland North Carolina the British authorities made no roads within or nearby Roanoke, the Tidewater region of North Carolina was avoided entirely. The development of Colonial Roanoke Island also depended on the natural opening and closing of inlets on Bodi and Hatteras Islands to its east. As in other times the Island was struck by deadly hurricanes.
Roanoke Island
8673966#2
Wild life can be observed on the other islands, especially wild rabbits on Ilyosta Island. Also, those islands are the main points of interest to tourists as having small beaches and bays.
Ayvalık Islands Nature Park
29820694#11
Major General Rush Hawkins, who succeeded Foster in 1863 at the command on the island, ordered the freedmen who enlisted in the army or worked for the military be paid "ten dollars a month plus one ration and a soldier's allowance of clothing." According to an article by the National Park Service, "of nearly 4,000 North Carolina enlistees, over 150 men were recruited from the Roanoke Island community alone." The Union Army allowed families of black soldiers to live at Roanoke Island as a place of refuge. Those men who were not recruited by the army served as woodcutters, teamsters, longshoremen, carpenters, blacksmiths, and workers in other trades. Many freedwomen worked as cooks and laundresses at the Union camp.
Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island
29820694#0
The Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island, also known as the Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony, or "Freedman's Colony", was founded in 1863 during the Civil War after Union Major General John G. Foster, Commander of the 18th Army Corps, captured the Confederate fortifications on Roanoke Island off North Carolina in 1862. He classified the slaves living there as "contraband", following the precedent of General Benjamin Butler at Fort Monroe in 1861, and did not return them to Confederate slaveholders. In 1863, by the Emancipation Proclamation, all slaves in Union-occupied territories were freed.
Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island