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PHOTOS
 
 

The first English colony in America was the first of two established by Sir Walter Raleigh on Roanoke Island, in 1585 and 1587. The first group returned to England; the second, the "Lost Colony," disappeared without a trace. In 1629, the land south of Virginia, which was called Carolina, was granted to Sir Robert Heath by English King Charles I, but Heath failed to make use of the land, and in 1663, Charles II granted the Carolina territory to eight proprietors. North Carolina became a separate colony in 1712. The proprietary period of the colony, which lasted from 1663 to 1729, was turbulent because of the independence of the settlers, who occasionally drove out a governor whom they regarded as obnoxious. Indian troubles also beset the colony, but in 1713 the Tuscarora, after having massacred many settlers, were defeated and expelled from the Carolinas.