Americans have long been fascinated by the disappearance of the Roanoke colony, founded on the Outer Banks of modern North Carolina in the mid-1580s. But it was not the only European colony to be abandoned. 

Peter C. Mancall, director of the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute at the University of Southern California, explores Roanoke and other lesser-known examples of disappeared colonial efforts, from Nunavut (Baffin Island) in the 1570s to the coast of Maine in 1606/1607 and as far south as the Atlantic coasts of northeastern South America. Mancall also resituates the colonization of eastern North America in its broader geographical setting. Seen from the vantage points of colonial ventures that proponents abandoned, the successes of Jamestown, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay are all the more remarkable—and unusual.

Mancall’s new book, Contested Continent: The Struggle for North America, c. 1000-1680 (Oxford University Press), is available for purchase.

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• Purchase your copy of Contested Continent: The Struggle for North America, c. 1000-1680 by Peter C. Mancall here.
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