DEAR SUN SPOTS: I was pleased to see that you gave the French due credit (July 12) in establishing the Sainte Croix colony in 1604, making it one of the oldest in “New England” (as the area would later be known) and the oldest known European settlement site in Maine.
After a disastrous first winter, the Ste. Croix colonists were relocated to Port Royal in what is now Nova Scotia in 1605, which would become the first successful French colony in North America.
Castine which was originally known as Pentagoet or Pentaguet, was first founded by the French in 1613 and has a claim to be the first settlement in New England, but its tumultuous history involves many destructions and re-foundings, so this statement is not without its critics.
In defense of the unnamed teacher, Popham was founded May 4, a whopping 10 days before Jamestown. As to Roanoke’s claim, the reference to the first “organized” colony may be important. Popham was founded by the Plymouth Company of investors. Purchasing stock in the company not only gave investors access to the colony’s profits, but also a stake in its government. This shared governance provided one of the models for representative democracy in British North America. Roanoke, by contrast, was a private venture of Sir Walter Raleigh.
It is worth noting that labels such as the “oldest” or “first” colonies are notoriously controversial. The question gets even murkier when you take into account the number of different criteria involved. Is this the oldest site in New England? The United States? North America? Is it the first site to be settled? Or the first site to be permanently inhabited? If a colony, like Ste. Croix, is moved, does it lose its status as being “continuously inhabited?”
Furthermore, regional and national biases frequently lead to misunderstandings. In the United States, Plymouth (1620) was traditionally remembered as the birthplace of the nation more often than Jamestown (1607), especially in the North, because it was easier to admire the work ethic of the pilgrims than the antics of John Smith and the Jamestown colonists, who imported their first slaves in 1619.
Americans are well aware of Plymouth, Jamestown, and even Roanoke, but what about St. Augustine (San Augustin), Fla., the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the United States, which was founded by the Spanish in 1565?
Or San Juan, Puerto Rico, founded in 1521 and the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in US territory? Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement anywhere in North America (1496).
Of course, these are all trumped by the Norse settlement at l’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland (circa 1000). Not to mention countless Native American settlements whose exact dates are not known to us.
Cahokia, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi, opposite present-day St Louis, Mo., was settled about 900 and had a population larger than London or Paris in the year 1250 (maybe 15,000).
I’m looking forward to the flurry of responses from readers with claims of antiquity from places I’ve omitted from this list! — James Myall, jmyall@usm.maine.edu
ANSWER: Now you know how Sun Spots feels, every word waiting to be refuted!
DEAR SUN SPOTS: To whoever is having fun stealing our flower pots from the Monmouth town sign on Route 202, thank you for being so inconsiderate of all our hard work to beautify the area. Hopefully that act is making someone happy, but the flowers will not last unless taken care of properly by watering and feeding them regularly. Good luck. — R.L., Monmouth
NOTE TO READERS: If you haven’t seen an answer to your query, please be patient. Sun Spots is working on them, but summer is the worst for getting an answer to a question.
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