Editing Roanoke Colony (section)

==In popular culture==
[[File:Roanoke colony half dollar commemorative reverse.jpg|thumb|Reverse of a [[Roanoke Island, North Carolina half dollar|commemorative 1937 US half-dollar coin]], depicting Eleanor and Virginia Dare]]

Raleigh was publicly criticized for his apparent indifference to the fate of the 1587 colony, most notably by Sir [[Francis Bacon]].{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|p=111}} "It is the sinfullest thing in the world," Bacon wrote in 1597, "to forsake or destitute a plantation once in forwardness; for besides the dishonour, it is the guiltiness of blood of many commiserable persons."<ref>{{cite book |last=Bacon |first=Francis |author-link=Francis Bacon |year=1883 |orig-year=1597 |title=The Essays: Or, Counsels, Civil and Moral: and The Wisdom of the Ancients |chapter=On Plantations |edition=16th |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kBo_AAAAYAAJ |location=Boston |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |page=176 |access-date=August 18, 2019 |archive-date=March 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230302133123/https://books.google.com/books?id=kBo_AAAAYAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> The 1605 comedy ''[[Eastward Hoe]]'' features characters bound for Virginia, who are assured that the lost colonists have by that time intermarried with Native Americans to give rise to "a whole country of English".<ref>{{cite book |first1=George |last1=Chapman |author-link1=George Chapman |first2=Ben |last2=Jonson |author-link2=Ben Jonson |first3=John |last3=Marston |author-link3=John Marston (poet) |year=1605 |title=Eastward Hoe |at=Act III, scene 3 |url=http://hollowaypages.com/jonsoneastward.htm |access-date=August 18, 2019 |archive-date=November 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191106043551/http://www.hollowaypages.com/jonsoneastward.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

United States historians largely overlooked or minimized the importance of the Roanoke settlements until 1834, when [[George Bancroft]] lionized the 1587 colonists in ''A History of the United States''.{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|pp=127–128}} Bancroft emphasized the nobility of Walter Raleigh, the treachery of Simon Fernandes, the threat of the Secotan, the courage of the colonists, and the uncanny tragedy of their loss.{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|pp=128–129}}{{Sfn|Bancroft|1834|pp= 117–123}} He was the first since John White to write about Virginia Dare, calling attention to her status as the first English child born on what would become US soil, and the pioneering spirit exhibited by her name.{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|p=129}}{{Sfn|Bancroft|1834|p= 122}} The account captivated the American public. As Andrew Lawler puts it, "The country was hungry for an origin story more enchanting than the spoiled fops of [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]] or the straitlaced [[Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)|Puritans]] of [[Plymouth Colony|Plymouth]]... Roanoke, with its knights and villains and its brave but outnumbered few facing an alien culture, provided all the elements for a national myth."{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|p=129}}

The first known use of the phrase "The Lost Colony" to describe the 1587 Roanoke settlement was by [[Eliza Lanesford Cushing]] in an 1837 historical romance, ''Virginia Dare; or, the Lost Colony''.{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|p=276}}<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Cushing |first=Eliza Lanesford |author-link=Eliza Lanesford Cushing |date=December 1837 |volume=8 |pages=80–92 |title=Virginia Dare; or the Lost Colony. A Tale of the Early Settlers. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433081685335&view=1up&seq=112 |magazine=The Ladies' Companion |location=New York |access-date=August 18, 2019 |archive-date=February 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224172738/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433081685335&view=1up&seq=112 |url-status=live }}</ref> Cushing also appears to be the first to cast White's granddaughter being reared by Native Americans, following the massacre of the other colonists, and to focus on her adventures as a beautiful young woman.{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|p=277}} In 1840, Cornelia Tuthill published a similar story, introducing the conceit of Virginia wearing the skin of a white doe.{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|p=278}}<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Tuthill |first=Cornelia |date=September 1840 |volume=6 |issue=9 |pages=585–595 |title=Virginia Dare: or, the Colony of Roanoke |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idtEAQAAMAAJ |magazine=Southern Literary Messenger |location=Richmond |access-date=August 18, 2019 |archive-date=March 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230302133125/https://books.google.com/books?id=idtEAQAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> An 1861 ''Raleigh Register'' serial by Mary Mason employs the premise of Virginia being magically transformed into a white doe.{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|p=280}}<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Mason |first=Mary |date=December 1875 |volume=3 |issue=6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ourlivingourdead03sout/page/753 753–771] |title=The White Doe Chase: A legend of olden times |url=https://archive.org/details/ourlivingourdead03sout |magazine=Our Living and Our Dead |location=Raleigh, North Carolina |publisher=S.D. Pool |access-date=August 18, 2019}}</ref> The same concept was used more famously in ''The White Doe'', a 1901 poem by [[Sallie Southall Cotten]].{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|pp=283–284}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Cotten |first=Sallie Southall |author-link=Sallie Southall Cotten |title=The White Doe: The Fate of Virginia Dare – An Indian Legend |publisher=J.B. Lippincott Company |date=1901 |location=Philadelphia |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28796 |access-date=August 18, 2019 |archive-date=August 18, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190818235135/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28796 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Lost Colony Tree - Fort Raleigh National Historic Site - Stierch.jpg|thumb|Re-creation of the tree inscribed with "CRO", from a production of ''[[The Lost Colony (play)|The Lost Colony]]'']]
The popularity of the Lost Colony and Virginia Dare in the 19th and early 20th&nbsp;centuries coincided with American controversies about rising numbers of Catholic and non-British immigrants, as well as the treatment of [[African Americans]] and Native Americans.{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|p=276}} Both the colony and the adult Virginia character were embraced as symbols of [[white nationalism]].{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|p=281}} Even when Virginia Dare was invoked in the name of [[Women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage]] in the 1920s, it was to persuade North Carolina legislators that granting ''white'' women the vote would assure white supremacy.{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|p=281}} By the 1930s this racist connotation apparently subsided, although the [[VDARE]] organization, founded in 1999, has been denounced for promoting white supremacists.{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|pp=290–291}}

Celebrations of the Lost Colony, on Virginia Dare's birthday, have been organized on Roanoke Island since the 1880s.{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|p=294}} To expand the tourist attraction, [[Paul Green (playwright)|Paul Green]]'s play ''[[The Lost Colony (play)|The Lost Colony]]'' opened in 1937 and remains in production today. President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] attended the play on August 18, 1937 – Virginia Dare's 350th&nbsp;birthday.{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|pp=141, 347}}

Bereft of its full context, the colonists' sparse message of "CROATOAN" has taken on a [[paranormal]] quality in [[Harlan Ellison]]'s 1975 short story ''[[Croatoan (Ellison)|Croatoan]]'' and [[Stephen King]]'s 1999 television miniseries ''[[Storm of the Century]]''. It is also the name of a humanlike villain (portrayed by William Shatner) in the fifth season of King's [[Haven (TV series)|''Haven'']]. Croatoan also appears in the 2005 television series ''[[Supernatural (American TV series)|Supernatural]].''{{Sfn|Lawler|2018|p=185}}<ref name="mtvlist">{{cite web |title=9 Times pop culture delved into Roanoke before ''American Horror Story'' |url=http://www.mtv.com/news/2933092/american-horror-story-roanoke-croatoan-pop-culture-history/ |website=MTV.com |date=September 21, 2016 |first=Stacey |last=Grant |access-date=August 18, 2019 |archive-date=August 18, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190818235141/http://www.mtv.com/news/2933092/american-horror-story-roanoke-croatoan-pop-culture-history/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> In the 1994 graphic novel ''[[Batman-Spawn: War Devil]]'', "Croatoan" is  the name of a powerful demon who, in the 20th century, attempts to sacrifice the entirety of [[Gotham City]] to Satan.<ref>{{cite book |last=Manning |first=Matthew K.|editor-last=Dolan|editor-first=Hannah |chapter=1990s |title=DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle |publisher=[[Dorling Kindersley]] |date=2010 |location=London |isbn=978-0-7566-6742-9 |page=267 |quote=Fans were also treated to a companion special entitled ''Batman-Spawn''...by writers Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, and Alan Grant, and artist Klaus Janson.}}</ref>

The 2011 ''[[American Horror Story]]'' episode "[[Birth (American Horror Story)|Birth]]" relates a fictional legend in which the Lost Colonists mysteriously died, and their ghosts haunted the local Native Americans until a tribal elder banished them with the word "Croatoan".<ref name="Robinson 2016">{{cite magazine |date=September 14, 2016 |title=American Horror Story's New Theme Hauntingly Connects to Season 1 |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/08/american-horror-story-roanoke-croatoan-season-6-theme-cult |magazine=Vanity Fair |access-date=October 9, 2019 |author-first=Joanna |author-last=Robinson |archive-date=October 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021041405/https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/08/american-horror-story-roanoke-croatoan-season-6-theme-cult |url-status=live }}</ref> This premise is expanded upon in the sixth season of the series, ''[[American Horror Story: Roanoke]]'', which presents a series of fictional television programs documenting encounters with the ghost colonists.<ref name="Strause 2016b">{{cite web |author-last=Strause |author-first=Jackie |date=November 16, 2016 |title='American Horror Story': 'Roanoke' Finale Delivers Another Twist, Connects 'AHS' Seasons |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/american-horror-story-roanoke-how-did-end-season-6-finale-948190 |access-date=October 9, 2019 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |archive-date=October 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009072846/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/american-horror-story-roanoke-how-did-end-season-6-finale-948190 |url-status=live }}</ref> The leader of the undead colonists, "[[List of American Horror Story: Roanoke characters#Thomasin White/The Butcher|The Butcher]]", is depicted as John White's wife Thomasin, although there is no historical evidence that she was one of the colonists.<ref name="Strause 2016a">{{cite web |author-last=Strause |author-first=Jackie |date=November 10, 2016 |title='American Horror Story: Roanoke': Everything to Know After Episode 9 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/american-horror-story-season-6-roanoke-cast-gaga-episode-9-10-928472 |access-date=October 9, 2016 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |archive-date=November 10, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110142243/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/american-horror-story-season-6-roanoke-cast-gaga-episode-9-10-928472 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Gallagher 2016">{{cite web |author-last=Gallagher |author-first=Caitlin |date=October 5, 2016 |title="Which 'AHS: Roanoke' characters are real? The "Based on a true story" claim isn't false" |url=https://www.bustle.com/p/which-ahs-roanoke-characters-are-real-the-based-on-a-true-story-claim-isnt-false-19713 |access-date=October 9, 2019 |website=Bustle |archive-date=October 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009072844/https://www.bustle.com/p/which-ahs-roanoke-characters-are-real-the-based-on-a-true-story-claim-isnt-false-19713 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the 2015 novel ''[[The Last American Vampire]]'', the colonists are the victims of a [[vampire]] named "Crowley"; the inscription "CRO" was thus an incomplete attempt to implicate him.<ref name="mtvlist" />