Daniel Boone was a legend because he was a trailblazer, a wild guy.
Virginia Dare was legendary because
she was the first European child born in the United States.
The following article appeared in Tar
Heel Junior Historian 39 (spring 2000), 3–5.
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More than four hundred years ago, Europeans wanted to set up colonies in the New World. For them, the New World meant the present-day continents of North and South America. What challenging times those must have been! Sir Walter Raleigh, an adventurous English gentleman, sent a group of men to explore the New World. A later expedition established a settlement on Roanoke Island, on the North Carolina coast. In 1586, after enduring winter hardships, lack of food, and disagreements with the Indians, survivors of this colony returned home to England with Sir Francis Drake. Then Raleigh decided to send a second group of colonists. On April 26, 1587, a small fleet set sail from England, hoping to establish the first permanent English settlement in the New World.
This second group of colonists differed from the first because it included not only men but also women and children. It would be a permanent colony. The little fleet consisted of the ship Lyon, a flyboat (a fast, flat-bottomed boat capable of maneuvering in shallow water), and a pinnace (a small sailing ship used to carry supplies). These vessels carried more than 150 men, women, and children. Also aboard were two Indians, Manteo and Wanchese, who had gone to England with Raleigh’s previous expedition and were returning to their home. The pilot was a Spaniard, Simon Fernando, and the governor of the new colony was John White. Among the colonists were Governor White’s daughter, Eleanor, and her husband, Ananias Dare. The voyage took longer than the usual six weeks, and the ships finally anchored off Roanoke Island on July 22.
Once the colonists landed, they began repairing the houses already there and started building new homes. Eleanor Dare gave birth to a baby girl on August 18 and named her Virginia. Virginia Dare became the first English child born in the New World.
The Lost Colony legacy
lends itself to changing trends and tastes, as shown by the Dare Bear family:
Ananias Dare Bear; his wife, Eleanor Dare Bear; and their daughter, Virginia
Dare Bear. Making teddy bears in the image of famous people became popular
in the 1980s. Jean S. Noah of Holly Hill, South Carolina, made these bears,
now in the museum’s collection, in 1983.
The colonists begged Governor White to return to England for supplies. He was very reluctant to leave the colony but finally agreed. On August 27, nine days after his granddaughter’s birth, he set sail. He planned to get relief supplies and more colonists in England and then return to Roanoke Island as soon as possible. However, his plans did not work out. Soon after White returned to England, King Philip II of Spain and his armada (fleet of warships) attacked the British. Because of this attack and for other reasons, White could not return to Roanoke until three years later.
He finally reached Roanoke Island on August 18, 1590, his granddaughter’s third birthday. The colony was abandoned. What had happened? The only clues are found in a log book kept by Governor White. He found the letters CRO carved on a tree near the water’s edge. The settlement had been enclosed by a palisade (a tall fence of stakes pointed at the tops and set close together) to make a fort. At the right side of the entrance, the word CROATOAN had been carved on a post “without any cross or signe of distress” near it. White and his men continued to search but never found a trace of the colony. White hoped that the colonists were safe with Manteo and his friendly Croatoan tribesmen at their home on Hatteras Island.
What happened to these “Lost Colonists”? No one knows for sure. As with many mysteries, when the answer cannot be found, legends grow to explain the story. One of the most enduring North Carolina legends is about Virginia Dare as the white doe.
In 1901 Sallie Southall Cotten wrote The White Doe: The Fate of Virginia Dare, a long narrative poem that tried to explain the mystery. According to Ms. Cotten’s story and later variations of the legend, Virginia Dare grew up in the tribe of the friendly Indian Manteo. She became known as Winona-Ska and grew into a beautiful young woman whom everyone loved. Okisko was a handsome young Indian chieftain who wished to marry her. However, an old witch doctor, Chico, also wanted to win Winona-Ska. Chico was very jealous of Okisko. In spite of his efforts to win her love, Chico was turned down by Winona-Ska. Enraged, he used his evil magic to turn her into a white doe. If she wouldn’t be his, no other man could have her, either.
Okisko was determined to undo the evil magic of Chico. He found a kindly magician, Wenokan, to help him. Okisko made an arrow with an oyster shell tip. Then he and Wenokan took the arrow to a magic fountain. When Okisko put the arrow into the water, the arrow became pearl. If the white doe was shot with this pearl arrow, the evil spell would be broken, and Winona-Ska would become human again.
At this time Wanchese decided he would seek fame and glory by killing the charmed white doe. He knew that only a silver arrow could kill this special doe. His father, also named Wanchese, was the Indian who had traveled to England with Manteo. Queen Elizabeth I had given a silver arrow to his father. Now the son would use it to kill the white doe.
One day Okisko saw the white doe near the ruins of Fort Raleigh on Roanoke Island. Nervously, he raised his bow and shot his magic pearl arrow, but at exactly the same time, Wanchese shot his silver arrow from another direction. Both arrows pierced the white doe’s heart. Magically, Okisko’s pearl arrow turned her back into a beautiful young woman, but Wanchese’s silver arrow pierced her human heart. Okisko rushed to her, but Winona-Ska died in his arms.
In desperation, Okisko ran to the magic
fountain and threw both arrows into the water, begging for Winona-Ska’s
life. When he returned to the place where she had died, he found no sign
of either the doe or Winona-Ska. Later the white doe appeared and looked
at Okisko with her soft eyes. Then she ran into the woods.
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The Virginia Dare Memorial Association, formed by Sallie Southall Cotton and other women to promote the state’s history, raised money for a North Carolina exhibition at the 1893 Columbian exposition in Chicago. Using Virginia Dare as a symbol of North Carolina’s importance to the nation’s history, the association commissioned this desk for the exhibit. Silas McBee of Lincolnton designed it, and a group of Wilmington craftsmen led by E.V. McKenzie built it. Kate Cheshire of Tarboro carved the five panels. The central front panel (shown in close-up here) interprets the white doe legend. |
To this day many people report seeing a ghostly white doe near the area where the Lost Colony first settled on Roanoke Island. Will the mystery ever be solved? We may never know all the facts, but this legend of the white doe is an interesting way to explain the fate of Virginia Dare, one of the Lost Colonists.
*Sandra Boyd, a former special education teacher at Apex High School in Apex, volunteers at the North Carolina Museum of History.
Lost Colony
Legends
What happened to the Lost Colony? Read
popular
legends on the colonists’ fate and decide for yourself.
The Many Images of Virginia Dare
The story of Virginia Dare and the Lost
Colony became popular in the late 1800s as North Carolinians struggled
to redefine their place in the nation after the Civil War. Dare remains
the best-known symbol of the Lost Colony. People have used her name and
image to sell products, attract tourists, promote causes, and establish
regional identity.
The Virginia Dare Extract Company of Brooklyn,
New York, maker of food and beverage flavorings, chose Virginia Dare as
its namesake because “the name Virginia Dare came to symbolize wholesomeness
and purity,” qualities it wanted the public to associate with its products.
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This advertisement for Virginia Dare wine presents an interesting image of Dare. Courtesy of Kathy Hopson. |
Virginia Dare’s gender and race became tools for promoting political beliefs. Virginia Dare served as a symbol of white womanhood during the early-twentieth-century struggle for woman suffrage in North Carolina. Fearing that African American women’s votes would weaken white supremacy, one anti-suffrage group pled “in the Name of Virginia Dare, that North Carolina remain white.” Gender issues alone caused Dare’s image to emerge again in the early 1980s. Supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment called on North Carolinians to “Honor Virginia Dare” by ratifying the ERA.
Virginia Dare/Lost Colony Web Sites
Drought May Have Doomed the Lost Colony
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/24/us/drought-may-have-doomed-the-lost-colony.html
Recent evidence that the worst drought
in eight hundred years led to the Lost Colony’s decline.
The Kids from Down the Hall Present:
How Do You Lose a Colony?
http://library.thinkquest.org/J002559/
Information and games created by students.
The Lost Colony of 1587
http://ncpedia.org/history/colonial/roanoke-fact-or-fiction
The State Library of North Carolina’s
summary of the Lost Colony.
The Lost Colony Outdoor Drama: Applauding
Sixty Years
http://www.outerbanks.com/lostcolony/60years.htm
The history of The Lost Colony.
Return To Roanoke
http://www.animatedatlas.com/ecolonies/roanoke.html
Writing in 1590, John White relates his
surprise of the loss of the Roanoke colony.
Roanoke Revisited: Heritage Education
Program
http://www.nps.gov/fora/forteachers/roanoke-revisited.htm
A National Park Service site for educators.
The White Deer Named Virginia Dare
http://usscouts.org/usscouts/stories/s_deer.asp
A retelling of the white doe legend on
the U.S. Scouting Service Project Inc. Web site.
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Coming of Age in Carolina
Most people know Daniel Boone for his
trailblazing exploits through Kentucky and Missouri, but Boone spent many
years in North Carolina. Born and raised near present-day Reading, Pennsylvania,
Boone moved with his family to the banks of the Yadkin River in 1750. The
Boone family’s 640 acres of land lay in present-day Davie County. By age
sixteen, Boone, already an excellent hunter, took up hunting as his livelihood.
He was soon known as one of the best marksmen and hunters in the area.
To further establish his reputation, he frequently competed at shooting
matches in Salisbury, always scoring high and performing fancy tricks,
such as shooting while holding his rifle with only one arm.
In 1755 when he was twenty-one, Boone served
as a wagoner in a campaign against the French and their allied Indian tribes.
Soon after returning home from the fighting, he married seventeen-year-old
Rebecca Bryan and the couple moved to Rowan County, where Boone built a
log house. Boone earned some money blacksmithing and transporting goods
to and from Salisbury, but hunting and trapping remained his main source
of income.
In 1759 the Boone family and others fled
to Virginia for safety during the Cherokee War. Boone returned to North
Carolina and surrounding areas to hunt in 1760. He rejoined his family
in 1762, and they returned to their North Carolina home. In 1766 the family
moved west to a site near Wilkesboro. Boone’s hunting skills couldn’t pay
his growing family’s bills, however, and creditors often sued Boone for
not paying his debts. Boone left North Carolina in 1769 for a territory
he called Kante-ke—Kentucky. Rebecca and their eight children joined
Boone there in 1773.
The rest is history. And legend. Daniel Boone blazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky, where he worked as a guide, land surveyor, hunter, trader, military leader, and, occasionally, a negotiator with local Cherokee and Shawnee tribes. When the Shawnee kidnapped Boone and other settlers in 1778, Rebecca returned with their children to North Carolina. Boone escaped five months later and traveled to North Carolina. The Boones returned to Kentucky in 1779 with a large group of settlers. Soon after their arrival, Boone’s tenth and last son was born.
But Kentucky failed Boone. Land-grabbing real estate speculators left him without land. Boone left Kentucky, moving his family for a time to Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio. In 1799 Boone led a number of friends and family to Missouri, an area then claimed by Spain. Spanish authorities granted him a large tract of land in his newly adopted homeland, but in 1809, after the United States had purchased Missouri, he lost his land when a federal land commission rejected his claim to it. In 1814 Congress restored a small tract of land in Missouri to him in recognition of his deeds. After several years of declining health, he died in 1820 at the age of eighty-six.
Boone’s
North Carolina Legacy
Although Boone’s years in North Carolina
are less well known than his Kentucky exploits, numerous legends
about his time in this state exist.
The United States Postal
Service honored
Daniel Boone with his
own stamp in 1968.
History versus Legend
We contend that history is based on
something more than documented evidence.
What is the difference between history
and legend? When does legend become history, and history become legend?
Almost two hundred years after Daniel Boone left North Carolina, one last
lawsuit forced the state to face these questions.
For more than fifty years, the Daniel Boone Association maintained a Davidson County site known as the home of Daniel Boone. The group based its information on family and community traditions locating Boone’s homeplace. In 1909 the North Carolina General Assembly accepted the argument and in 1918 placed a marker in Lexington commemorating Boone’s residence in Davidson County. Legend doubled as history. The Daniel Boone Association hosted gala celebrations of Boone’s life at the site.
In 1963 the General Assembly gave the Daniel Boone Association $15,000 to develop the Daniel Boone homeplace as a state historic site. But there was one catch: the site had to be approved by the newly established Historic Sites Advisory Committee. And in the years since 1909, the definition of what counts as history had changed.
Historians no longer accepted oral traditions as evidence. Solid evidence lay in physical remains and primary sources—land grants, probate and tax records, wills, diaries, letters, bills of sale, and other documentation. No such records tied Boone to Davidson County. The Historic Sites Advisory Committee rejected the site. History expelled legend.
The Daniel Boone Association sued. Professional
historians’ definitions of evidence did not shake the group’s reliance
on local knowledge. But they could not convince the judge, who in 1967
ruled in favor of the committee. The Daniel Boone homeplace is now the
site of Boone’s Cave, a state park.
| Daniel Boone Today
Many people understood Boone as America’s trailblazer, opening the way for American culture to expand and flourish in the new land. But others imagined him as a solitary forest philosopher who preferred the lifestyle of American Indians to the fast-paced drive of his white countrymen, who would inevitably sweep him aside. These conflicting ideas remain with us today. Some people use Boone’s story to justify “the march of progress,” but others call upon his legacy to warn against the waste of natural resources. Westerns celebrating the American conquest
of the frontier feature Daniel Boone as “the rippin’est, roarin’est, fightin’est
man the frontier ever knew.” As the 20th century progressed, Boone’s image
as “Indian friend” took precedence over the 19th century’s dominant idea
of Boone as “Indian fighter.”
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Daniel Boone Web Sites
The Adventures of Colonel Daniel
Boon
http://www.earlyamerica.com/lives/boone/index.html
The complete text of John Filson’s 1784
narrative of Boone’s life.
Boone’s Bones Brouhaha
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/HISTboone.html
Legends about Boone’s grave site(s).
Daniel Boone First Saw the Woodlands
of Present-Day Kentucky, June 7, 1769
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/revolut/jb_revolut_boone_1.html
A brief biography for children from the
Library of Congress’s America's Story Web site.
Daniel Boone Homestead
http://www.danielboonehomestead.org/
Daniel Boone’s Pennsylvania birthplace,
now a historic site.
Daniel Boone: Myth and Reality in American
Consciousness
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/Boone/smithhome.html
An investigation of how Boone has been
portrayed over time.
Daniel Boone's Move to Kentucky
http://www.nationalcenter.org/BoonebyRoosevelt.html
Theodore Roosevelt’s dramatic narrative
of Boone’s explorations.
History of Western North Carolina—Chapter
IV—Daniel Boone
http://www.newrivernotes.com/nc/wnc4.htm
John Preston Arthur’s 1914 account of
Boone’s years spent in North Carolina.
Today in History: June 7
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jun07.html
A Boone biography from the Library of
Congress’s American Memory Web site.
Other North Carolina Legends Who Created
Community
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Option 1: (If you are seeking technology
credits for this course, choose this option.)*
Visit two Web sites listed in this session
and answer the following questions:
- What did you learn from visiting the Web sites? What questions did your visits provoke?
- How applicable is the information to what you teach? How could it better suit your needs?
- What three ways can you use these Web sites in your classroom?
Next, visit at least two Web sites (not from the lists provided) about Virginia Dare and/or Daniel Boone. List the sites and provide short descriptions of the sites. Explain briefly why you would or would not recommend them to other educators.
Submit your completed assignment via e-mail to: tricia.l.blakistone@ncdcr.gov
*We strongly encourage you to contact your principal or LEA if you are interested in this option to receive prior approval. If questions arise, feel free to refer your LEA to Tricia Blakistone (919-807-7971 or tricia.l.blakistone@ncdcr.gov). If your LEA does allow you to earn technology credits and you complete Option 1 of this and Session 4's assignments (along with either option of the other assignments for the full 40 contact hours), the museum will specify on your certificate of participation that you qualify for technology credits.
Option 2:
Investigate a North Carolina legend (other
than Dare or Boone) who played a part in creating community. (Community
can be defined as a group of people, such as an organization, a neighborhood,
a region, or the state, having a common history or sharing common interests.)
Write a brief biography and include why you think that figure is legendary.
Submit your completed assignment via e-mail to: tricia.l.blakistone@ncdcr.gov.