Read two passages about North Carolina history · Answer questions · Build EOG skills
Read both passages about one of North Carolina's greatest mysteries. Passage A is a historical narrative told from a child's point of view. Passage B is an informational text about what historians know.
FOCUS: Point of View · Author's Purpose · Compare AccountsMy name is Eleanor Dare. I am eleven years old, and I was born on Roanoke Island in the summer of 1587 — the first English child born in the New World. At least, that is what the grown-ups always told me, as though it were something to be proud of.
I do not remember much about that first year. What I remember is the sound the island made at night — frogs and crickets and the wind moving through the tall grass near the shore. I remember the way my father, Ananias, smelled of sawdust and saltwater. I remember that my grandmother, Virginia Dare, was the most famous baby in all of England before she could even walk.
What I do not remember is when people started to leave. It happened slowly, the way a fire goes out — first the crackling, then the glow, then nothing. Families gathered their things at night. People whispered about moving inland, to live with the Croatoan people on the mainland, where there was more food and less danger.
Before the last of us left, my father carved a word into the wooden post at the fort's entrance: CROATOAN. "So that Governor White will know where to find us," he told me, "when he comes back with the supply ships."
I believed him. Children believe what their fathers tell them.
Governor White never came back. Not in time.
But the word stayed on that post for years and years, waiting — the way all of us were waiting — for someone to understand what it meant.
In 1587, a group of about 115 English settlers arrived on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now North Carolina. They were led by Governor John White and hoped to build England's first permanent colony in North America. Among the settlers was White's daughter, Eleanor Dare, who gave birth to a baby girl named Virginia — the first English child born in the Americas.
Governor White sailed back to England for supplies shortly after the colony was established. Due to a war between England and Spain, he was unable to return for three years. When he finally arrived back at Roanoke in 1590, the settlement was completely empty. The colonists had vanished.
The only clue White found was a single word carved into a wooden post: CROATOAN. Before he left, the colonists had agreed that if they moved, they would carve their destination. Croatoan was the name of a nearby island and the name of a friendly Native American group who lived there.
White tried to sail to Croatoan Island but was forced to return to England by storms. He never learned what happened to the settlers, including his daughter and granddaughter.
Historians and archaeologists have studied the mystery for hundreds of years. Some evidence suggests the colonists may have blended into the Croatoan community. DNA studies and archaeological digs on Hatteras Island — the modern name for Croatoan Island — have found some items that may have belonged to English settlers. However, no definitive answer has ever been found.
The Lost Colony remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history and a key part of North Carolina's story.
Read both passages about the Cherokee people of North Carolina. Passage A is a historical narrative told from a young Cherokee girl's point of view. Passage B is an informational text about the Trail of Tears and the Eastern Band of Cherokee.
FOCUS: Compare Accounts · Author's Purpose · Text EvidenceMy grandmother says the mountains have always been here. She says our people have walked these ridges for a thousand years, that the Great Smoky Mountains are not just land — they are memory. Every creek, every rock, every morning mist has a name in our language.
I am Ayita. I am ten years old, and I live near the Oconaluftee River in the year 1838. This is the year the soldiers came.
I watched from the tree line as families from other villages were gathered into wooden stockades. I heard the crying at night, floating up the valley like smoke. My father said the United States government had passed a law that said we must leave — all of us — and walk west to a place called Indian Territory, far away in what would one day be called Oklahoma.
"We will not go," my father said quietly. Not with anger. Just as a fact, the way you say the sun will rise.
A man named Tsali helped us. There were others like my family — Cherokee who hid in these mountains, who knew every hollow and hidden cove. Some soldiers, tired of the long search, agreed to leave us if Tsali turned himself in. He did. He gave himself so that we could stay.
We are still here. We are the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation. These mountains held us when everything else tried to push us away. My grandmother still says their names at dawn, the way you might greet someone you love.
The Cherokee people have lived in the southern Appalachian Mountains — including the region now known as western North Carolina — for thousands of years. By the 1700s, they had developed a written language, a constitution, and a system of government.
In 1830, the United States Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which gave the government the power to force Native American tribes off their lands in the East and relocate them to territories west of the Mississippi River. In 1838 and 1839, the U.S. Army forced most of the Cherokee Nation to march more than 1,000 miles to present-day Oklahoma. This forced march became known as the Trail of Tears. Thousands of Cherokee died from hunger, disease, and cold weather during the journey.
However, not all Cherokee were removed. A group of about 1,000 Cherokee people hid in the mountains of western North Carolina, refusing to leave. A Cherokee man named Tsali became an important figure during this time. According to historical accounts, Tsali surrendered to U.S. soldiers so that the remaining hidden Cherokee would be allowed to stay in their homeland. He was executed, but the agreement was honored.
These Cherokee people eventually gained the right to remain in North Carolina. They became known as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and still live in the Great Smoky Mountains region today. Their reservation, called the Qualla Boundary, covers about 57,000 acres near the town of Cherokee, North Carolina.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians preserve their language, traditions, and history, and the region remains one of the most culturally significant areas in all of North Carolina.