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The War of 1812: Crash Course US History #11 episode transcript - U.S. History by Crash Course

· 14 min read

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The War of 1812: Crash Course US History #11​

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you about the War of 1812. The War of 1812 was fought between the United States and its former colonial overlord England. It started in, you guessed it 1812. The war lasted until 1815, and it resolved very little. John will take you through the causes of the war, tell you a little bit about the fighting itself, and get into just why the US Army couldn't manage to make any progress invading Canada. And yes, Canadians, we're going to talk about the White House getting burned down. The upshot: no territory changed hands, and most of the other bones of contention were solved prior to the actual war. Although nothing much changed for the US and England, the Native Americans were the big losers. Tecumseh was killed, and the Indian tribes lost a lot of territory. Watch as John lays it all out for you. Also, check out #1812problems on Twitter. It's awesome.

Full Transcript​

The War of 1812 - Crash Course US History 11

speaker01 00:00:00

Hi I'm John Green, this is Crash Course us history and today we're going to talk about what America's best at war. Mr Green, the United States has actually only declared war 5 times in the last 230 years. Me from the past, you sniveling literal list. Well, today we're going to talk about America's first declared war, the war of 1000 and 812, so called AED because his story are terrible at naming thing. I mean, they could have called it the Revolutionary War part du or the Canadian cataclysm or the war to facilitate future wars. But no, they just named it after the year it started.

speaker01 00:44:00

I know this disappoints the military historians among you, but as usual, we're going to spend more time talking about the causes and effects of the war than the actual like killing parts. Because ultimately, it's the ambiguity of the war of 1008 hundred that makes it so interesting.

speaker01 00:58:00

Most often given for the War of 18, 1 was the British impressment of American sailors, whereby American sailors would be kidnapped and basically forced into British servitors, disrupted American shipping. It also seems like a reasonably obvious violation of American sovereignty, but it's a little more complicated than that. First of all, there many thousands of British sailors working aboard American ships, so many of the sailors that the British captured were in fact British, which gets to the larger point, that citizenship at the time was a pretty slippery concept, especially on the high seas. Like papers were often forged and many sailors identified their supposed Americanness through tattoos of like eagles and flags. And there were several reasons why British sailors might want to become or pretend to be an American, including that the Brits at the time were fighting Napoleon and what historians in their infinite creativity called the Napoleonic Wars. And on that topic Britain's impressment policy allowed them both to disrupt American shipping to France and to get new British sailors to strengthen their war effort, which was annoying to the Americans on a couple levels, especially French loving Republicans, which is a phrase that you don't hear very often anymore.

Thomas Jefferson & His Democracy: Crash Course US History #10 episode transcript - U.S. History by Crash Course

· 15 min read

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Thomas Jefferson & His Democracy: Crash Course US History #10​

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you about the founding father and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson is a somewhat controversial figure in American history, largely because he, like pretty much all humans, was a big bundle of contradictions. Jefferson was a slave-owner who couldn't decide if he liked slavery. He advocated for small government but expanded federal power more than either of his presidential predecessor. He also idealized the independent farmer and demonized manufacturing, but put policies in place that would expand industrial production in the US. Controversy may ensue as we try to deviate a bit from the standard hagiography/slander story that is usually told about old TJ. John explores Jefferson's election, his policies, and some of the new nation's (literally and figuratively) formative events that took place during Jefferson's presidency. In addition to all this, Napoleon drops in to sell Louisiana, John Marshall sets the course of the Supreme Court, and John Adams gets called a tiny tyrant.

Full Transcript​

Thomas Jefferson His Democracy Crash Course US History 10

speaker01 00:00:00

Hi I'm John Green, this is Crash Course us history and today we're going to discuss Thomas Jefferson. We're going to learn about how America became a thriving nation of small independent farmers, eschewing manufacturing and world trade and becoming the richest and most powerful nation in the world in the 19th century, all thanks to the vision of Thomas Jefferson, the greatest and most intellectually consistent founding father who founded the University of Virginia and grew 20 varieties of peas at Monte Carlo Pass. Get to your desk in a stunning turn of events. Me from the past is an idiot, and Jefferson is more complicated than that.

speaker01 00:43:00

So in 1008 hundred, Thomas Jefferson pictured here, this is the third time that we've featured Thomas Jefferson on the chalkboard. So we had to go little Warhol on it. So Jefferson, the Republican ran against John Adams.

speaker01 00:52:00

The Federalist 1008 hundred was the first election where both parties ran candidates and campaigned. And surprisingly, the Federalist elite, his strategy of vote for Adams, because he's better than you, did not work. Now, both parties realize that it was important to coordinate their electoral strategy to make sure that the vice presidential candidate got at least one fewer electoral votes than the presidential candidate. But then the Republican elector who was supposed to throw his vote away forgot to. So there ended up being a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.

Where US Politics Came From: Crash Course US History #9 episode transcript - U.S. History by Crash Course

· 16 min read

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Where US Politics Came From: Crash Course US History #9​

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you where American politicians come from. In the beginning, soon after the US constitution was adopted, politics were pretty non-existent. George Washington was elected president with no opposition, everything was new and exciting, and everyone just got along. For several months. Then the contentious debate about the nature of the United States began, and it continues to this day. Washington and his lackey/handler Alexander Hamilton pursued an elitist program of federalism. They attempted to strengthen the central government, create a strong nation-state, and leave less of the governance to the states, They wanted to create debt, encourage manufacturing, and really modernize the new nation/ The opposition, creatively known as the anti-federalists, wanted to build some kind of agrarian pseudo-paradise where every (white) man could have his own farm, and live a free, self-reliant life. The founding father who epitomized this view was Thomas Jefferson. By the time Adams became president, the anti-federalists had gotten the memo about how alienating a name like "anti-federalist" can be. It's so much more appealing to voters if your party is for something rather than being defined by what you're against, you know? In any case, Jefferson and his acolytes changed their name to the Democratic-Republican Party, which covered a lot of bases, and proceeded to protest nearly everything Adams did. Lest you think this week is all boring politics, you'll be thrilled to hear this episode has a Whiskey Rebellion, a Quasi-War, anti-French sentiment, some controversial treaties, and something called the XYZ Affair, which sounds very exciting. Learn all about it this week with John Green.

Full Transcript​

Where US Politics Came From Crash Course US History 9

speaker01 00:00:00

Hi I'm John Green, this is Crash Course us history and now that we have a constitution, it's United history. We're going look at the birth of America's, not baseball, not football, not eating, I mean politics, which in America has been adversarial since its very beginnings, despite what the founders wanted.

speaker01 00:27:00

We looked at the first big conflict in American politics last week. Constitution or Articles of Confederation. I hope that I convinced you that we made the correct choice, but regardless, we made it. The Constitution passed, but immediately following the passage of the Constitution, a pretty fundamental came up. What kind of country should we be? Mr Mr, the us is supposed to be the policeman of the world and keep all the people in the green parts of not America from hurting themselves. Oh me from the past. We don't get into that stuff until 1823.

speaker01 00:57:00

So one vision of America was put forward by Alex Hamilton, who'd served in the war as Washington's top aid and would go on to be his first secretary of the Treasury and probably would have been president himself had he not been born in the British West Indies.

Taxes & Smuggling _ Prelude to Revolution: Crash Course US History #6 episode transcript - U.S. History by Crash Course

· 14 min read

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Taxes & Smuggling _ Prelude to Revolution: Crash Course US History #6​

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you about the roots of the American Revolution. The Revolution did not start on July 4, 1776. The Revolutionary War didn't start on July 4 either. (as you remember, I'm sure, the Revolution and the Revolutionary War are not the same things) The shooting started on April 19, 1775, at Lexington and/or Concord, MA. Or the shooting started with the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. At least we can pin down the Declaration of Independence to July 4, 1776. Except that most of the signers didn't sign until August 2. The point is that the beginning of the Revolution is very complex and hard to pin down. John will lead you through the bramble of taxes, royal decrees, acts of parliament, colonial responses, and various congresses. We'll start with the end of the Seven Years' War, and the bill that the British ran up fighting the war. This led to taxes on colonial trade, which led to colonists demanding representation, which led to revolution. It all seems very complicated, but Crash Course will get you through it in about 12 minutes.

Full Transcript​

Taxes Smuggling - Prelude to Revolution Crash Course US History 6

speaker01 00:00:00

Hi I'm John Green, this is Crash Course us history and today we begin discussing the American Revolution. Two things to keep in mind here. One, the American Revolution and the American War for Independence are not the same thing. And 2, I know this will upset some of you. American Revolution was not really about taxes. Mr Green Mr Green, it was about tea, right? Also, it was not about tea. The Boston Tea Party was about taxes and our God given right to smuggle. It's a little confusing me from the past, but that's what Crash Course is here.

speaker01 00:36:00

So as you'll recall, the Seven Years War ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which made the colonists cranky because it limited their ability to take land from the Indians. And it also left them holding the bag for a lot of war debt. Wars, as you may have noticed, are expensive. The British government had to borrow £150 million, and the interest payments on that money ate up half of the national budget. So in order to pay for the war, the British decided to raise tax. And since primary beneficiaries of the war had been the American colonists, the British government felt it was only fair if some of the burden fell to them.

speaker01 01:06:00

Now, taxes on colonial trade were nothing new. The British government had placed taxes on a bunch of items in order to reduce competition with Britain, including wool and mole asses. Why did they place a tax on molasses? It doesn't seem like that would be a huge market. Oh, molasses, of course, but those taxes were about trying to regulate trade in a mercantile way more than trying to pay back war debt. And also, they were easy to avoid via smuggling, which we did, because this is America.

Who Won the American Revolution?: Crash Course US History #7 episode transcript - U.S. History by Crash Course

· 15 min read

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Who Won the American Revolution?: Crash Course US History #7​

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you about the American Revolution. And the Revolutionary War. I know we've labored the point here, but they weren't the same thing. In any case, John will teach you about the major battles of the war, and discuss the strategies on both sides. Everyone is familiar with how this war played out for the Founding Fathers; they got to become the Founding Fathers. But what did the revolution mean to the common people in the United States? For white, property-owning males, it was pretty sweet. They gained rights that were a definite step up from being British Colonial citizens. For everyone else, the short-term gains were not clear. Women's rights were unaffected, and slaves remained in slavery. As for poor white folks, they remained poor and disenfranchised. The reality is it took a long time for this whole democracy thing to get underway, and the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness weren't immediately available to all these newly minted Americans.

Full Transcript​

Who Won the American Revolution Crash Course US History 7

speaker01 00:00:00

Hi I'm John Green, this is Crash Course us history. There are two kinds of revolutions. Those were things do change and those were things don't. Not to get all Crash Course mathematics on you or but a revolution is a 360 degree turn which leave back where you started. That's what happened with the French Revolution. Basically, they just exchanged a bourbon for a Bonaparte. What I don't have to say it all French, This is American history, and shut up French people about how if it weren't for your support in the American Revolution, this would be the history of southern Canada. But other revolutions like the Industrial Revolution actually changed things.

speaker01 00:31:00

So which was the American Revolution? Well, a little of column, a little of column B Mr Green.

speaker01 00:36:00

Mr Green, yeah, we went from a bunch of rich white guys running the show all the way to a bunch of rich white guys running the show. You're not wrong from the past, but the 1007 hundred S were a pretty good century for rich white guys everywhere. I mean, they were running the show in Holland and Portugal and Spain, but only the United States became the country that invented baseball, the Model T, me competitive eating. So you're right from from past, but even if the US didn't live up to its rhetoric, that rhetoric was still powerful and in the end, whether you care more about ideas or policy defines whether you think the American Revolution really was revolutionary.

The Natives and the English: Crash Course US History #3 episode transcript - U.S. History by Crash Course

· 13 min read

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The Natives and the English: Crash Course US History #3​

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you about relations between the early English colonists and the native people they encountered in the New World. In short, these relations were poor. As soon as they arrived, the English were in conflict with the native people. At Jamestown, Captain John Smith briefly managed to get the colony on pretty solid footing with the local tribes, but it didn't last, and a long series of wars with the natives ensued. This pattern would continue in US history, with settlers pushing into native lands and pushing the inhabitants further west. In this episode, you'll learn about Wahunsunacawh (who the English called Powhatan), his daughter Pocahontas, King Philip's (aka Metacom) War, and the Mystic Massacre. By and large, the history of the Natives and the English was not a happy one, even Thanksgiving wasn't all it's cracked up to be.

Full Transcript​

The Natives and the English - Crash Course US History 3

speaker01 00:00:00

Hi I'm John Green, this is Crash Course us history and today we're going to talk about one of the worst relationships in American history. No thought bubble, not my college girlfriend in me Green Green, your relationship with your high school girlfriend, me from the past UI, both know that I didn't have a high school girlfriend. No I'm talking about the relationship between Native Americans and English settlers.

speaker01 00:29:00

So as you'll no doubt remember from last week, the first English settlers came to the Chesapeake area, now Virginia, in 16 oh 7. The land the English found was, of course, already inhabited by Indian tribes, unified under the leadership of Chief wahoon Sonica. And I will remind you that mispronouncing things is my thing. The English called this chief pohatu because, of course, mispronouncing things was also their thing, pohatu was actually his title and the name of his tribe. But to say that the English blacked cultural sensitivity would be an understatement. So pohatu didn't get to be the leader of over 30 tribes by being a dummy and quickly realized that, one, the English were pretty clueless when it came to not dying of starvation. And two, they were useful because they had guns. So he decided to help them in.

speaker01 01:06:00

The English were indeed grateful. In fact, colony leader John Smith went so far as to order the colonists to stop stealing food from the Indians.

The Quakers, the Dutch, and the Ladies: Crash Course US History #4 episode transcript - U.S. History by Crash Course

· 14 min read

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The Quakers, the Dutch, and the Ladies: Crash Course US History #4​

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you about some of the colonies that were not in Virginia or Massachussetts. Old New York was once New Amsterdam. Why they changed it, I can say; ENGLISH people just liked it better that way, and when the English took New Amsterdam in 1643, that's just what they did. Before the English got there though, the colony was full of Dutch people who treated women pretty fairly and allowed free black people to hold jobs. John also discusses Penn's Woods, also known as Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was (briefly) a haven of religious freedom, and William Penn dealt relatively fairly with the natives his colony displaced. Of course, as soon as Penn died, the colonist started abusing the natives immediately. We venture as far south as the Carolina colonies, where the slave labor economy was taking shape. John also takes on the idea of the classless society in America, and the beginning of the idea of the American dream. It turns out that in spite of the lofty dream that everyone had an equal shot in the new world, there were elites in the colonies. And these elites tended to be in charge. And then their kids tended to take over when they died. So yeah, not quite an egalitarian paradise. In addition to all this, we get into the Salem Witch Trials, the treatment of women in the colonies, and colonial economics. Oh yeah, one more thing, before you comment about how he says we're talking about the American Revolution next week, but the end screen says Seven Years War, consider that perhaps the Seven Years War laid the groundwork for the revolution to happen.

Full Transcript​

The Quakers, the Dutch, and the Ladies Crash Course US History 4

speaker01 00:00:00

Hi I'm John Green, this is Crash Course us history and today we're going to cram 150 years of American history into one video. Why? While many American history classes don't cover the colonial period at all because most major American history tests have like one question about it, green, green, so this isn't gonna be on the test. That's awesome because I have some flirtatious notes to exchange with Jessica Alvarez. Yeah, me from the past. So listen, would you rather do well on one test or lead a richer, more productive life as a result of having a better understanding of the complicated factors that led to the creation of the greatest nation in history stand can I get a libert?

speaker01 00:37:00

So help me from the past. It's time to bask in our own greatness. And by greatness, I mean morally dubious dominance over people who would have been just fine without us.

speaker01 00:56:00

So, contrary to popular mythology, colonial America was more than just James down in 2. And Massachusetts, There was, for instance New Amsterdam.

The Seven Years War and the Great Awakening: Crash Course US History #5 episode transcript - U.S. History by Crash Course

· 13 min read

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The Seven Years War and the Great Awakening: Crash Course US History #5​

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you about the beginnings of the American Revolution in a video titled The Seven Years War. Confusing? Maybe. John argues that the Seven Years' War, which is often called the French and Indian War in the US, laid a lot of the groundwork for the Revolution. More confusing? Why does this war have two names? Why were the French and Indians fighting each other? The Seven Years' war was actually a global war that went on for nine years. I think I'm having trouble making this clear. Anyway, the part of this global war that happened in North America was the French and Indian War. The French and Indian tribes were the force opposing the British, so that's the name that stuck. Let's get away from this war, as it makes my head hurt. Other stuff was going on in the colonies in the 18th century that primed the people for revolution. One was the Great Awakening. Religious revival was sweeping the country, introducing new ideas about religion and how it should be practiced. At the same time, thinkers like John Locke were rethinking the relationship between rulers and the ruled. So in this highly charged atmosphere, you can just imagine what would happen if the crown started trying to exert more control over the colonies. The colonists would probably just rise up, right? We'll see what happens next week.

Full Transcript​

The Seven Years War and the Great Awakening Crash Course US History 5

speaker01 00:00:00

Hi John Green, this is Crash us history and we're going discuss the that the events that the American Revolution. We will begin with the seven years which Crash Course World History fans will remember. Winston Churchill referred to as the First World War. Americans call the French and Indian War. The Prussians called it the Third Silesian War. Swedes called it the Pomeranian War. For today, we're just going to call it the Seven Years War on account of how it lasted for nine years.

speaker01 00:32:00

So here at Crash Course, we take a broad view of history. And rather than talking about the minute details of wars, we try to focus on the important stuff causes, effects. Anytime Vladimir Putin might show up and teacup kittens. And as far as causes go, the Seven Years War was really like most wars about economics.

speaker01 00:49:00

Mr Green Mr Green is this economics class because Anna remembers signing up for, yeah, this is economics class me from the past. It's economics and religion and psychology and anthropology and astronomy and physics and ecology and literature. That's the great thing about history. You can't put the past into little boxes that you study set for 50 minutes a day until the bell rings. You can't separate what happened from what people wanted and believed and valued, right?

The Black Legend, Native Americans, and Spaniards: Crash Course US History #1 episode transcript - U.S. History by Crash Course

· 13 min read

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The Black Legend, Native Americans, and Spaniards: Crash Course US History #1​

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green kicks off Crash Course US History! Why, you may ask, are we covering US History, and not more World History, or the history of some other country, or the very specific history of your home region? Well, the reasons are many. But, like it or not, the United States has probably meddled in your country to some degree in the last 236 years or so, and that means US History is relevant all over the world. In episode 1, John talks about the Native Americans who lived in what is now the US prior to European contact. This is a history class, not archaeology, so we're mainly going to cover written history. That means we start with the first sustained European settlement in North America, and that means the Spanish. The Spanish have a long history with the natives of the Americas, and not all of it was positive. The Spanish were definitely not peaceful colonizers, but what colonizers are peaceful? Colonization pretty much always results in an antagonistic relationship with the locals. John teaches you about early Spanish explorers, settlements, and what happened when they didn't get along with the indigenous people. The story of their rocky relations has been called the Black Legend. Which is not a positive legend.

Full Transcript​

The Black Legend, Native Americans, and Spaniards Crash Course US History 1

speaker01 00:00:00

Hi I'm John Green and this is Crash Course us history. No, Stan, that's not going to work actually. I mean, we're talking about the 16th century today when this was neither United nor States. By the way, this globe reflects the fact that I believe that Alaska statehood is in fact we're going to call this whole show us history, but inevitably, it's going to involve other parts of the world. And also, not to brag, a small part of the moon. Sorry, we can be a little bit self agradable sometimes here in America. So to begin us history, we're not going to talk about the United States or this guy. We're going to talk about the people who lived here before any Europeans showed up.

speaker01 00:45:00

North America was home to a great variety of people. So it's difficult to generalize. But here's what we can say. One, when the Europeans arrived, there were no classical style civilizations with monumental architecture and empires like the Aztec or the Incas. And two, native North Americans had no metal work, no powder, no wheels, no written languages, and no domesticated animals. However, they did have farming, complex social and political structures, and widespread trade networks.

speaker01 01:08:00

Mr Green Mr Green, so they were pretty backwards. Well, I mean, or at least primitive. Primitive is a funny word, me from the past, because it implies a romanticization, these simple people who never used more than they needed and had no use for guns. And it also implies an infantilization. It's like you believe that just because you have a beeper and they didn't, they were somehow less evolved humans, but you can't see the human story is one that goes from primitive to civilized. That's not just Eurocentric, that's contemporary centric, the idea that we're moving forward as a species implies a linear progression that just does not reflect the reality of life on this planet. I get that you like to imagine yourself as the result of millennia of advancement in the very pinnacle of humanness. But from where I'm sitting, that worldview is a lot more backwards than living without the wheel.

When is Thanksgiving? Colonizing America: Crash Course US History #2 episode transcript - U.S. History by Crash Course

· 14 min read

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When is Thanksgiving? Colonizing America: Crash Course US History #2​

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you about the (English) colonies in what is now the United States. He covers the first permanent English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the various theocracies in Massachusetts, the feudal kingdom in Maryland, and even a bit about the spooky lost colony at Roanoke Island. What were the English doing in America, anyway? Lots of stuff. In Virginia, the colonists were largely there to make money. In Maryland, the idea was to create a colony for Catholics who wanted to be serfs of the Lords Baltimore. In Massachusetts, the Pilgrims and Puritans came to America to find a place where they could freely persecute those who didn't share their beliefs. But there was a healthy profit motive in Massachusetts as well. Profits were thin at first, and so were the colonists. Trouble growing food and trouble with the natives kept the early colonies from success. Before long though, the colonists started cultivating tobacco, which was a win for everyone involved if you ignore the lung cancer angle. So kick back, light up a smoke, and learn how America became profitable. DON'T SMOKE, THOUGH! THAT WAS A JOKE!

Full Transcript​

When is Thanksgiving Colonizing America Crash Course US History 2

speaker01 00:00:00

Hi I'm John Green, this is Crash Course us history and today we're going to tell the story of how a group of plucky English people struck a blow for religious freedom and founded the greatest and fat nation the world has ever seen. These Brits entered a barren land containing no people and quickly invented the automobile, baseball, and Star Trek, and we all lived happily ever after. Mr Green Mr Green, if it's really that simple, I am so getting an A in this class past. You're just a delight.

speaker01 00:43:00

So most Americans grew, appearing that the United States was founded by pasty English people who came here to escape religious persecution. And that's true of the small proportion of people who settled in the Massachusetts Bay and created what we now know as New England. But these pilgrims and Puritans difference weren't the first people or even the first Europeans to come to the only part of the globe we didn't paint over. In fact, they weren't even the first English people. The first English people came to Virginia, off topic. But how weird is it that the first permanent English colony in the Americas was named not for Queen Elizabeth S, but for her supposed Chas? Anyway, those first English settlers weren't looking for religious freedom. They wanted to get rich.

speaker01 01:18:00

So the first successful English colony in America was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1907. I say successful because there were two previous attempts to colonize the region. They were both epic failures, the more famous of which was the colony at Roanoke Island set up by Sir Walter Raleigh, which is famous because all the colonists disappeared, leaving only the word Croatan carved into a tree.