Transcript for 11/27/24: SATAN’S PILGRIMS – THE FIRST CANNIBAL COLONIES W/ STEVE STOCKTON

Thanksgiving means different things to different people and so everyone will find a reason to enjoy the Holiday and hopefully their four-day weekends.

To the average American, it is a time of giving thanks for what we have. A time of watching football, and getting ready to spend obscene amounts of money on Black Friday “sales”: camping out for a new electronic device we really don't need.

I don't know about you, but the holidays have seemed to close in very quickly. We have been distracted by so many things including an election and a possible world war. The circus never ends and this year's gathering with friends and family will probably loaded with political arguments and hopefully, knives and forks will not be used as weapons. 

What I dread the most about Thanksgiving is how no matter what I talk about or no matter where I go, I can't escape someone who has to troll me about how we should not celebrate the Holiday because it is an insult to native Americans who were welcomed by the pilgrims and eventually slaughtered.

Yes, that part of Thanksgiving always brings the room down, but there is always someone that reminds us of that -- it is a kind of Turkey troll or a form of virtue signaling that I guess the sadist in someone has to be expressed much to the dismay of those that just want to plunge a fork into the potatoes and stuffing.

I was at a Thanksgiving party once where after a few sips of Captain Morgan and coke a boyfriend of someone I knew went into a tirade about how we celebrate the murder of Indians on this day -- I said that I thought that day was set aside for Columbus Day. 

But that didn't stop him he went on and on about the time of the betrayal and a reminder of the centuries-long genocide that took place after indigenous North Americans saved the plight of the colonists.

He piped up and slurred his words and said "I'll bet Clyde has a conspiracy theory about Thanksgiving he could tell us."

I said back "No I would rather not talk about anything like that, we are at a party and I don’t think it would be appropriate."

He was persistent --and I then awkwardly said "Ok you asked for it -- here it goes."

I told him one of my favorite Thanksgiving horror stories about how the pilgrims or colonists of the New World were suffering harsh winters and how a large group of the colonists disappeared without a trace. 

The mysteries of the missing colonies are never told in grade school because of how horrific they truly are.

For the historical settlers at Jamestown, from 1609 to 1610, while the harvest feasts were already in practice, it was a time of murder and cannibalism.

It wasn't just an indigenous slaughter that history speaks of -- it was also a time when settlers resorted to cannibalism as they were subjected to famine, and other tragedies that befell them.

The idea that there were man-eating pilgrims is nothing new, but American History courses in U.S. schools typically make no mention of it. Still, many historical accounts mention settlers (or pilgrims proper, turning to cannibalism for survival, particularly as the winter months approached.

In the United States, Americans commonly trace the Thanksgiving holiday to stories of a 1621 celebration at Plymouth Rock. 

According to national myth, it was here that the Plymouth settlers held a harvest feast after a successful growing season, but the holiday was documented as being in practice as early as 1607, including in Jamestown (founded in 1607), Virginia as early as 1610 or before.

The Associated Press described the situation in Jamestown in less than traditional terms, some time ago. Amongst these surprising traits of the Jamestown practices of the season were cannibalism.

Smithsonian forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley said the human remains date back to a deadly winter known as the “starving time” in Jamestown from 1609 to 1610. Hundreds of colonists died during the period. Scientists have said the settlers likely arrived during the worst drought in 800 years, bringing a severe famine for the 6,000 people who lived at Jamestown between 1607 and 1625.

The historical record is chilling. Early Jamestown colonist George Percy wrote of a “world of miseries,” that included digging up corpses from their graves to eat when there was nothing else. “Nothing was spared to maintain life,” he wrote.

How could the colonists have wound up in such dire straits? A large part of it had to do with their alienation from indigenous peoples. 

That much of the Thanksgiving story is true. Very few settlers would have survived on these shores without the advice of Native Americans which they had previously no interest in dialoging with. 

Long before they began begging for the help described in the Thanksgiving legends, many colonists turned to murder and cannibalism of the indigenous Native Americans. The Algonquian tribes of Virginia’s Native Americans – the Powhatans – were friendly, but this didn’t spare all of them from being devoured by the colonists.

The colonists also drove away wildlife by overhunting and could not farmland that wasn’t prime for horticulture. Many of them had no knowledge of such things, having arrived at these shores for ideological and economic reasons, via non-British nations like Holland in the Netherlands, which they had already fled to after finding that their religious takeover of Britain was not going as planned.

Explorer George Percy explained the cannibalism of Native Americans the colonists killed: ( By the way I am reading this ver Batum)

“So great was our famine, that a Savage we slew and buried, the poorer of the group took him up again and ate him; and so did divers one another boiled and stewed with roots and herbs… [the cause of starvation was] want of providence, industry and government, and not the barrenness and defect of the Country, as is generally supposed.”

In his “Cannibalism in Early Jamestown,” Mark Nicholls explains that “When dearth and disease swept through Jamestown, reducing its population perhaps by 80 percent in the catastrophic Starving Time of 1609–10, some individuals had turned to cannibalism out of hunger.” Percy and others told of sporadic cannibalism and the breakdown of colonial society in the face of disaster:

“A world of miseries ensued as the Sequel will express unto you, in so much that some to satisfy their hunger have robbed the store for the which I caused them to be executed. Then having fed upon our horses and other beasts as long as they Lasted, we were glad to make shift with vermin as dogs, cats, rats and mice all were fish that came to net to satisfy cruel hunger, as to eat boots, shoes or any other leather some cold come by. And those being Spent and devoured some were forced to search the woods and to feed upon Serpents and snakes and to dig the earth for wild and unknown roots, where many of our men were cut off and slain by the savages. And now famine beginning to look ghastly and pale in every face, that nothing was spared to maintain life and to do those things which seem incredible, as to dig up dead corpses out of graves and to eat them. And some have Licked up the Blood which hath fallen from their weak fellows…

Let's Truly Consider the diversity of miseries, mutinies, and famishments which have attended upon discoveries and plantation in these our modern times. We shall not find our plantation in Virginia to have Suffered alone…The Spaniards' plantations in the River of Plate and the Straits of Magellan Suffered also in so much that having eaten up all their horses to sustain themselves withal, Mutinies did arise and grow amongst them, for the which the General Diego Mendosa caused some of them to be executed, Extremity of hunger enforcing others secretly in the night to Cut down Their dead fellows from of the gallows and to bury them in their hungry Bowels."

Percy, Nicholls explains, "There are earlier narratives that made the same point, including a few relating to the Newfoundland voyages.

There is also one of the most mysterious and terrifying accounts of the Lost Colony Of Roanoke.

Even though the first successful English colony, Jamestown, is sometimes spoken of in history, there is the story that really never gets spoken of because it is mired in mystery. In some legends, the entire story is probably one of the biggest horrors in history. The pilgrims are always spoken of around Thanksgiving and there are often mentions of the settlement at Jamestown, however, the Roanoke settlement goes down in history as the mysterious colony that disappeared without a trace and many believe all kinds of strange stories about it.

The saga began on a summer day over 400 years ago when co-captain Arthur Barlowe and a few dozen other Englishmen stood at the railing of their ship and peered anxiously across the water at a strange new world. They had no idea what to expect, but the odor wafting to them from the small islands off the coast of what is now North Carolina filled Barlowe with wild hopes. Barlowe wrote in his diary that the vegetation was at its summer peak, and the aroma was like that of “some delicate garden” full of fragrant flowers.

Barlowe was part of an expedition sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to find a place for a colony. Roanoke Island, protected from the Atlantic Ocean by the slender sand dunes that came to be known as the Outer Banks, seemed a likely spot to set up the new colony.

Barlowe continued to write about how the soil was the most sweet and plentiful and that the entire area was fertile and welcoming. He even wrote about how the natives that they encountered were gentle, loving and faithful.

Based on Barlowe’s writings, Queen Elizabeth I was very excited to hear of the progress of the expedition. The queen decides to name this new place Virginia. Subsequently, she permits Sir Walter Raleigh to establish a colony in the area. He was to finance and plan the expedition to what is now North Carolina. Raleigh has ten years to complete this mission.

Walter Raleigh funded an expeditionary voyage from Plymouth to America to investigate whether it would be possible to set up a colony. When the ships land, the officers meet the brother of the chieftain of Roanoke Island. The company returns to England successfully and with them, they have packed several items from the new world, including skins and pearls. They also take back two native tribesmen called Manteo and Wanchese. This generates interest and support for another expedition.

Shortly after the arrival, the men begin to suspect that local Indians have stolen a silver cup from them. In retaliation, they destroy their village and burn the chief alive. Despite the obvious discourse with the natives, Richard Grenville decides to leave the men there to build the proposed colony. He vows to return in April of 1586.

A colony is established on Roanoke Island. Ralph Lane is made Governor and relations with the natives improve as the settlers receive a lot of help from them. However, there are still a few tribesmen who see the new settlers as hostile.

When April passes and there is no sign of Grenville, the men decide to catch a ride home with Sir Francis Drake. Drake had stopped at the colony on his way back from a successful voyage to the Caribbean. Ironically, Grenville arrived shortly thereafter. After finding the settlement empty, he decides to leave fifteen men there to protect England’s claim.

The second group of settlers arrived at Roanoke Island on July 22, 1587. This group contains 117 people, both men and women. They are led by John White. John White’s daughter would give birth to the first English child born in America on August 18, 1587. The child’s name was Virginia Dare.

The settlers built their colony and tried to make peace with the natives. They were successful in befriending the Croatoan tribe, but other tribes were openly hostile toward the colonists. A settler by the name of George Howe was murdered by natives while hunting crab on the beach. After this incident, the settlers became nervous about their new home and convinced John White to return to England and ask for help. John White reluctantly left. He would never see any of these people again.

The mystery of Roanoke began when a supply ship returned in 1590 to find not a single living soul, and no evidence of war, famine, or any other possible reason for the colony’s complete disappearance. There is still no generally accepted explanation for what happened to those settlers.

What had once been a settlement of two-story, thatched-roof cottages was lost. The first seed of English presence in the New World, given purchase through the efforts of 117 people, had been uprooted inexplicably. In its place, a husk remained. The houses had all been taken down. A roughly built fort surrounding the former settlement was all that signaled the former presence of the colonists. And on a post was carved one of only two clues: the word “CROATOAN.” On another tree, White found the carving “CRO.”

The carved word “CROATOAN” was an obvious clue. Perhaps the colonists had moved in search of protection or a steady food supply from the native tribes. It appeared they hadn’t left under duress; there were no Maltese crosses carved anywhere, the agreed-upon signal the colonists would use to indicate that danger had befallen them.

Yet no search of Croatoan Island was ever launched. Subsequent expeditions to locate the lost colony either failed or were undertaken as an excuse for piracy or other commercial endeavors. It wasn’t until the Jamestown Colony was established in 1607 that any earnest searches were conducted to discover the fate of the lost Roanoke colonists.

Not only were the colonists themselves lost, but the colony was as well. Poor record keeping among White and others as well as years of abandonment have kept the exact whereabouts of the 1587 colony a mystery. Numerous digs on Roanoke failed to produce any evidence of the lost colony. Remnants of the 1585 settlement have been discovered, but no evidence of the lost colony has been found.

This was odd because White was an artist and a cartographer to some degree.

At first, it was proposed that the entire settlement was swallowed up by the bay waters.

Another explanation is that the Roanoke settlers fell victim to the Spanish, whose settlement was just down the coast in Florida. The Spanish in the West Indies were certainly aware of the English colonists’ presence. One Roanoke settler named Darby Glande left the 1587 expedition once it set ashore in Puerto Rico to take on supplies.

He later reported that he told Spanish officials the location of the Roanoke settlement. 

In the opinion of Johns Hopkins University anthropologist Lee Miller, the colonists wandered into a violent shift in the balance of power among inland tribes. Natives with whom the colonists were friendly lost their hold over the area, and Native Americans hostile to the settlers took control. If the Roanoke colonists made the trip inland when this happened, the men would’ve likely been killed and the women and children captured as slaves. The colonists would have then been traded along a route that spanned the U.S. coast from present-day Georgia to Virginia.

There are also theories about blonde-haired blue-eyed Indian children found in the Lumbee tribe and to this day some 400 years later DNA experts are trying to find traces of the Roanoke colonists to try and find a link to them and the local tribes.

Archeologists also theorized that the Roanoke settlers became very sick with a plague where they started warring with each other eventually killing and eating each other. Local tribes had even reported that the colonists died in a great war within their own ranks.

Lawrence Stager is the chief proponent of the cannibalism theory and had been the prevailing theory for some time about what happened to the colonists.

This would be a very frightening theory, because not only would the Roanoke colony be the first English colony, but the first colony to be involved in some dark zombie holocaust.

Remember, they had very little supplies and food. There is always the possibility that the colonists were attacked either by tribes or pirates and still the idea of eating human flesh to survive is compelling. Perhaps the first feast of the settlers was not turkey but “people.”

The relative isolation of the settlement and the time elapsed before the return of the supply ship would allow for the remaining colonial zombies to rot back into the earth. Without any humans left to feed on.

The plague would not have spread and the so-called zombie outbreak would have simply died off.

Even Max Brooks, the author of the book “World War Z”, has speculated about the possibility of the Roanoke Zombie outbreak in his book “The Zombie Survival Guide.”

The word ‘Croatoan‘ that the settlers had carved into the tree was not an accusing finger but an indication that the peaceful Croatoans would know what had happened. The Croatoans were spiritualists and their history is rich in spiritual ceremony and ritual. Many ceremonies were held to raise the spirits of the dead to help in the harvest.

There was evidence that they did have some idea what had happened but were not taken seriously. Why? Because some of the explanations were paranormal in nature and the colonists were frightened by tribal superstition.

The Croatoans reported that, simultaneously with the disappearance of the colonists, there was a great depletion of the game in the forests and the fields in which the tribe hunted. Virtually all species of wildlife had abruptly died. Many birds had fallen from the sky and many of the animals died off as well.

The Croatoans believed that the spirit endured and walked the earth even after the death of the body and they believed there were ‘greater spirits’ that manifested themselves in the elements – wind, earth, fire, water, and so forth. Most importantly, they also believed in an evil spirit, a source of all evil, an equivalent of the Christian’s Satan. This spirit was from the snake or reptile and it was able to attach itself to humans and the human victim would become territorial and venomous like the snake.

The Croatoans told the colonists that the entire region had been taken over by the reptilian spirit and that they attacked each other. One of the legends states that it was John White’s Daughter who brought the “plague” of evil to the colony because the child was allegedly possessed by this so-called reptilian spirit.

The colony has been mentioned in various supernatural stories that exploit the Croatoan “legend” of demonic possession, cannibalism and vampirism.

I am sure no one wants to hear about Satanic Pilgrims who lost their minds in the new world and literally became flesh-eating zombies.

As you can see, there seems to be a strange element to the story that history wishes would go away. That is the possibility of a colony being somehow overtaken by what the Indians called a reptilian spirit; a spirit that has been with us from the beginning of the settlement of the new world. Perhaps it still exists, those who are carrying with them the reptilian spirit.. that is if you believe in some superstitious offerings by a strange Native American tribe.