As the first child born to English parents in the New World, Virginia Dare became a poster child for early American colonialism following her birth in 1587. Her family was part of just 120 Englishmen and -women to settle on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now North Carolina. The colony's governor — and Virginia's grandfather — left for England soon after she was born to secure more financial and material resources for the foundering settlement. When he finally returned three years later, he couldn't find a trace of the toddler — or any of the other settlers. Only one clue remained: the word Croatan had been carved on one of the settlement's posts, leading many to believe that the Native American Croatan tribe had kidnapped or killed the settlers. Roanoke...