Searching for Virginia Dare

by Marjorie Hudson

Book Overview

In 1587 America's first English child was born in a remote island wilderness. They named her Virginia Dare. Soon after her birth, Virginia and more than a hundred men, women, and children disappeared.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0979304962
• ISBN13: 9780979304965
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Press 53
• Length: 181 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

From [...]

In the year and half since we relocated to Atlanta, I have not felt displaced. This city suits me. Like me, Atlanta has no idea what it wants to be or where it wants to go. It meanders around in circles, and eventually I get where I need to be. I think I might have found my town. At least I thought so, until I read SEARCHING FOR VIRGINIA DARE. Now I find myself downright homesick. My second grader is studying the great state of Georgia, and I have an overwhelming desire to take her to the Outer Banks, show her the Elizabethan Gardens, Tryon Palace, Old Salem. The other day she asked me what Krispy Kreme was! What have I done!? Perhaps more disturbing is my discovery that she will not learn a thing about Virginia Dare. Virginia Dare does not belong just to North Carolina. She was the first English child born in America, though she was lost to history just a few days after her birth in 1587 when her grandfather, the expedition's governor, left his destitute colonists and family behind to return to England for supplies. Three years later he returned to ransacked, abandoned huts and a cryptic message carved on a tree that still remains a mystery. Marjorie Hudson chronicles history's attempt to solve the mystery of our first colonists, from Depression era plays, a French sculptress's obsession,an epic poem, and modern archaeological digs to her own quest through the Great Dismal Swamp and into the overlooked world of the Lumbee Tribe. There are libraries devoted to the Lost Colony, but what sets Hudson's effort apart is her connection to the child, Virgina Dare. Hudson opens her heart to the reader, immersing herself in this story as old as our nation. It is difficult not to get swept away with her compassion. She relates her own trials, her own family history, her own maternal desires and brings us closer to those who sacrificed everything to become legend and to the daughter that vanished with them. Hudson's conclusion is optimistic, but logical. In the same spin it is ironic in that it ties the first Americans to the most displaced Native American tribe, the Lumbees. SEARCHING FOR VIRGINIA DARE lands in your own backyard, where you least expect. North Carolina is studied by every 4th grade student in the Old North State. My 4th grade teacher was fanatical. We memorized every date, every symbol. We jogged the miles from Murphey to Manteo on the schoolyard track. My education of the Lost Colony, however, cast Virginia Dare as a mere infant, important in statistics only as the first English child. Marjorie Hudson has made Virginia so much more to me. She is our first missing child. Read more of my reviews of Press 53 titles at [...]

Intriguing and compelling

I've often wished it possible to see America before urban sprawl, mechanization, smog, technology and other taints of modern life took over the wild places. In this book, Marjorie Hudson granted that wish. Through an engrossing mix of fact, fiction, and imagination, she took me on a journey through the centuries to that moment when Britain first colonized our eastern shores. Long before the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies existed, there was Roanoke. In 1587, Spain dominated the New World and Britain hoped to claim America by establishing settlements along our eastern coastline. In those days, the east coast of America was like a frightening Eden. The settlers at Roanoke found deep, dark, fragrant forests overgrown with unfamiliar plants, savage storms, blistering heat in summer, swarms of mosquitoes, bone chilling winters, dangerous predators and strangely dressed native tribes whose intents were uncertain. It was during that first summer, August 18,1587, that the first British child was born on American soil. Virginia Dare was that baby, granddaughter of the first American Governor, John White. White's illustrations, maps and written journals - the ones that survived at least - documented pre-colonial America and the Native tribes that thrived along the coast. The Roanoke, Hattorask, Chesepiuk, Chowanok, and Croatoan tribes fascinated White. White leaves his daughter and granddaughter behind and returns to England for supplies. When he returns months later, every settler in the Roanoke colony has disappeared without a trace. No bodies, no evidence of foul play, only empty spaces where settlers once lived. His only clue is the word "Croatoan" carved into a tree. White searched for Eleanor and Virginia Dare for years but found no trace of them. Where did they go? Were they taken as slaves by Native tribes? Did friendly Natives take them to safety in some distant place? Or did the settlers strike out on their own for places unknown? Marjorie Hudson begins her search for Virginia Dare at Roanoke and works her way outward. Her discoveries along the way are compelling. Her imagination colors the empty spaces, combines the real, the fanciful, personal, past and present. We don't find Virginia Dare, but we discover gray and blue eyed Native Americans whose language has always been English back as far as anyone can remember. And many of the English words they speak today are Elizabethan in origin. This book was intriguing and beautifully written. If you love American history and enjoy good writing, The Search for Virginia Dare is well worth the read.

A Book Like Candy

A good book is like candy: you want to alternately devour it because it is so good, but you also want to savor it because it is so good. I found myself having to make the decision while reading this book whether I would eat it up in one sitting or savor the individual chapters to make it last longer. I savored. The only reason I gave this review a 4 star instead of a 5 was because initially it was difficult to determine what type of writing I was reading. By this I mean, as the author puts it, this is a book that functions as a mosaic. The story of Virginia Dare is told with non-fiction, memoir and fiction, but at first this was not clear. Beyond that initial confusion, however, I thoroughly enjoyed this read. Mrs. Hudson not only provides excellent research and fascinating glimpses of her own past and journey, but also manages to do so in a very clear but elegant writing style. Having grown up in coastal North Carolina, I was familiar with most of the research that Mrs. Hudson found but the Eleanor Dare Stones were new to me, so for even someone who thought they knew everything about they legend you will be surprised. I also had to feel at least a little bit of kindred spirit with the author as she strolled around my hometown of Elizabeth City where the Colonial Resturant really does have some of the best sweet tea anywhere. I would recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in Virginia Dare, the history of North Carolina, or anyone who just wants a good read about a woman's journey into history--her own and that of North Carolina. Highly recommend this book :)