Melungeon
Encyclopedia
Melungeon is a term traditionally applied to one of a number of "tri-racial isolate" groups of the Southeastern United States
, mainly in the Cumberland Gap
area of central Appalachia
, which includes portions of East Tennessee
, Southwest Virginia
, and East Kentucky. Tri-racial describes populations thought to be of mixed Europe
an, sub-Saharan African, and Native American
ancestry. Although there is no consensus on how many such groups exist, estimates range as high as 200.
DNA
testing of Melungeon descendants has been limited, but the Melungeon DNA Project
, which has made its results public, so far shows overwhelming mixed European and sub-Saharan African haplotype
s of females and males in several families traditionally identified as Melungeon and considered so by researchers.
, cultural, and geographic origins and identity, as they were and are of mixed ancestry. They might accurately be described as a loose collection of families of diverse origins who migrated, settled nearby and intermarried with one another, mostly in Hancock County, Tennessee and nearby areas of Kentucky
. Their ancestors can often be traced back to North Carolina and Virginia. The U.S. census
has a category for Melungeon, tabulated under "Some Other Race 600-999." Many scholars do not think Melungeons should be classified as a distinct ethnicity and describe them instead as one of numerous multiracial groups with origins in mixed unions, especially in colonial Virginia.
Melungeons are defined as having racially mixed ancestry; they do not exhibit characteristics that can be classified as of a single racial phenotype
. Most modern-day descendants of Appalachian families traditionally regarded as Melungeon are generally European American
in appearance, often, though not always, with dark hair and eyes, and a swarthy or olive complexion. Descriptions of Melungeons have varied widely over time; in the 19th and early 20th century, they were sometimes called "Portuguese
," "Native American
," or "light-skinned African American
." Other Melungeon individuals and families are accepted as white, particularly since the mid-20th century.
A factor in the variation in descriptions is the lack of consensus on who should be included under the term Melungeon. Almost every contemporary author on this subject gives a slightly different list of Melungeon-associated surnames, but the Irish surname Collins and English surname Gibson appear most frequently; the genealogist Pat Elder calls them "core" surnames. Other researchers include the surnames Powell, LeBon, Bowling, Bunch, Goins, Goodman, Heard, Minor, Mise, Mullins, and several others. (Family lines have to be researched as not all families with these surnames are Melungeon). Not all families of each surname have been of the same racial background. Each line must be examined individually. The answer to the question "Who or what are Melungeons?" depends largely on which families are included under that designation.
The original meaning of the word "Melungeon" is obscure (see Etymology below). From about the mid-19th to the late 20th centuries, it referred exclusively to one tri-racial isolate group, the descendants of the multiracial Collins, Gibson, and several other related families of Newman's Ridge, Vardy Valley, and other settlements in and around Hancock County, Tennessee.
region in the 17th century of what the historian
Ira Berlin
(1998) calls "Atlantic Creole
s." These were the descendants of unions of freed slaves (sometimes of mixed race) and indentured servants
, who were primarily of English, Northern European and West African ancestry. Some of these "Atlantic Creoles" in the charter generation in the colonies were culturally partly what today might be called "Hispanic
" or "Latino
", whose paternal ancestors had been Portuguese or Spanish men who had children with African women in African ports. Their mixed-race descendants bore names such as "Chavez," "Rodriguez," and "Francisco," and the men often worked in the slave trade, some coming to the American colonies. Some mixed-race creoles intermarried with their English neighbors, adopted English surnames, and owned slaves. To a lesser extent, some intermarried with Native Americans. Early colonial America was very much a "melting pot" of peoples, but not all of these early multiracial families were ancestral to the later Melungeons. Over the generations, most individuals of the group called Melungeon were of European and African ancestries.
A commonly held myth about the Melungeons of east Tennessee was that they were an indigenous people of Appalachia
who lived there before the arrival of the first white settlers. Instead, scholars have documented by a variety of historic records that the earliest Melungeon ancestors migrated from Virginia, as did their Anglo-American neighbors. Paul Heinegg has traced free people of color
families on the frontier in the censuses of 1790–1810 and found that most were descended from African Americans free in Virginia in colonial times, the families of working-class white women (who were indentured servants or free) and African men, free, indentured servants or slaves. A minority were descended from slaves who had been manumitted.
, sometimes mixed-race families, are documented as migrating with European-American neighbors in the first half of the 18th century to the frontier of Virginia and to North and South Carolina. The Collins, Gibson, and Ridley (Riddle) families owned land adjacent to one another in Orange County, North Carolina
, where they and the Bunch family were listed as "free Molatas (mulatto
s)", taxable on tithes in 1755. By settling in frontier areas, free people of color found more amenable living conditions and could escape some of the racial strictures of plantation areas.
The historian Jack D. Forbes has noted about laws in South Carolina related to racial classification:
Beginning about 1767, some of the ancestors of the Melungeons moved from the Tidewater area northwest to the frontier New River area of Virginia, where they are listed on tax lists of Montgomery County, Virginia
, in the 1780s. From there they migrated south in the Appalachian Range to Wilkes County, North Carolina
, where some are listed as "white" on the 1790 census. They resided in a part of that county which became Ashe County
, where they are designated as "other free" in 1800.
Not long after, Collins and Gibson families (identified as Melungeon ancestors) were members of the Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church in nearby Scott County, Virginia
, where they appear to have been treated as social equals of the white members. The earliest documented use of the term "Melungeon" is found in the minutes of this church (see Etymology below). While there are historical references to the documents, the originals have not been found, and evidence came from a transcribed copy.
From Virginia and North Carolina, the families crossed into Kentucky and Tennessee. The earliest known Melungeon in Northeast Tennessee was Millington Collins, who executed a deed in Hawkins County
in 1802. Several Collins and Gibson households appeared in Floyd County, Kentucky
, in 1820, when they are listed as "free persons of color". On the 1830 censuses of Hawkins and Grainger County, Tennessee, Collins and Gibson families are listed as "free-colored". Melungeons were residents of the part of Hawkins that became Hancock County in 1844.
Contemporary accounts documented that Melungeon ancestors were considered to be mixed race by appearance. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, census enumerators designated them as "mulatto," "other free," or as "free persons of color." Sometimes they were listed as "white," sometimes as "black" or "negro", but almost never as "Indian." One family described as "Indian" was the Melungeon-related Ridley family, listed as such on a 1767 Pittsylvania County, Virginia
, tax list, though they had been designated "mulattos" in 1755. During the 19th century, due to their intermarriage with white families and descendants of increasingly white appearance, Melungeon-surnamed families began to be classified as white on census records with increasing frequency, a trend that has continued to the present. In 1935, a state of Nevada newspaper anecdotally described Melungeons as "mulattoes" with "straight hair".
Richard Allen Carlson, a researcher of the group known as the "Salyersville Indians" in Magoffin and Clark counties, Kentucky, which is a different population, found the following:
As the scholar Ariela Gross has shown by analysis of court cases, the shift from "mulatto" to "white" was often dependent upon appearance and community perception of a person's activities in life, who one associated with, and whether the person fulfilled the obligations of citizens. Census takers often were people of a community or classified individuals as they were known by the community. Definitions of racial categories were often imprecise and ambiguous, especially for "mulatto" and "free person of color." In the British North American colonies and the United States at various times in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, "mulatto
" could mean a mixture of African and European, African and Native American, European and Native American, or all three. At the same time, these groups did marry with each other, and there were questions about which culture took precedence, if any. Many Native American tribes were organized around matrilineal lines.
The loose terminology contributed to the disappearance from historical records of remnant non-reservation American Indians in the Upper South, who were generally not recorded separately as Indians. They were gradually reclassified as mulatto or free people of color, especially as generations intermarried with neighbors. In the early decades of the 20th century, Virginia and some other states passed more restrictive laws that required all persons to be classified only as white or black. After Virginia passed its Racial Integrity Act of 1924, officials went so far as to alter existing birth and marriage records to reclassify some mixed-race individuals or families from Indian to black. The historical documentation of continuity of self-identified Native American families was lost. This process of loss of historical and cultural continuity appeared to have happened also with some of the non-reservation remnant Indians of Delaware.
On the other hand, in the tensions about race and slavery leading up to the Civil War, several Melungeon men were tried in Hawkins County, Tennessee, in 1846 for "illegal voting", under suspicion of being black. They were acquitted, presumably by demonstrating to the court's satisfaction that they had no appreciable black ancestry. (Standards were not as strict as under the laws of the "one drop rule" of the 20th century.) Like some other cases, this was chiefly determined by people testifying as to how the men had been perceived by the community and whether they had "acted white" by voting, serving in the militia, or undertaking other common activities, etc.
After the American Civil War
and during the Reconstruction era (United States), southern whites worried more about racial identity as they struggled to re-assert white supremacy over emancipated freedmen. For example, in 1872 a woman's Melungeon ancestry was evaluated in a trial in Hamilton County, Tennessee
. The case was brought by relatives' contending over an inheritance of property. They questioned the legitimacy of a marriage between a white man and a woman known to be Melungeon, and argued the marriage was not legitimate because the woman was of black ancestry. Based on testimony of people in the community, the court decided the woman in the case was not of African ancestry.
Modern anthropological and sociological studies of Melungeon descendants in Appalachia have demonstrated that they have become culturally indistinguishable from their "non-Melungeon" white neighbors: they share a Baptist
religious affiliation and other community features. With changing attitudes and a desire for more work opportunities, numerous descendants of the early Melungeon pioneer families have migrated from Appalachia to other parts of the United States.
Notable people of declared Melungeon ancestry include U-2
pilot Francis Gary Powers.
"). The Melungeon descendant and researcher Jack Goins states that the Melungeons claimed to be both Indian and Portuguese
. One early Melungeon was called "Spanish
" ("Spanish Peggy" Gibson, wife of Vardy Collins).
Despite scant evidence, a few ancestors may have been of mixed Iberian
(Spanish
and/or Portuguese
) and African origin, as the historian Ira Berlin
has noted that some early slaves and free blacks in the colonies were "Atlantic creoles", mixed-race descendants Iberian workers and African women, who became bilingual and accompanied Europeans as workers with the slave trade. The major parts of the ancestries are northern European and African, given the history of multiracial families in the Melungeons' time and place of origin (late 17th century-early 18th century eastern Virginia). The Prince Madoc
legend is sometimes referenced in connection with the Melungeons.
Given historical evidence of Native American settlement patterns, Cherokee descent is highly unlikely for the original Melungeon families, who came from Tidewater areas. Some of their descendants may have later intermarried with families of Cherokee ancestry in East Tennessee. Melungeons in Graysville, Tennessee
claimed Cherokee ancestors. The anthropologist E. Raymond Evans (1979) wrote regarding these claims:
The historian C. S. Everett hypothesized that John Collins the Sapony Indian, recorded as being expelled from Orange County, Virginia
about January 1743, might be the same man as the Melungeon ancestor John Collins, classified as a "mulatto" in 1755 North Carolina records. But Everett has revised that theory after having discovered evidence that these were two different men named John Collins. Only the latter man, identified as mulatto in the 1755 record in North Carolina, has any proven connection to the Melungeons.
Another source frequently suggested for Melungeon ancestry is the Powhatan
, a group of Algonquian-speaking tribes who inhabited Eastern Virginia when the English arrived. During the 19th and 20th centuries, speculation on Melungeon origins continued. Writers recounted folk tales of shipwrecked sailors, lost colonists, hoards of silver, and ancient peoples such as the Carthaginians
. With each writer, new elements were added to the mythology surrounding this group, and more peoples were added to the list of possible Melungeon ancestors. The journalist Will Allen Dromgoole wrote several articles on the Melungeons in the 1890s.
In the late 20th century, amateur researchers have suggested that the Melungeons' ethnic identity may include ancestors who were Turk
, and Sephardi (Iberian) Jewry. The writers David Beers Quinn and Ivor Noel Hume suggest that the Melungeons are descended from Sephardi Jews who fled the Inquisition and came as sailors to North America. They also suggest that Francis Drake
did not repatriate all the Turks he saved from the sack of Cartagena
, but some came to the colonies. "Whether any of them got ashore on the Outer Banks and were deserted there when Drake sailed away we cannot say." Academic historians have not found any evidence for such a conclusion.
The Internet sources on the group suggest that in the hills of East Tennessee is an enclave of people, likely of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern origin, who have been in the area since before the arrival of the first white settlers. But, such romantic fictions find no support among academic historians and genealogists. The historian Dr. Virginia E. DeMarce, former president of the National Genealogical Society
and author of several articles on the Melungeons, said in a 1997 interview with NPR: "It's not that mysterious once you...do the nitty gritty research one family at a time...basically the answer to the question of where did Tennessee's mysterious Melungeons come from is three words. And the three words are Louisa County, Virginia
." She and Paul Heinegg have found historical documentation in court records, land deeds and other materials showing that most Melungeon ancestors were free blacks, descended from marriages and unions between working-class European-American women and men of African descent.
mélange, or mixture. As there were French Huguenot immigrants in Virginia from 1700, their language could have contributed a term.
The scholars Joanne Pezzullo and Karlton Douglas speculate that a more likely derivation of "Melungeon," related to the English culture of the colonies, may have been from the now obsolete English word "malengin" (also spelled "mal engine") meaning "guile", "deceit", or "ill intent." It was used by Edmund Spenser
as the name of a trickster figure in his epic poem The Faerie Queene
(1590–1596), widely popular in Elizabethan England. The phrase "harbored them Melungins" would be equivalent to "harbored someone of ill will," or could mean "harbored evil people," without reference to any ethnicity.
Another theory traces the word to malungu (or malungo), a Luso-African
word from Angola
meaning "shipmate", derived from the Kimbundu
word ma'luno, meaning "companion" or "friend".
Kennedy (1994) speculates that it derives from the Turkish
melun can (from Arabic
mal`un jinn ملعون جنّ), which purportedly means "damned soul." But, the Turkish word can, meaning "soul", is Persian
in origin, rather than Arabic. Kennedy apparently confuses it with the Arabic word jinn, better known as genie. He suggests that, at the time, the (condemned soul) was a term used by Turks for Muslims who had been captured and enslaved aboard Spanish galleons.
Some writers try to connect the term "Melungeon" to an ethnic origin of people designated by that term, but there is no basis for this assumption. It appears the name arose as an exonym, something which neighboring people, of whatever origin, called the multiracial people.
The earliest known written use of the word "Melungeon" is in an 1813 Scott County, Virginia
Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church record:
On 7 October 1840, the polemical Brownlow's Whig of Jonesborough, Tennessee
, published an article entitled "Negro Speaking!" The publisher referred to a rival Democratic politician with a party in Sullivan County as "an impudent Malungeon from Washington City a scoundrel who is half Negro and half Indian," then as a "free negroe". In this and related articles, he does not identify the Democrat by name.
Different researchers have developed their own lists of the surnames of core Melungeon families, as generally, specific lines have to be traced. DeMarce (1992) listed Hale as a Melungeon surname. By the mid-to-late 19th century, the term Melungeon appeared to have been used most frequently to refer to the multi-racial families of Hancock County and neighboring areas. Several other uses of the term in the print media, from mid-19th to early 20th century, have been collected at the Melungeon Heritage Association Website. The spelling of the term varied widely, as was common for words and names at the time; eventually the form "Melungeon" became standard.
From the late 1960s, "Melungeon" became a self-identified designation of ethnicity. This shift in meaning was probably due to the popularity of Walk Toward the Sunset, a drama written by playwright Kermit Hunter and produced outdoors. The play was first presented in 1969 in Sneedville
, the county seat of Hancock County. Making no claim to historical accuracy, Hunter portrayed the Melungeons as indigenous people of uncertain race who were mistakenly perceived as black by neighboring white settlers. As the drama portrayed Melungeons in a positive, romantic light, many individuals began for the first time to self-identify by that term. Hunter intended for his drama "to improve the socio-economic climate" of Hancock County, and to "lift the Melungeon name 'from shame to the hall of fame'". The play helped evived interest in the history of Melungeons and some worked to use the facts rather than speculation. The social changes of the 1960s contributed to wider acceptance of minority groups.
Interest in the Melungeons has grown tremendously since the mid-1990s. They were featured in a chapter of the writer Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent
as well as N. Brent Kennedy's book on his claimed Melungeon roots, The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People (1994). With the Internet, many people are doing research in family history. The number of individuals claiming Melungeon heritage has increased rapidly, according to Kennedy. Many newly self-identifying Melungeons have no demonstrable connections to families who have been historically known by that term.
Some individuals begin to self-identity as Melungeons after reading about the group on a website and discovering their surname on the expanding list of "Melungeon-associated" surnames. Others believe they have certain physical traits or conditions. For example, some Melungeons are allegedly identifiable by shovel-shaped incisors
, a dental feature more commonly found among, but not restricted to, Native Americans and Northeast Asians. A second feature attributed by some to Melungeons is an enlarged external occipital protuberance, dubbed an "Anatolian bump", after an unsubstantiated hypothesis, popularized by N. Brent Kennedy, that Melungeons are of Turkish origin. Academic historians have not found any evidence for this thesis, nor is it supported by results from the Melungeon DNA Project.
Internet sites promote the anecdotal claim that Melungeons are more prone to certain diseases, such as sarcoidosis
or familial Mediterranean fever
, although academic centers have noted that neither of the diseases is confined to a single population. No scientific research supports claims that certain physical traits and conditions are more prevalent among Melungeon families, as their ancestries vary widely.
Kennedy's claims of ancestral connections to this group have been strongly disputed. The genealogist and historian Dr. Virginia E. DeMarce reviewed his 1994 book: she found that Kennedy's documentation of his Melungeon ancestry was seriously flawed, he had a very indistinct definition of Melungeons, although other researchers have studied them, and seemed to include any people who might have had other than northern European ancestry; and that he did not properly take account of existing historical records or recognized genealogical practice in his research. He claimed to have ancestors who were persecuted for racial reasons; she found that his named ancestors were all classified as white in records, held various political offices (which showed they could vote), and held land. Kennedy responded to her critique in this article.
on Melungeons was carried out in 2000 by Dr. Kevin Jones of The University of Virginia's College at Wise, using 130 hair and cheek cell samples. These samples were taken from subjects chosen by Kennedy as representative of Melungeon lines. McGowan (2003) described Dr Jones' discovery of the political aspects of genetic research when the results of the study caused disappointment among some observers. "...Jones concluded that the Melungeons are mostly Eurasian, a catchall category spanning people from Scandinavia to the Middle East. They are also a little bit black and a little bit American Indian." This study has to date not been submitted to a peer-reviewed scientific journal, nor has a list of those individuals' contributing samples been published. It is unclear to what extent the subjects were descendants of families historically designated or since documented as Melungeon.
More recently, Jack Goins, an independent researcher, has acted as coordinator of the Melungeon DNA Project
, an independent project started in 2005. Its goal is to study the ancestry of lines for which there is academic and genealogical consensus as belonging to historical Melungeon families. According to Jack Goins, the Melungeons who have the following surnames are in the Core Melungeon Group 1: Bunch
, Collins
, Goins, Gibson
, Minor
, Williams
, Breedlove
, Mullins
, Denham
, Bowlin(g)
, Moore
, Shumake, Bolton
, Perkins
, Morning, Menley, Hopkins
, and Mallet
.
The Y-chromosomal DNA testing of male subjects with the Melungeon surnames Collins, Gibson, Goins, Bunch, Bowlin(g), Denham, Mullins, Hopkins, Perkins, Williams, Minor and Moore, has so far revealed evidence of a majority of European and sub-Saharan African ancestry: Y haplogroup
s R1b
, R1a
, I1
, and E1b1a, respectively.
The numbers between the different Y-DNAs were: R1a(1) = 4, R1b1 = 2, R1b1b = 9, R1b1b2 = 18, R1b1b2a1a = 1, R1b1b2a1b = 3, R1b1b2a1b5 = 1, E = 2, E1b1a = 17, E1b1a8a = 2, E1b1b1 = 1, I1 = 5, I2b = 1, A = 2, G = 1, J2 = 1, L = 1. Here are some examples of what and where each gene could possibly be from: Y-DNA E and its variants, Y-DNA R1b and its variants, Y-DNA I1
, Y-DNA I2b, Y-DNA A
, Y-DNA G
, Y-DNA L
, Y-DNA R1a(1) and Y-DNA J2
.
Further studies into one closely related Collins/Goins family revealed an E1b1a7a sub-group. This study was funded by researcher and scholar William C. Gersper.
Taken as a whole, such findings appear to verify the 19th-century designation of Melungeon ancestors as "mulattos", that is, descendants of white Europeans and Africans, as well as the late twentieth-century genealogical work by Paul Heinegg, which came to the same conclusion. The line with a variety of haplogroups with roots in Portugal
, Spain
and Italy
is consistent with historian Ira Berlin
's research showing that some of the charter generation of enslaved or servant people in the Chesapeake Bay
colony were Atlantic creoles
. They were descended from African women and Spanish or Portuguese men; the latter worked in the slave trade at ports in Africa run by Spain and Portugal, and took wives from the indigenous population.
There is also numerous cases of Melungeons having Native American background in their genealogies, though this doesn't occur in every Melungeon. The ones who do have Native American background, are typically only 1/16-1/8%. They had intermarried with the Cherokee the most. This is especially true of the Graysville Melungeons.
Testing of haplo-types is not an exact science. They change and sub-divide regularly. Haplo-type DNA testing is limited in scope and cannot detail an individual's entire ethnic background.
Delaware:
Florida:
Indiana:
Kentucky:
Louisiana:
Maryland:
New York:
North Carolina:
Ohio:
South Carolina:
Virginia:
West Virginia:
Each of these groupings of mixed-race populations has a particular history. There is evidence for connections between some of them. For example, the Goins surname group have long been identified as Melungeon by people from the rest of Tennessee
, and the surname Goins is also found among the Lumbee
.
Sociologist Brewton Berry (1963) used the term Mestizo
for these groups, but that alternative has not been generally adopted.
In his Foreword to the section on Virginia, North, and South Carolina in Heinegg's work on free African American
s, the historian Ira Berlin sums up the history of such groups:
Southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....
, mainly in the Cumberland Gap
Cumberland Gap
Cumberland Gap is a pass through the Cumberland Mountains region of the Appalachian Mountains, also known as the Cumberland Water Gap, at the juncture of the U.S. states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia...
area of central Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
, which includes portions of East Tennessee
East Tennessee
East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely...
, Southwest Virginia
Southwest Virginia
Southwest Virginia, often abbreviated as SWVA, is a mountainous region of Virginia in the westernmost part of the commonwealth. Southwest Virginia has been defined alternatively as all Virginia counties on the Appalachian Plateau, all Virginia counties west of the Eastern Continental Divide, or...
, and East Kentucky. Tri-racial describes populations thought to be of mixed Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an, sub-Saharan African, and Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
ancestry. Although there is no consensus on how many such groups exist, estimates range as high as 200.
DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
testing of Melungeon descendants has been limited, but the Melungeon DNA Project
Melungeon DNA Project
The Melungeon DNA Project is a genetic study of people who have Melungeon ancestors mostly in Hancock County, Tennessee and nearby areas of Kentucky according to historic records. Participants' genealogical suitability for inclusion is determined by a group of Melungeon researchers. The study was...
, which has made its results public, so far shows overwhelming mixed European and sub-Saharan African haplotype
Haplotype
A haplotype in genetics is a combination of alleles at adjacent locations on the chromosome that are transmitted together...
s of females and males in several families traditionally identified as Melungeon and considered so by researchers.
Definition
The ancestry and identity of Melungeons are highly controversial subjects. There is wide disagreement among secondary sources as to their ethnic, linguisticNatural language
In the philosophy of language, a natural language is any language which arises in an unpremeditated fashion as the result of the innate facility for language possessed by the human intellect. A natural language is typically used for communication, and may be spoken, signed, or written...
, cultural, and geographic origins and identity, as they were and are of mixed ancestry. They might accurately be described as a loose collection of families of diverse origins who migrated, settled nearby and intermarried with one another, mostly in Hancock County, Tennessee and nearby areas of Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
. Their ancestors can often be traced back to North Carolina and Virginia. The U.S. census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
has a category for Melungeon, tabulated under "Some Other Race 600-999." Many scholars do not think Melungeons should be classified as a distinct ethnicity and describe them instead as one of numerous multiracial groups with origins in mixed unions, especially in colonial Virginia.
Melungeons are defined as having racially mixed ancestry; they do not exhibit characteristics that can be classified as of a single racial phenotype
Phenotype
A phenotype is an organism's observable characteristics or traits: such as its morphology, development, biochemical or physiological properties, behavior, and products of behavior...
. Most modern-day descendants of Appalachian families traditionally regarded as Melungeon are generally European American
European American
A European American is a citizen or resident of the United States who has origins in any of the original peoples of Europe...
in appearance, often, though not always, with dark hair and eyes, and a swarthy or olive complexion. Descriptions of Melungeons have varied widely over time; in the 19th and early 20th century, they were sometimes called "Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
," "Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
," or "light-skinned African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
." Other Melungeon individuals and families are accepted as white, particularly since the mid-20th century.
A factor in the variation in descriptions is the lack of consensus on who should be included under the term Melungeon. Almost every contemporary author on this subject gives a slightly different list of Melungeon-associated surnames, but the Irish surname Collins and English surname Gibson appear most frequently; the genealogist Pat Elder calls them "core" surnames. Other researchers include the surnames Powell, LeBon, Bowling, Bunch, Goins, Goodman, Heard, Minor, Mise, Mullins, and several others. (Family lines have to be researched as not all families with these surnames are Melungeon). Not all families of each surname have been of the same racial background. Each line must be examined individually. The answer to the question "Who or what are Melungeons?" depends largely on which families are included under that designation.
The original meaning of the word "Melungeon" is obscure (see Etymology below). From about the mid-19th to the late 20th centuries, it referred exclusively to one tri-racial isolate group, the descendants of the multiracial Collins, Gibson, and several other related families of Newman's Ridge, Vardy Valley, and other settlements in and around Hancock County, Tennessee.
A complex question
The likely background to the mixed-race families later to be called "Melungeons" was the emergence in the Chesapeake BayChesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
region in the 17th century of what the historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
Ira Berlin
Ira Berlin
Ira Berlin is an American historian, a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, and a past President of the Organization of American Historians. Berlin is the author of such books as Many Thousands Gone and Generations of Captivity.-Biography:Berlin received his Ph.D....
(1998) calls "Atlantic Creole
Atlantic Creole
Atlantic Creole is a term used in North America to describe the Charter Generation of slaves during the European colonization of the Americas before 1660. These slaves had cultural roots in Africa, Europe and sometimes the Caribbean. They were of mixed race, primarily descended from European...
s." These were the descendants of unions of freed slaves (sometimes of mixed race) and indentured servants
Indentured servant
Indentured servitude refers to the historical practice of contracting to work for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of indenture. Usually the father made the arrangements and signed...
, who were primarily of English, Northern European and West African ancestry. Some of these "Atlantic Creoles" in the charter generation in the colonies were culturally partly what today might be called "Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
" or "Latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
", whose paternal ancestors had been Portuguese or Spanish men who had children with African women in African ports. Their mixed-race descendants bore names such as "Chavez," "Rodriguez," and "Francisco," and the men often worked in the slave trade, some coming to the American colonies. Some mixed-race creoles intermarried with their English neighbors, adopted English surnames, and owned slaves. To a lesser extent, some intermarried with Native Americans. Early colonial America was very much a "melting pot" of peoples, but not all of these early multiracial families were ancestral to the later Melungeons. Over the generations, most individuals of the group called Melungeon were of European and African ancestries.
A commonly held myth about the Melungeons of east Tennessee was that they were an indigenous people of Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
who lived there before the arrival of the first white settlers. Instead, scholars have documented by a variety of historic records that the earliest Melungeon ancestors migrated from Virginia, as did their Anglo-American neighbors. Paul Heinegg has traced free people of color
Free people of color
A free person of color in the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, is a person of full or partial African descent who was not enslaved...
families on the frontier in the censuses of 1790–1810 and found that most were descended from African Americans free in Virginia in colonial times, the families of working-class white women (who were indentured servants or free) and African men, free, indentured servants or slaves. A minority were descended from slaves who had been manumitted.
Evidence
Free people of colorFree people of color
A free person of color in the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, is a person of full or partial African descent who was not enslaved...
, sometimes mixed-race families, are documented as migrating with European-American neighbors in the first half of the 18th century to the frontier of Virginia and to North and South Carolina. The Collins, Gibson, and Ridley (Riddle) families owned land adjacent to one another in Orange County, North Carolina
Orange County, North Carolina
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 133,801. Its county seat is Hillsborough...
, where they and the Bunch family were listed as "free Molatas (mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
s)", taxable on tithes in 1755. By settling in frontier areas, free people of color found more amenable living conditions and could escape some of the racial strictures of plantation areas.
The historian Jack D. Forbes has noted about laws in South Carolina related to racial classification:
"In 1719, South Carolina decided who should be an "Indian" for tax purposes since American [Indian] slaves were taxed at a lesser rate than African slaves. The act stated: "And for preventing all doubts and scruples that may arise what ought to be rated on mustees, mulattoes, etc. all such slaves as are not entirely Indian shall be accounted as negro." This is an extremely significant passage because it clearly asserts that "mustees" and "mulattoes" were persons of part American [Indian] ancestry. My judgment (to be discussed later) is that a mustee was primarily part-African and American [Indian] and that a mulatto was usually part-European and American [Indian]. The act is also significant because it asserts that part-American [Indians] with or without African ancestry could be counted as Negroes, thus having an implication for all later slave censuses." [Note: This source applies only to South Carolina, not to Virginia or North Carolina, the main places of Melungeon origin.]
Beginning about 1767, some of the ancestors of the Melungeons moved from the Tidewater area northwest to the frontier New River area of Virginia, where they are listed on tax lists of Montgomery County, Virginia
Montgomery County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 83,629 people, 30,997 households, and 17,203 families residing in the county. The population density was 215 people per square mile . There were 32,527 housing units at an average density of 84 per square mile...
, in the 1780s. From there they migrated south in the Appalachian Range to Wilkes County, North Carolina
Wilkes County, North Carolina
Wilkes County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The 2000 U.S. Census listed the county's population at 65,632; the 2010 U.S. Census listed the population at 69,340...
, where some are listed as "white" on the 1790 census. They resided in a part of that county which became Ashe County
Ashe County, North Carolina
- History :Historical evidence shows that Ashe county was inhabited by Native Americans, which included the Cherokee, Creek, and Shawnee tribes. Pieces of broken pottery, arrowheads, and other Native American artifacts have been found, indicating their presence...
, where they are designated as "other free" in 1800.
Not long after, Collins and Gibson families (identified as Melungeon ancestors) were members of the Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church in nearby Scott County, Virginia
Scott County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 23,403 people, 9,795 households, and 7,023 families residing in the county. The population density was 44 people per square mile . There were 11,355 housing units at an average density of 21 per square mile...
, where they appear to have been treated as social equals of the white members. The earliest documented use of the term "Melungeon" is found in the minutes of this church (see Etymology below). While there are historical references to the documents, the originals have not been found, and evidence came from a transcribed copy.
From Virginia and North Carolina, the families crossed into Kentucky and Tennessee. The earliest known Melungeon in Northeast Tennessee was Millington Collins, who executed a deed in Hawkins County
Hawkins County, Tennessee
Hawkins County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010, the population was 56,833. Its county seat is Rogersville, Tennessee's second-oldest town....
in 1802. Several Collins and Gibson households appeared in Floyd County, Kentucky
Floyd County, Kentucky
Floyd County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1800. As of 2000, the population was 42,441. Its county seat is Prestonsburg. The county is named for Colonel John Floyd .-History:...
, in 1820, when they are listed as "free persons of color". On the 1830 censuses of Hawkins and Grainger County, Tennessee, Collins and Gibson families are listed as "free-colored". Melungeons were residents of the part of Hawkins that became Hancock County in 1844.
Contemporary accounts documented that Melungeon ancestors were considered to be mixed race by appearance. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, census enumerators designated them as "mulatto," "other free," or as "free persons of color." Sometimes they were listed as "white," sometimes as "black" or "negro", but almost never as "Indian." One family described as "Indian" was the Melungeon-related Ridley family, listed as such on a 1767 Pittsylvania County, Virginia
Pittsylvania County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 61,745 people, 24,684 households, and 18,216 families residing in the county. The population density was 64 people per square mile . There were 28,011 housing units at an average density of 29 per square mile...
, tax list, though they had been designated "mulattos" in 1755. During the 19th century, due to their intermarriage with white families and descendants of increasingly white appearance, Melungeon-surnamed families began to be classified as white on census records with increasing frequency, a trend that has continued to the present. In 1935, a state of Nevada newspaper anecdotally described Melungeons as "mulattoes" with "straight hair".
Richard Allen Carlson, a researcher of the group known as the "Salyersville Indians" in Magoffin and Clark counties, Kentucky, which is a different population, found the following:
"The historical and anthropological evidence ... suggests that in general a significant portion (though not necessarily all) of the ancestry of the MagoffinMagoffin County, KentuckyMagoffin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky which was formed from parts of Floyd, Johnson, and Morgan Counties and officially created on 22 February 1860. As of 2000, the population was 13,332. Its county seat is Salyersville...
and ClarkClark County, KentuckyClark County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1793. The population was 35,613 in the 2010 Census. Its county seat is Winchester, Kentucky...
counties, Kentucky and Highland County, OhioHighland County, OhioAs of the census of 2000, there were 40,875 people, 15,587 households, and 11,394 families residing in the county. The population density was 74 people per square mile . There were 17,583 housing units at an average density of 32 per square mile...
enclaves [of mixed-race people] originated principally from an admixture of Native American, African Americans and Whites in the early colonial period (from the late 17th century until about 1800) and secondarily from an admixture with presently known Native American groups in the mid-Atlantic coast region." (Note: This source is specific to its definition; it does not refer to the ancestors of Melungeons, who first settled in Hawkins County, Tennessee.)
Assimilation
Researchers have shown that the historical evidence through numerous court records demonstrates that the Melungeon families sought to identify as and to be accepted as white. An example is the marriage patterns of the Joshua Perkins family of Johnson County, Tennessee, whose descendants Paul Heinegg traced. He showed that generations of the family had married white or mulatto people, which led to increasingly European-American or white appearance among descendants.As the scholar Ariela Gross has shown by analysis of court cases, the shift from "mulatto" to "white" was often dependent upon appearance and community perception of a person's activities in life, who one associated with, and whether the person fulfilled the obligations of citizens. Census takers often were people of a community or classified individuals as they were known by the community. Definitions of racial categories were often imprecise and ambiguous, especially for "mulatto" and "free person of color." In the British North American colonies and the United States at various times in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, "mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
" could mean a mixture of African and European, African and Native American, European and Native American, or all three. At the same time, these groups did marry with each other, and there were questions about which culture took precedence, if any. Many Native American tribes were organized around matrilineal lines.
The loose terminology contributed to the disappearance from historical records of remnant non-reservation American Indians in the Upper South, who were generally not recorded separately as Indians. They were gradually reclassified as mulatto or free people of color, especially as generations intermarried with neighbors. In the early decades of the 20th century, Virginia and some other states passed more restrictive laws that required all persons to be classified only as white or black. After Virginia passed its Racial Integrity Act of 1924, officials went so far as to alter existing birth and marriage records to reclassify some mixed-race individuals or families from Indian to black. The historical documentation of continuity of self-identified Native American families was lost. This process of loss of historical and cultural continuity appeared to have happened also with some of the non-reservation remnant Indians of Delaware.
Acceptance
The families known as "Melungeons" in the 19th century were generally well integrated into the communities in which they lived, though this is not to say that racism was never a factor in their social interactions. Records show that on the whole they enjoyed the same rights as whites. For example, they held property, voted, and served in the Army; some, such as the Gibsons, owned slaves as early as the 18th century.On the other hand, in the tensions about race and slavery leading up to the Civil War, several Melungeon men were tried in Hawkins County, Tennessee, in 1846 for "illegal voting", under suspicion of being black. They were acquitted, presumably by demonstrating to the court's satisfaction that they had no appreciable black ancestry. (Standards were not as strict as under the laws of the "one drop rule" of the 20th century.) Like some other cases, this was chiefly determined by people testifying as to how the men had been perceived by the community and whether they had "acted white" by voting, serving in the militia, or undertaking other common activities, etc.
"Law was involved not only in recognizing race, but in creating it; the state itself helped make people white. In allowing men of low social status to perform whiteness by voting, serving on juries, and mustering in the militia, the state welcomed every white man into symbolic equality with the Southern planter. Thus, law helped to constitute white men as citizens, and citizens as white men."
After the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
and during the Reconstruction era (United States), southern whites worried more about racial identity as they struggled to re-assert white supremacy over emancipated freedmen. For example, in 1872 a woman's Melungeon ancestry was evaluated in a trial in Hamilton County, Tennessee
Hamilton County, Tennessee
Hamilton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It was named for Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury. The 2005 Census Estimate placed the population at 310,935 . Its county seat is Chattanooga....
. The case was brought by relatives' contending over an inheritance of property. They questioned the legitimacy of a marriage between a white man and a woman known to be Melungeon, and argued the marriage was not legitimate because the woman was of black ancestry. Based on testimony of people in the community, the court decided the woman in the case was not of African ancestry.
Modern anthropological and sociological studies of Melungeon descendants in Appalachia have demonstrated that they have become culturally indistinguishable from their "non-Melungeon" white neighbors: they share a Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
religious affiliation and other community features. With changing attitudes and a desire for more work opportunities, numerous descendants of the early Melungeon pioneer families have migrated from Appalachia to other parts of the United States.
Notable people of declared Melungeon ancestry include U-2
Lockheed U-2
The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "Dragon Lady", is a single-engine, very high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency . It provides day and night, very high-altitude , all-weather intelligence gathering...
pilot Francis Gary Powers.
Legends
In spite of being culturally and linguistically identical to their white neighbors, these multiracial families were of a sufficiently different physical appearance to invite speculation as to their identity and origins. In the first half of the 19th century, the pejorative term "Melungeon" began to be applied to these families by local white (European-American) neighbors. Local "knowledge" soon began to arise about these people who lived in the hills of eastern Tennessee. According to Pat Elder, the earliest of these was that they were "Indian" (often specifically "CherokeeCherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
"). The Melungeon descendant and researcher Jack Goins states that the Melungeons claimed to be both Indian and Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. One early Melungeon was called "Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
" ("Spanish Peggy" Gibson, wife of Vardy Collins).
Despite scant evidence, a few ancestors may have been of mixed Iberian
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
(Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
and/or Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
) and African origin, as the historian Ira Berlin
Ira Berlin
Ira Berlin is an American historian, a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, and a past President of the Organization of American Historians. Berlin is the author of such books as Many Thousands Gone and Generations of Captivity.-Biography:Berlin received his Ph.D....
has noted that some early slaves and free blacks in the colonies were "Atlantic creoles", mixed-race descendants Iberian workers and African women, who became bilingual and accompanied Europeans as workers with the slave trade. The major parts of the ancestries are northern European and African, given the history of multiracial families in the Melungeons' time and place of origin (late 17th century-early 18th century eastern Virginia). The Prince Madoc
Madoc
Madoc or Madog ab Owain Gwynedd was, according to folklore, a Welsh prince who sailed to America in 1170, over three hundred years before Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492. According to the story, he was a son of Owain Gwynedd who took to the sea to flee internecine violence at home...
legend is sometimes referenced in connection with the Melungeons.
Given historical evidence of Native American settlement patterns, Cherokee descent is highly unlikely for the original Melungeon families, who came from Tidewater areas. Some of their descendants may have later intermarried with families of Cherokee ancestry in East Tennessee. Melungeons in Graysville, Tennessee
Graysville, Tennessee
Graysville is a town in Rhea County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 1,411 at the 2000 census and 1,502 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Graysville is located at ....
claimed Cherokee ancestors. The anthropologist E. Raymond Evans (1979) wrote regarding these claims:
- "In Graysville, the Melungeons strongly deny their Black heritage and explain their genetic differences by claiming to have had Cherokee grandmothers. Many of the local whites also claim Cherokee ancestry and appear to accept the Melungeon claim...."
The historian C. S. Everett hypothesized that John Collins the Sapony Indian, recorded as being expelled from Orange County, Virginia
Orange County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 25,881 people, 10,150 households, and 7,470 families residing in the county. The population density was 76 people per square mile . There were 11,354 housing units at an average density of 33 per square mile...
about January 1743, might be the same man as the Melungeon ancestor John Collins, classified as a "mulatto" in 1755 North Carolina records. But Everett has revised that theory after having discovered evidence that these were two different men named John Collins. Only the latter man, identified as mulatto in the 1755 record in North Carolina, has any proven connection to the Melungeons.
Another source frequently suggested for Melungeon ancestry is the Powhatan
Powhatan
The Powhatan is the name of a Virginia Indian confederation of tribes. It is estimated that there were about 14,000–21,000 of these native Powhatan people in eastern Virginia when the English settled Jamestown in 1607...
, a group of Algonquian-speaking tribes who inhabited Eastern Virginia when the English arrived. During the 19th and 20th centuries, speculation on Melungeon origins continued. Writers recounted folk tales of shipwrecked sailors, lost colonists, hoards of silver, and ancient peoples such as the Carthaginians
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
. With each writer, new elements were added to the mythology surrounding this group, and more peoples were added to the list of possible Melungeon ancestors. The journalist Will Allen Dromgoole wrote several articles on the Melungeons in the 1890s.
In the late 20th century, amateur researchers have suggested that the Melungeons' ethnic identity may include ancestors who were Turk
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
, and Sephardi (Iberian) Jewry. The writers David Beers Quinn and Ivor Noel Hume suggest that the Melungeons are descended from Sephardi Jews who fled the Inquisition and came as sailors to North America. They also suggest that Francis Drake
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He also carried out the...
did not repatriate all the Turks he saved from the sack of Cartagena
Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...
, but some came to the colonies. "Whether any of them got ashore on the Outer Banks and were deserted there when Drake sailed away we cannot say." Academic historians have not found any evidence for such a conclusion.
The Internet sources on the group suggest that in the hills of East Tennessee is an enclave of people, likely of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern origin, who have been in the area since before the arrival of the first white settlers. But, such romantic fictions find no support among academic historians and genealogists. The historian Dr. Virginia E. DeMarce, former president of the National Genealogical Society
National Genealogical Society
The National Genealogical Society is a genealogical interest group founded in 1903 in Washington, D.C.. Its headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia....
and author of several articles on the Melungeons, said in a 1997 interview with NPR: "It's not that mysterious once you...do the nitty gritty research one family at a time...basically the answer to the question of where did Tennessee's mysterious Melungeons come from is three words. And the three words are Louisa County, Virginia
Louisa County, Virginia
Louisa County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 33,153. The county seat is Louisa.- History :...
." She and Paul Heinegg have found historical documentation in court records, land deeds and other materials showing that most Melungeon ancestors were free blacks, descended from marriages and unions between working-class European-American women and men of African descent.
Etymology
There are many hypotheses about the etymology of the term "Melungeon". One theory favored by linguists and many researchers on the topic, and found in several dictionaries, is that the name derives from the FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
mélange, or mixture. As there were French Huguenot immigrants in Virginia from 1700, their language could have contributed a term.
The scholars Joanne Pezzullo and Karlton Douglas speculate that a more likely derivation of "Melungeon," related to the English culture of the colonies, may have been from the now obsolete English word "malengin" (also spelled "mal engine") meaning "guile", "deceit", or "ill intent." It was used by Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...
as the name of a trickster figure in his epic poem The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is one of the longest poems in the English...
(1590–1596), widely popular in Elizabethan England. The phrase "harbored them Melungins" would be equivalent to "harbored someone of ill will," or could mean "harbored evil people," without reference to any ethnicity.
Another theory traces the word to malungu (or malungo), a Luso-African
Portuguese Africans
Portuguese Africans are Portuguese people born or permanently settled in Africa .The largest Portuguese African population lives in South Africa , while there are important minorities living in Namibia and the Portuguese-speaking African countries Portuguese Africans are Portuguese people born or...
word from Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
meaning "shipmate", derived from the Kimbundu
North Mbundu language
North Mbundu, or Kimbundu, one of two Bantu languages called Mbundu is one of the most widely spoken Bantu languages in Angola, concentrated in the north-west of the country, notably in the Luanda Province, the Bengo Province and the Malanje Province...
word ma'luno, meaning "companion" or "friend".
Kennedy (1994) speculates that it derives from the Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
melun can (from Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
mal`un jinn ملعون جنّ), which purportedly means "damned soul." But, the Turkish word can, meaning "soul", is Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
in origin, rather than Arabic. Kennedy apparently confuses it with the Arabic word jinn, better known as genie. He suggests that, at the time, the (condemned soul) was a term used by Turks for Muslims who had been captured and enslaved aboard Spanish galleons.
Some writers try to connect the term "Melungeon" to an ethnic origin of people designated by that term, but there is no basis for this assumption. It appears the name arose as an exonym, something which neighboring people, of whatever origin, called the multiracial people.
The earliest known written use of the word "Melungeon" is in an 1813 Scott County, Virginia
Scott County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 23,403 people, 9,795 households, and 7,023 families residing in the county. The population density was 44 people per square mile . There were 11,355 housing units at an average density of 21 per square mile...
Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church record:
- "Then came forward Sister Kitchen and complained to the church against Susanna Stallard for saying she harbored them Melungins. Sister Sook said she was hurt with her for believing her child and not believing her, and she won't talk to her to get satisfaction, and both is 'pigedish', one against the other. Sister Sook lays it down and the church forgives her."
On 7 October 1840, the polemical Brownlow's Whig of Jonesborough, Tennessee
Jonesborough, Tennessee
Jonesborough is a town in and the county seat of Washington County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The population was 4,168 at the 2000 census...
, published an article entitled "Negro Speaking!" The publisher referred to a rival Democratic politician with a party in Sullivan County as "an impudent Malungeon from Washington City a scoundrel who is half Negro and half Indian," then as a "free negroe". In this and related articles, he does not identify the Democrat by name.
Different researchers have developed their own lists of the surnames of core Melungeon families, as generally, specific lines have to be traced. DeMarce (1992) listed Hale as a Melungeon surname. By the mid-to-late 19th century, the term Melungeon appeared to have been used most frequently to refer to the multi-racial families of Hancock County and neighboring areas. Several other uses of the term in the print media, from mid-19th to early 20th century, have been collected at the Melungeon Heritage Association Website. The spelling of the term varied widely, as was common for words and names at the time; eventually the form "Melungeon" became standard.
Modern identity
The term "Melungeon" was traditionally considered an insult, a label applied to Appalachian whites who were by appearance or reputation of mixed-race ancestry, though who were not clearly either "black" or "Indian". In Southwest Virginia, the term "Ramp" was similarly applied to people of mixed race. This term has never shed its pejorative character.From the late 1960s, "Melungeon" became a self-identified designation of ethnicity. This shift in meaning was probably due to the popularity of Walk Toward the Sunset, a drama written by playwright Kermit Hunter and produced outdoors. The play was first presented in 1969 in Sneedville
Sneedville, Tennessee
Sneedville is a town in Hancock County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 1,387 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Hancock County.- History :...
, the county seat of Hancock County. Making no claim to historical accuracy, Hunter portrayed the Melungeons as indigenous people of uncertain race who were mistakenly perceived as black by neighboring white settlers. As the drama portrayed Melungeons in a positive, romantic light, many individuals began for the first time to self-identify by that term. Hunter intended for his drama "to improve the socio-economic climate" of Hancock County, and to "lift the Melungeon name 'from shame to the hall of fame'". The play helped evived interest in the history of Melungeons and some worked to use the facts rather than speculation. The social changes of the 1960s contributed to wider acceptance of minority groups.
Interest in the Melungeons has grown tremendously since the mid-1990s. They were featured in a chapter of the writer Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America is a book by travel writer Bill Bryson, chronicling his 13,978 mile trip around the United States in the autumn of 1987 and spring 1988....
as well as N. Brent Kennedy's book on his claimed Melungeon roots, The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People (1994). With the Internet, many people are doing research in family history. The number of individuals claiming Melungeon heritage has increased rapidly, according to Kennedy. Many newly self-identifying Melungeons have no demonstrable connections to families who have been historically known by that term.
Some individuals begin to self-identity as Melungeons after reading about the group on a website and discovering their surname on the expanding list of "Melungeon-associated" surnames. Others believe they have certain physical traits or conditions. For example, some Melungeons are allegedly identifiable by shovel-shaped incisors
Shovel-shaped incisors
Shovel-Shaped incisors: Incisors that have a scooped out lingual surface because of lingual marginal ridges, crown curvature, or a basal tubercle, either alone or in combination....
, a dental feature more commonly found among, but not restricted to, Native Americans and Northeast Asians. A second feature attributed by some to Melungeons is an enlarged external occipital protuberance, dubbed an "Anatolian bump", after an unsubstantiated hypothesis, popularized by N. Brent Kennedy, that Melungeons are of Turkish origin. Academic historians have not found any evidence for this thesis, nor is it supported by results from the Melungeon DNA Project.
Internet sites promote the anecdotal claim that Melungeons are more prone to certain diseases, such as sarcoidosis
Sarcoidosis
Sarcoidosis , also called sarcoid, Besnier-Boeck disease or Besnier-Boeck-Schaumann disease, is a disease in which abnormal collections of chronic inflammatory cells form as nodules in multiple organs. The cause of sarcoidosis is unknown...
or familial Mediterranean fever
Familial Mediterranean fever
Familial Mediterranean fever is a hereditary inflammatory disorder. FMF is an autoinflammatory disease caused by mutations in MEFV, a gene which encodes a 781–amino acid protein denoted pyrin....
, although academic centers have noted that neither of the diseases is confined to a single population. No scientific research supports claims that certain physical traits and conditions are more prevalent among Melungeon families, as their ancestries vary widely.
Kennedy's claims of ancestral connections to this group have been strongly disputed. The genealogist and historian Dr. Virginia E. DeMarce reviewed his 1994 book: she found that Kennedy's documentation of his Melungeon ancestry was seriously flawed, he had a very indistinct definition of Melungeons, although other researchers have studied them, and seemed to include any people who might have had other than northern European ancestry; and that he did not properly take account of existing historical records or recognized genealogical practice in his research. He claimed to have ancestors who were persecuted for racial reasons; she found that his named ancestors were all classified as white in records, held various political offices (which showed they could vote), and held land. Kennedy responded to her critique in this article.
DNA testing
At the suggestion of N. Brent Kennedy, a DNA studyGenealogical DNA test
A genealogical DNA test examines the nucleotides at specific locations on a person's DNA for genetic genealogy purposes. The test results are not meant to have any informative medical value and do not determine specific genetic diseases or disorders ; they are intended only to give genealogical...
on Melungeons was carried out in 2000 by Dr. Kevin Jones of The University of Virginia's College at Wise, using 130 hair and cheek cell samples. These samples were taken from subjects chosen by Kennedy as representative of Melungeon lines. McGowan (2003) described Dr Jones' discovery of the political aspects of genetic research when the results of the study caused disappointment among some observers. "...Jones concluded that the Melungeons are mostly Eurasian, a catchall category spanning people from Scandinavia to the Middle East. They are also a little bit black and a little bit American Indian." This study has to date not been submitted to a peer-reviewed scientific journal, nor has a list of those individuals' contributing samples been published. It is unclear to what extent the subjects were descendants of families historically designated or since documented as Melungeon.
More recently, Jack Goins, an independent researcher, has acted as coordinator of the Melungeon DNA Project
Melungeon DNA Project
The Melungeon DNA Project is a genetic study of people who have Melungeon ancestors mostly in Hancock County, Tennessee and nearby areas of Kentucky according to historic records. Participants' genealogical suitability for inclusion is determined by a group of Melungeon researchers. The study was...
, an independent project started in 2005. Its goal is to study the ancestry of lines for which there is academic and genealogical consensus as belonging to historical Melungeon families. According to Jack Goins, the Melungeons who have the following surnames are in the Core Melungeon Group 1: Bunch
Bunch
Bunch may refer to:* BUNCH, competitors in computer manufacturing* Bunch, Oklahoma, a village in the state of Oklahoma in the United States of America* Bunch grass, any grass of the Poaceae family* The Bunch, a 1972 folk rock group...
, Collins
Collins (surname)
The surname Collins has a variety of likely origins in Britain and Ireland:#Anglo-Saxon: A patronymic surname based on the name Colin, an English diminutive form of Nicholas. In England, Collins usually signified "son of Colin."...
, Goins, Gibson
Gibson (surname)
Gibson is an English and Scottish surname. The name is derived from a patronymic form of the common mediaeval personal name Gib, which is a short form of Gilbert. The name Gilbert was very popular in Great Britain in the Middle Ages. Variant forms of the surname include Gibsoun, Gipson, Gibbson,...
, Minor
Minor
Minor means "not important", and in Latin "smaller". It may also refer to:* an underage child, see Minor * Academic minor, a secondary focus of a Bachelor's degree, the primary focus being an academic major-Mathematics:...
, Williams
Williams (surname)
Williams is a patronymic form of the name William that originated in medieval England and later came to be extremely popular in Wales. The meaning is derived from son or descendant of Guillemin, the French form of William. Derived from an Old French given name with Germanic elements; will =...
, Breedlove
Breedlove
The name Breedlove can refer to:People named Breedlove:*Craig Breedlove, five-time world land speed record holder*Dennis E. Breedlove, American botanist*Lynn Breedlove, American musician*Rod Breedlove, former American Football linebacker...
, Mullins
Mullins (surname)
The surname Mullins is of Irish origin, and is akin to Mullen and McMillan . It may refer to:*Aimee Mullins , an American athlete and performer*Andria Mullins , an American beauty queen and performer...
, Denham
Denham
- People :* Carl Denham, fictional character from King Kong* Daryl Denham, British radio DJ* Digby Denham, Australian politician* Dixon Denham, British explorer* Henry Denham, British printer* Henry Mangles Denham, , Royal navy...
, Bowlin(g)
Bowling (disambiguation)
Bowling is a competitive and recreational sport. Variants include:* Ten-pin bowling, the most popular type of bowling today* Nine-pin bowling* Five-pin bowling, a bowling variant which is played only in Canada* Duckpin bowling* Candlepin bowling...
, Moore
Moore (surname)
The name Moore is a popular surname in many English-speaking countries and is of Gaelic/English origin. It is the 31st most common surname in the United Kingdom, and 9th most common in the United States....
, Shumake, Bolton
Bolton (disambiguation)
- Places :In Australia:* Bolton, VictoriaIn Canada:* Bolton, Ontario* Bolton-Est, Quebec, Eastern Townships* West Bolton, Quebec, Eastern TownshipsIn the United Kingdom:* Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester...
, Perkins
Perkins
-People:The name is of Welsh origin from Perthyn, relative or belonging to a particular person or family, and also thought to be the Anglicized form of Peredur, from Medieval Welsh...
, Morning, Menley, Hopkins
Hopkins
Hopkins is an English, Welsh and Irish patronymic surname. The English and Welsh derivations mean "son of Hob". It derives from the Germanic warrior name Hrod-berht, translated as "renowned-fame". It was 'borrowed' into French, where the spelling was changed from "Hob" to "Robert". The name in...
, and Mallet
Mallet (disambiguation)
Mallet may refer to:* Mallet, a hand tool for striking* Mallet , a moon feature* Mallet locomotive, a steam locomotive* Mallet Assembly, an honors program* Mallet , a collection of java code for natural language processing tasks...
.
The Y-chromosomal DNA testing of male subjects with the Melungeon surnames Collins, Gibson, Goins, Bunch, Bowlin(g), Denham, Mullins, Hopkins, Perkins, Williams, Minor and Moore, has so far revealed evidence of a majority of European and sub-Saharan African ancestry: Y haplogroup
Haplogroup
In the study of molecular evolution, a haplogroup is a group of similar haplotypes that share a common ancestor having the same single nucleotide polymorphism mutation in both haplotypes. Because a haplogroup consists of similar haplotypes, this is what makes it possible to predict a haplogroup...
s R1b
Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA)
The point of origin of R1b is thought to lie in Eurasia, most likely in Western Asia. T. Karafet et al. estimated the age of R1, the parent of R1b, as 18,500 years before present....
, R1a
Haplogroup R1a (Y-DNA)
Haplogroup R1a is the phylogenetic name of a major clade of Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups. In other words, it is a way of grouping a significant part of all modern men according to a shared male-line ancestor. It is common in many parts of Eurasia and is frequently discussed in human...
, I1
Haplogroup I1 (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup I1 is a Y chromosome haplogroup occurring at greatest frequency in Scandinavia, associated with the mutations identified as M253, M307, P30, and P40. These are known as single nucleotide polymorphisms . It is a subclade of Haplogroup I. Before a reclassification in...
, and E1b1a, respectively.
The numbers between the different Y-DNAs were: R1a(1) = 4, R1b1 = 2, R1b1b = 9, R1b1b2 = 18, R1b1b2a1a = 1, R1b1b2a1b = 3, R1b1b2a1b5 = 1, E = 2, E1b1a = 17, E1b1a8a = 2, E1b1b1 = 1, I1 = 5, I2b = 1, A = 2, G = 1, J2 = 1, L = 1. Here are some examples of what and where each gene could possibly be from: Y-DNA E and its variants, Y-DNA R1b and its variants, Y-DNA I1
Haplogroup I1 (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup I1 is a Y chromosome haplogroup occurring at greatest frequency in Scandinavia, associated with the mutations identified as M253, M307, P30, and P40. These are known as single nucleotide polymorphisms . It is a subclade of Haplogroup I. Before a reclassification in...
, Y-DNA I2b, Y-DNA A
Haplogroup A (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup A refers to a group of y-chromosome lineages that were among the first to branch off from the root of the human y-chromosome phylogeny...
, Y-DNA G
Haplogroup G (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup G is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. It is a branch of Haplogroup F . Haplogroup G has an overall low frequency in most populations but is widely distributed within many ethnic groups of the Old World in Europe, northern and western Asia, northern Africa, the Middle East,...
, Y-DNA L
Haplogroup L (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup L is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup.-Origins:Haplogroup L is associated with South Asia. It has also been found at low frequencies among populations of Central Asia, Southwest Asia, and Southern Europe along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Y-DNA R1a(1) and Y-DNA J2
Haplogroup J2 (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup J2 is a Y-chromosome haplogroup which is a subdivision of haplogroup J. It is further divided into two complementary clades, J2a-M410 and J2b-M12.-Origins:...
.
Further studies into one closely related Collins/Goins family revealed an E1b1a7a sub-group. This study was funded by researcher and scholar William C. Gersper.
Taken as a whole, such findings appear to verify the 19th-century designation of Melungeon ancestors as "mulattos", that is, descendants of white Europeans and Africans, as well as the late twentieth-century genealogical work by Paul Heinegg, which came to the same conclusion. The line with a variety of haplogroups with roots in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
is consistent with historian Ira Berlin
Ira Berlin
Ira Berlin is an American historian, a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, and a past President of the Organization of American Historians. Berlin is the author of such books as Many Thousands Gone and Generations of Captivity.-Biography:Berlin received his Ph.D....
's research showing that some of the charter generation of enslaved or servant people in the Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
colony were Atlantic creoles
Creole peoples
The term Creole and its cognates in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kreol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. — have been applied to people in different countries and epochs, with rather different meanings...
. They were descended from African women and Spanish or Portuguese men; the latter worked in the slave trade at ports in Africa run by Spain and Portugal, and took wives from the indigenous population.
There is also numerous cases of Melungeons having Native American background in their genealogies, though this doesn't occur in every Melungeon. The ones who do have Native American background, are typically only 1/16-1/8%. They had intermarried with the Cherokee the most. This is especially true of the Graysville Melungeons.
Testing of haplo-types is not an exact science. They change and sub-divide regularly. Haplo-type DNA testing is limited in scope and cannot detail an individual's entire ethnic background.
Similar groups
Other so-called "tri-racial isolate" populations in the United States include the following.Delaware:
- Nanticoke-MoorsNanticoke Lenni-LenapeThe Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape People are a tribal confederation of the core families of the Nanticoke of the Delmarva Peninsula and the Lenni-Lenape of Southern New Jersey and Northern Delaware. The history of the tribe in its homeland goes back thousands of years...
(and in MarylandMarylandMaryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
)
Florida:
- Dead Lake People of GulfGulf County, FloridaGulf County is a county located in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 13,332. The U.S. Census Bureau 2005 estimate for the county is 13,975 . Its county seat is Port St. Joe.- History :...
and Calhoun CountiesCalhoun County, FloridaCalhoun County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 13,017. The U.S. Census Bureau 2006 estimate for the county was 13,410 . Its county seat is Blountstown, Florida.- History :...
(also known as "Florida Melungeons") - DominickersDominickersThe Dominickers were a small biracial or triracial ethnic group that was once centered in the Florida Panhandle county of Holmes, in a corner of the southern part of the county west of the Choctawhatchee River, near the town of Ponce de Leon...
of Holmes CountyHolmes County, FloridaHolmes County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 18,564. The U.S. Census Bureau 2005 estimate for the county was 19,264 . Its county seat is Bonifay, Florida.-History:...
in the Florida PanhandleFlorida PanhandleThe Florida Panhandle, an informal, unofficial term for the northwestern part of Florida, is a strip of land roughly 200 miles long and 50 to 100 miles wide , lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia also on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Its eastern boundary is...
Indiana:
- Ben-Ishmael TribeBen-Ishmael TribeThe Ben-Ishmael Tribe, also known as the Tribe of Ishmael, was a largely poor, white, Protestant family in Indianapolis, Indiana during the late 19th century. Records of the family show that the Ishmaels originally hail from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and the Tribe's namesake served in the...
, pejoratively called "Grasshopper Gypsies"
Kentucky:
- Magoffin County People (MagoffinMagoffin County, KentuckyMagoffin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky which was formed from parts of Floyd, Johnson, and Morgan Counties and officially created on 22 February 1860. As of 2000, the population was 13,332. Its county seat is Salyersville...
and Floyd CountiesFloyd County, KentuckyFloyd County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1800. As of 2000, the population was 42,441. Its county seat is Prestonsburg. The county is named for Colonel John Floyd .-History:...
), also known as Brown People of Kentucky or "Kentucky Melungeons"
Louisiana:
- RedbonesRedbone (ethnicity)Redbone is a term historically used in much of the southern United States, particularly in Louisiana, to refer to a Métis or Mestee ethnic group of mixed racial heritage.-Definition:...
(and in Texas)
Maryland:
- Piscataway Indian NationPiscataway Indian NationThe Piscataway Indian Nation and Tayac Territory is an unrecognized Native American tribe in Maryland that is related to the historic Piscataway tribe. At the time of European encounter, the Piscataway was one of the most populous and powerful Native polities of the Chesapeake Bay region, with a...
, also known as We-SortsWe-SortsWe-Sorts is a name for a group of Native Americans in Maryland who are from the Piscataway tribe. Piscataways have always claimed to be Native American people. The Piscataway were powerful at the time of European encounter...
New York:
- Ramapough Mountain IndiansRamapough Mountain IndiansThe Ramapough Mountain Indians, also known as Ramapo Mountain Indians or the Ramapough Lenape Nation, are a group of approximately 5,000 people living around the Ramapo Mountains of northern New Jersey and southern New York. Their tribal office is located on Stag Hill Road on Houvenkopf Mountain in...
(aka "Jackson Whites") of the Ramapo MountainsRamapo MountainsThe Ramapo Mountains are a forested chain of the Appalachian mountains in northeastern New Jersey and southeastern New York in the United States...
(and in New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
)
North Carolina:
- CoreeCoreeThe Coree were a very small Native American tribe, who once occupied a coastal area of southeastern North Carolina in the area now covered by Carteret and Craven counties...
or "Faircloth" Indians of Carteret CountyCarteret County, North CarolinaCarteret County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2010, the population was 66,469. Its county seat is Beaufort. Most of the county is part of the Crystal Coast.... - Goinstown Indians in RockinghamRockingham County, North CarolinaRockingham County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2010, the population was 93,643. Its county seat is Wentworth.- History :The county was formed in 1785 from Guilford County...
, StokesStokes County, North Carolina-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 44,711 people, 17,579 households, and 13,043 families residing in the county. The population density was 99 people per square mile . There were 19,262 housing units at an average density of 43 per square mile...
, and Surry CountiesSurry County, North CarolinaSurry County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2010, the population was 73,673. Its county seat is Dobson.- History :The county was formed in 1771 from Rowan County... - Haliwa-SaponiHaliwa-SaponiThe Haliwa-Saponi are located in eastern North Carolina, United States, one of eight Native American tribes recognized by the state. The Haliwa-Saponi hold membership on the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs. The name Haliwa is derived from the two counties: Halifax and Warren, which...
- LumbeeLumbeeThe Lumbee belong to a state recognized Native American tribe in North Carolina. The Lumbee are concentrated in Robeson County and named for the primary waterway traversing the county...
- Person County Indians, aka "Cubans and Portuguese"
Ohio:
- Carmel IndiansCarmel IndiansThe Carmel Indians are a group of Melungeons who have lived in Highland County in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. They are descendants and relatives of the Melungeons of Kentucky, also a group of mixed-race ancestry. Anthropologists described both groups as among the "little...
of Highland CountyHighland County, OhioAs of the census of 2000, there were 40,875 people, 15,587 households, and 11,394 families residing in the county. The population density was 74 people per square mile . There were 17,583 housing units at an average density of 32 per square mile...
South Carolina:
- Red Bones (NB: distinct from the Gulf States RedbonesRedbone (ethnicity)Redbone is a term historically used in much of the southern United States, particularly in Louisiana, to refer to a Métis or Mestee ethnic group of mixed racial heritage.-Definition:...
) - TurksTurks of South CarolinaThe Turks of South Carolina are a group of people related to the Free Moors of South Carolina and the Brass Ankles, who lived near Stateburg, South Carolina. It is believed these people come from a Middle Eastern background.-History:...
- Brass AnklesBrass AnklesThe Brass Ankles of South Carolina were a "tri-racial isolate" group that lived in the area of Orangeburg County, Berkeley County, and Charleston County in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. They were a mixture of African, Native American, and European descent. Although they were of mixed...
Virginia:
- Goinstown Indians, HenryHenry County, VirginiaAs of the census of 2000, there were 57,930 people, 23,910 households, and 16,952 families residing in the county. The population density was 152 people per square mile . There were 25,921 housing units at an average density of 68 per square mile...
and PatrickPatrick County, VirginiaPatrick County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 18,490. Its county seat is Stuart. It is located within both the rolling hills and valleys of the Piedmont Region of Virginia and mountainous Southwest Virginia....
counties - Monacan Indians (a.k.a. "Issues") of Amherst and Rockingham counties
West Virginia:
- Chestnut Ridge peopleChestnut Ridge peopleThe Chestnut Ridge people are a mixed-race community residing just northeast of Philippi, Barbour County in north-central West Virginia. They are often called "Mayles" or "Guineas"...
of Barbour CountyBarbour County, West VirginiaAs of the census of 2000, there are 15,557 people, 6,123 households, and 4,365 families residing in the county. The population density is 46 people per square mile . There are 7,348 housing units at an average density of 22 per square mile...
(also known as Mayles or, pejoratively, "Guineas")
Each of these groupings of mixed-race populations has a particular history. There is evidence for connections between some of them. For example, the Goins surname group have long been identified as Melungeon by people from the rest of Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, and the surname Goins is also found among the Lumbee
Lumbee
The Lumbee belong to a state recognized Native American tribe in North Carolina. The Lumbee are concentrated in Robeson County and named for the primary waterway traversing the county...
.
Sociologist Brewton Berry (1963) used the term Mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
for these groups, but that alternative has not been generally adopted.
In his Foreword to the section on Virginia, North, and South Carolina in Heinegg's work on free African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s, the historian Ira Berlin sums up the history of such groups:
- Heinegg's genealogical excavations reveal that many free people of color passed as whites—sometimes by choosing ever lighter spouses over succeeding generations. Even more commonly, they claimed IndianNative Americans in the United StatesNative Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
ancestry. Some free people of color invented tribal designations out of whole cloth. Here Heinegg, entering into an area of considerable controversy, explodes what he declares the 'fantastic' claims of many so-called tri-racial isolates.
External links
- The Official Website of The Melungeon Heritage Association
- "The Graysville Melungeons", Tennessee Anthropologist, Nov 1979, on Rootsweb
- Jack Goins Research Study of Melungeon and Appalachian Families
- "The Melungeons Revisited", Blue Ridge Country
- Wayne Winkler, "A Brief Overview of the Melungeons"
- Historical Melungeons
- Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, 1999–2005
- Melungeon or Malengin?
- The Atlanta Melungeon Project
- Redbone Heritage Foundation
- http://www.aca-dla.org/cgi-bin/queryresults.exe?CISOROOT1=all&CISOOP=all&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISORESTMP=%2Fsite-templates%2Fsearch_results.html&CISOVIEWTMP=%2Fsite-templates%2Fitem_viewer.html&CISOMODE=grid&CISOGRID=thumbnail%2CA%2C1%3Btitle%2CA%2C1%3Bsubjec%2CA%2C0%3Bdescri%2C200%2C0%3B0%2CA%2C0%3B10&CISOBIB=title%2CA%2C1%2CN%3Bsubjec%2CA%2C0%2CN%3Bdescri%2CK%2C0%2CN%3B0%2CA%2C0%2CN%3B0%2CA%2C0%2CN%3B10&CISOTHUMB=2%2C5&CISOTITLE=10&CISOBOX1=melungeonsDigital Library of Appalachia – Melungeons] – contains photographs and documents, mostly from 1900–1950.