Roanoke, the Lost Colony, by Angela Hunt

We've all heard about the Pilgrims coming to America on their three ships and landing at Plymouth Rock. I learned about it many years ago in elementary school and taught it to my students as a teacher. But I don't remember hearing about the settlement at Roanoke, Virginia, by another group of English men and women during the late 1500's.

This ocean crossing was just as difficult as that of the Pilgrims. Perhaps it was even more difficult because of the ship captain, who was more interested in looting other ships for gain than taking care of the people who traveled on the boat. The protaganist, Jocelyn, and her pregnant cousin, Eleanor, slept on filthy floors with the women for more than forty days, while the men were in separate, but equally as bad quarters. Food rotted and water was almost non-existent by the time the group arrived in the new land.

This was a true story, crafted by Ms. Hunt to read like a novel. The personalities of the characters are carefully drawn and they come alive to the reader. As the people deal with the natives and with each other in their closely knit community, we can be thankful that ones such as these came to begin our wonderful nation.

This small community lived together with the Indians for about twenty years until another tribe, one that was more war-like, came into the picture.

These people came to America to make a new start and to worship God as they pleased, but they did not dream what difficulties they would have. John White, one of the leaders of the group, traveled back to England to get help for them, but he was thwarted at every turn by the Queen, who had lost interest in the group.

John White never made it back to his daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter in America. However, his papers and writings provided much of the research for this book.  I have read other books by Angela Hunt that were just as carefully documented as was this one. She does excellent research to make the books true to the situation, whether they are historical or biblical. Look on Amazon.com and you will see many other books about Roanoke. Be sure to select the one by Angela Hunt for this story.

If you are interested in historical Christian fiction, you will enjoy this book. I downloaded it to my Kindle for free.