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{{Short description|Mixed-race group from the South Central Appalachian region of the United States}} | |||
'''Melungeon''' is a term that has recently come to be used for an estimated 200 or more ethnically mixed populations east of the Missouri River in the ] that are of varied origin, in most cases combinations of various ]an, ]n, and ] strains. | |||
{{Infobox ethnic group | |||
| group = Melungeon | |||
| image = ] | |||
| image_caption = Melungeon schoolgirls from ] in front of the Melungeon boarding school in ], c. 1916 | |||
| image_alt = | |||
| image_upright = | |||
| total = <!-- total population worldwide --> | |||
| total_year = <!-- year of total population --> | |||
| total_source = <!-- source of total population; may be ''census'' or ''estimate'' --> | |||
| total_ref = <!-- references supporting total population --> | |||
| genealogy = | |||
| regions = ] (], ],<ref name="loller2"/><ref name=neal/> ], and ]<ref name=neal/>) | |||
| languages = ] | |||
| religions = Predominantly ] | |||
| related_groups = ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] | |||
}} | |||
{{African American topics sidebar}} | |||
'''Melungeon''' ({{IPAc-en|m|ə|ˈ|l|ʌ|n|dʒ|ən|}} {{respell|mə|LUN|jən}}) (sometimes also spelled '''Malungean, Melangean, Melungean, Melungin'''<ref name="Tennessee">{{cite web |title=1894 Report of the U.S. Department of the Interior, in its Report of Indians Taxed and Not Taxed |url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1890/volume-10/1890a_v10-28.pdf |website=www2.census.gov |publisher=Department of the Interior |access-date=12 June 2023}}</ref>) was a ]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gibson |first=Toby D. |date=2013 |title=The Melungeons of Newman’s Ridge: An Insider’s Perspective |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/12/article/523673 |journal=Appalachian Heritage |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=59–66 |issn=2692-9287}}</ref> historically applied to individuals and families of ] ancestry with roots in ], ], and ] primarily descended from ] and ].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Melungeons {{!}} NCpedia |url=https://www.ncpedia.org/melungeons |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=www.ncpedia.org}}</ref><ref name="Schrift">{{Cite journal |last=Schrift |first=Melissa |date=2013-04-01 |title=Becoming Melungeon |url=https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/unpresssamples/186 |journal=University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |agency=] |date=2012-05-24 |title=DNA finds origin of Appalachia’s Melungeons: African men, white women |url=https://www.denverpost.com/2012/05/24/dna-finds-origin-of-appalachias-melungeons-african-men-white-women/ |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=The Denver Post |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-07-11 |title=Dancing Revolution: Bodies, Space, and Sound in American Cultural History 2018059613, 2019013274, 9780252051234, 9780252042393, 9780252084188 |url=https://ebin.pub/dancing-revolution-bodies-space-and-sound-in-american-cultural-history-2018059613-2019013274-9780252051234-9780252042393-9780252084188.html |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=ebin.pub |language=en}}</ref> In modern times, the term has been ] by descendants of these families, especially in ].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Loller |first=Travis |title='A whole lot of people upset by this study': DNA & the truth about Appalachia’s Melungeons |url=https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/2021/03/08/new-dna-study-melungeons-attempts-separate-truth-fiction/4611383001/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=The News Leader |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Rust |first=Randal |title=Melungeons |url=https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/melungeons/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=Tennessee Encyclopedia |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=FAQ |url=https://melungeon.org/features/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=Melungeon Heritage Association |language=en-US}}</ref> Despite this mixed heritage, many modern Melungeons ] as ], as did many of their ancestors.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wolfe |first=Brendan |title=Racial Integrity Laws (1924–1930) |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/racial-integrity-laws-1924-1930/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=Encyclopedia Virginia |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Philipkoski |first=Kristen |title=Melungeon Secret Solved, Sort Of |url=https://www.wired.com/2002/06/melungeon-secret-solved-sort-of/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |work=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Projects {{!}} Passing: Flexibility in Race and Gender {{!}} Experimental Study Group |url=https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/es-269-passing-flexibility-in-race-and-gender-spring-2009/pages/projects/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=MIT OpenCourseWare |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Schroeder |first=Joan Vannorsdall |date=2009-02-01 |title=First Union: The Melungeons Revisited |url=https://blueridgecountry.com/archive/favorites/melungeons-revisited/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=Blue Ridge Country |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Billingsley |first=Carolyn Earle |date=2004 |editor-last=Winkler |editor-first=Wayne |title=Melungeons: A Study in Racial Complexity—A Review Essay |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23386286 |journal=The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society |volume=102 |issue=2 |pages=207–223 |issn=0023-0243}}</ref> | |||
Melungeons have been the subject of much debate about their ], ], ] and ] origins. They are not officially recognized as an ] or ] by the ]. | |||
] indentured servants on Virginia plantations. Their paternal ancestors fled and settled in free mixed-race communities in ].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Walden-Webster |url=https://freeafricanamericans.com/Walden-Webster.htm |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=freeafricanamericans.com}}</ref>]] | |||
Most of the modern population have an estimated 1-2% non-European DNA, though jumping up to 20% or more in some groups, such as the Lumbee.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-09-30 |title=Learn About Hidden African DNA & Ancestry |url=https://blog.23andme.com/articles/hidden-african-ancestry |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=23andMe Blog |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-08-06 |title=Melungeon DNA Study - Genetic Evidence – Access Genealogy |url=https://accessgenealogy.com/native/melungeon-genetic-evidence.htm |access-date=2024-08-14 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-05-18 |title=Discussion: Cumbos as Lumbee |url=https://cumbofamily.com/?p=344 |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=Cumbo Family Website |language=en-US}}</ref> Despite non-European DNA being in the minority for these groups, the impact of the ] either did, or had the potential to, label them as ]. This redesignation resulted in some individuals being sterilized by ], most notably in ].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Talbot |first=Tori |title=Walter Ashby Plecker (1861–1947) |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/plecker-walter-ashby-1861-1947/ |access-date=2024-08-23 |website=Encyclopedia Virginia |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Racial Integrity Act, 1924: An Attack on Indigenous Identity (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/racial-integrity-act.htm |access-date=2024-08-23 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Winkler |first=Wayne |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Walking_Toward_the_Sunset.html?id=FiF2AAAAMAAJ |title=Walking Toward the Sunset: The Melungeons of Appalachia |date=2004 |publisher=Mercer University Press |isbn=978-0-86554-919-7 |language=en}}</ref> | |||
Many groups have historically been referred to as Melungeon, including the Melungeons of ],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mystery of Newman's Ridge |url=https://historical-melungeons.com/life.html |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=historical-melungeons.com}}</ref> the ],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Review |url=https://historical-melungeons.com/jogg_review.html |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=historical-melungeons.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Anonymous |date=2022-05-12 |title=Are They Kin to the ‘Lost Colony’? |url=https://dsi.appstate.edu/projects/lumbee/560 |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=Digital Scholarship and Initiatives |language=en}}</ref> the ],<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928162100/http://www.underonesky.org/Guineas.html|date=2007-09-28}}, 25 July 1997; Wise, Virginia</ref> and the ].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gazette |first=Times |date=2020-06-23 |title=Highland Co.’s lost tribe |url=https://www.timesgazette.com/2020/06/23/highland-co-s-lost-tribe/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=The Times Gazette |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
Melungeons are only one of several so-called "tri-racial isolate" groups of the Eastern United States. Originally, the term was applied only to the tri-racial group found mainly in the ]n regions of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and Eastern Kentucky. Since the 1990s, however, the term "Melungeon" has come to be used by some as applying to all such "tri-racial" groups or families, while the term "tri-racial" itself is considered insulting by some self-identifying Melungeons. | |||
Free people of color in colonial Virginia were predominantly of ] and ] descent; however, many families also had varying amounts of ] and ] ancestry.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mitsawokett: "Self-Identification" |url=https://nativeamericansofdelawarestate.com/Self-Identifcation.htm |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=nativeamericansofdelawarestate.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Heinegg |first=Paul |title=Freedom in the Archives: Free African Americans in Colonial America |url=https://commonplace.online/article/freedom-in-the-archives/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=Commonplace |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=LISTSERV - VA-HIST Archives - LISTLVA.LIB.VA.US |url=https://listlva.lib.va.us/scripts/wa.exe?A2=0010&L=VA-HIST&D=0&H=A&P=10924522 |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=listlva.lib.va.us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Siekman |first=Henry Louis Gates Jr and NEHGS Researcher Meaghan |date=2016-06-24 |title=Am I Related to Free People of Color in NC? |url=https://www.theroot.com/am-i-related-to-free-people-of-color-in-nc-1790855783 |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=The Root |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=O Say Can You See: Early Washington, D.C., Law & Family |url=http://earlywashingtondc.org/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=earlywashingtondc.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Arora |first=Anupama |last2=Kaur |first2=Rajender |date=2017 |title=Writing India in Early American Women’s Fiction |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/90009822 |journal=Early American Literature |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=363–388 |issn=0012-8163}}</ref> | |||
==Etymology of term== | |||
There are many hypotheses about the etymology of the term "Melungeon." Kennedy (1994) speculates that the term originates from the ] ''melun can'' (from ] "melun jinn") which means "cursed soul" or "lost soul." Another theory, long favored by many researchers on the topic, is that it derives from the ] "Mélangien," meaning a person produced by a ''mélange'', or mixture. Yet another theory traces the word to "malungu," a ] root from ] meaning "shipmate." | |||
Some modern researchers believe that early ] slaves, descended from or acculturated by Iberian ]<ref>{{cite news |last1=Foner |first1=Eric |date=8 June 2018 |title=Ira Berlin, 1941–2018 |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/ira-berlin-1941-2018/ |work=The Nation}}</ref> and ] fleeing the ],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=O'Neill |first=Brian Juan |date=2017 |title=Review of Creole Societies in the Portuguese Colonial Empire, Havik, Philip J., and Malyn Newitt, eds |journal=Africa Today |volume=63 |issue=4 |pages=84–90 |doi=10.2979/africatoday.63.4.05 |jstor=10.2979/africatoday.63.4.05 |hdl-access=free |hdl=10071/14918}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=African blacks and Mulattos in the 17th-Century Amsterdam Portuguese Jewish community |url=https://www.asser.nl/global-city/news-and-events/african-blacks-and-mulattos-in-the-17th-century-amsterdam-portuguese-jewish-community/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=www.asser.nl |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Mark |first1=Peter |title=The Forgotten Diaspora: Jewish Communities in West Africa and the Making of the Atlantic World |last2=Horta |first2=José da Silva |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-66746-4}}{{page needed|date=May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Schorsch |first1=Jonathan |title=A Letter's Importance: The Spelling of Daka(h) (Deut. 23:2) and the Broadening of Western Sephardic Rabbinic Culture |date=2019 |isbn=978-90-04-39248-9 |chapter=Revisiting Blackness, Slavery, and Jewishness in the Early Modern Sephardic Atlantic |doi=10.1163/9789004392489_022}}</ref><ref>{{cite report |title=Mariana Pequena, a black Angolan jew in early eighteenth-century Rio de Janeiro |last1=Kananoja |first1=Kalle |date=2013 |hdl=1814/27607}}</ref> were one of the pre-cursor populations to these groups.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mozingo |first1=Joe |title=The Fiddler on Pantico Run: An African Warrior, His White Descendants, A Search for Family |date=2012 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4516-2761-9}}{{page needed|date=May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Berlin |first=Ira |author-link=Ira Berlin |date=1996 |title=From Creole to African: Atlantic Creoles and the Origins of African-American Society in Mainland North America |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=251–288 |doi=10.2307/2947401 |jstor=2947401}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Bartl |first1=Renate |title=American tri-racials: African-Native contact, multi-ethnic Native American Nations, and the ethnogenesis of tri-racial groups in North America |date=2018 |publisher=] |doi=10.5282/edoc.26874}}</ref> Many creoles, once in ], were able to obtain their freedom and many ].<ref>{{cite book |last=Berlin |first=Ira |author-link=Ira Berlin |title=Critical Readings on Global Slavery (4 vols.) |date=2017 |isbn=978-90-04-34661-1 |pages=1216–1262 |chapter=From Creole to African: Atlantic Creoles and the Origins of African-American Society in Mainland North America |doi=10.1163/9789004346611_039}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Anti-Amalgamation Law is Passed |url=https://aaregistry.org/story/anti-amalgamation-law-passed/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=African American Registry |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Wolfe |first=Brendan |title=Free Blacks in Colonial Virginia |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/free-blacks-in-colonial-virginia/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=Encyclopedia Virginia |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Introduction to Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina |url=https://freeafricanamericans.com/introduction.htm |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=freeafricanamericans.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Dodge |first1=David |date=January 1886 |title=The Free Negroes of North Carolina |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1886/01/the-free-negroes-of-north-carolina/522594/ |work=The Atlantic}}</ref> | |||
However, a more likely derivation is from the archaic English word "malengin" (also spelled "mal engine") meaning "guile," "deceit," or "ill intent." The earliest known written use of the word is in an 1813 Scott County, Virginia Stony Creek Baptist Church record: "Then came forward Sister Kitchen and complained to the church against Susanna Stallard for saying she harbored them melungins" (meaning "ill will," from the context). Even today, some people in East Tennessee still use the term to mean something like "boogeyman." | |||
In the general ], Melungeon people were enumerated as of the races to which they most resembled.<ref name="TennesseeDOI">{{cite web |title=1894 Report of the U.S. Department of the Interior, in its Report of Indians Taxed and Not Taxed |url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1890/volume-10/1890a_v10-28.pdf |access-date=4 Sep 2023 |website=www2.census.gov |publisher=Department of the Interior}}</ref> | |||
By 1840 the term "Malungeon" had apparently become a racial pejorative, at least in Tennessee: a ] newspaper article from that year refers to a competing politician in derogatory fashion as "an impudent Malungeon from ], a scoundrel who is half Negro and half Indian." The process whereby a "boogeyman" became a "half Negro...half Indian" may have been similar to the application of such racial slurs as "spook" and "jigaboo" to African-Americans. | |||
==Etymology== | |||
Several other uses of the term from mid-19th to early 20th century print media have been collected at the following Website: . The spelling of the term varied somewhat from author to author, until eventually the form "Melungeon" became standard. | |||
The term ''Melungeon'' likely comes from the French word ''mélange'' ultimately derived from the Latin verb ''miscēre'' ("to mix, mingle, intermingle").<ref name="North Carolina">{{cite web |title=1894 Report of the U.S. Department of the Interior, in its Report of Indians Taxed and Not Taxed |url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1890/volume-10/1890a_v10-21.pdf|website=www2.census.gov |publisher=Department of the Interior |access-date=4 Sep 2023}}</ref><ref name="TennesseeDOI" /><ref name="tn_en" /> It was once a derogatory term, but is used by the Melungeon people today as a primary identifier. The Tennessee Encyclopedia states that in the 19th century, "the word 'Melungeon' appears to have been used as an offensive term for nonwhite and/or low socioeconomic class persons by outsiders."<ref name="tn_en" /> | |||
The term ''Melungeon'' was historically considered an insult, a label applied to Appalachians who were by appearance or reputation of ] ancestry. Although initially pejorative in character,<ref name="Sovine">Sovine, Melanie L. "The Mysterious Melungeons: a Critique of the Mythical Image." University of Kentucky Ph.D. dissertation, 1982</ref> this word has been reclaimed by members of the community.<ref name="Frequently Asked Questions.">"Frequently Asked Questions." Melungeon Heritage Association. Retrieved December 2023</ref> The spelling of the term varied widely, as was common for words and names at the time. | |||
Until the late 20th century, the term "Melungeon" was 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 roughly synonymous term "Ramp" was also used. The earliest reliable evidence of anyone self-identifying as Melungeon comes in the 1960s. Folklorist Saundra Ivey believes the emergence of this new identity was spurred by the presentation of playwright Kermit Hunter's outdoor drama ''Walk Toward the Sunset''. This play about Melungeons, which makes no claims to historical accuracy, was first presented in 1969 in ], ]. It portrays the Melungeons as an indigenous people of uncertain race who are wrongly perceived as black by the white settlers. Since the 1990s, interest in the Melungeons has grown tremendously, largely due to the Internet. | |||
According to the 1894 ] Report of Indians Taxed and not Taxed within the "Tennessee" report, "The civilized (self-supporting) Indians of Tennessee, counted in the general census numbered 146 (71 males and 75 females) and are distributed as follows: ], 31; ], 12; ], 10; other counties (8 or less in each), 93. Quoting from the report:<blockquote>The Melungeans or Malungeans, in Hawkins county, claim to be Cherokees of mixed blood (white, Indian, and negro), their white blood being derived, as they assert, from English and Portuguese stock. They trace their descent primarily to 2 Indians (Cherokees) known, one of them as Collins, the other as Gibson, who settled in the mountains of Tennessee, where their descendants are now to be found, about the time of the admission of that state into the Union (1796).</blockquote> | |||
==Controversy== | |||
The extent to which Melungeons constitute a specific ] or ] is controversial, because members of this group are considered to be racially mixed rather than exhibiting characteristics which can be incontrovertibly classified as being of a single racial ]. A common claim on the Internet, for example, is that Melungeons have an enlarged external occipital protuberance, termed an "Anatolian Bump," after the fact that such a feature appears among many Anatolian Turks. However, many other populations have this "bump," and it is not a definitive indicator of any specific ethnicity. Also, some believe that certain diseases, such as ] or ], are more common among Melungeons. There is absolutely no scientific evidence to back up these claims, however. | |||
===Early uses=== | |||
A DNA study was carried out in 2000 by Dr. Kevin Jones, using samples taken from self-identified Melungeons (a list of those contributing samples has to date not been published). The results revealed a very mixed population, but did not prove anything definitively. More recently, individual Y chromosomal DNA testing of some male Melungeon descendants with surnames Gibson, Goins, and Minor have revealed African Y haplogroups. DNA testing has proven controversial, however, because there is disagreement among people who claim Melungeon descent as to exactly who should be considered Melungeon. Some researchers (such as Jack Goins and Pat Elder) favor a more narrow definition, while others (such as N. Brent Kennedy) see Melungeon as a very broad category. | |||
]]] | |||
The earliest historical record of the term ''Melungeon'' dates to 1813. In the minutes of the Stoney Creek Baptist Church in ], a woman stated another parishioner made the accusation that "she harbored them Melungins."<ref name="tn_en">{{cite web|last=Toplovich|first=Ann|title=Melungeons|url=https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/melungeons/|website=Tennessee Encyclopedia|publisher=Tennessee Historical Society|access-date=3 July 2023}}</ref> The second oldest written use of the term was in 1840, when a Tennessee politician described "an impudent Melungeon" from what became Washington, D.C., as being "a scoundrel who is half Negro and half Indian."<ref name="tn_en" /> In the 1890s, during the age of ], the term "Melungeon" started to circulate and be reproduced in U.S. newspapers, when the journalist ] wrote several articles on the Melungeons.<ref name="Dromgoole">{{cite web|last=Pezzullo|first=Joanne|title=Calloway Collins|url=http://the-melungeons.blogspot.com/2017/08/this-sketch-of-calloway-collins.html|website=The Historical Melungeons|date=10 August 2017|access-date=12 June 2023}}</ref> | |||
Much of the information that can be found on the Internet about Melungeons is based on little or no evidence, and should be used with great caution. | |||
In 1894, the ], in its "Report of Indians Taxed and Not Taxed," under the section "Tennessee" noted: <blockquote>In a number of states small groups of people, preferring the freedom of the woods or the seashore to the confinement of regular labor in civilization, have become in some degree distinct from their neighbors, perpetuating their qualities and absorbing into their number those of like disposition, without preserving very clear racial lines. Such are the remnants called Indians in some states where a pure-blooded Indian can hardly longer be found. In Tennessee is such a group, popularly known as Melungeans, in addition to those still known as Cherokees. The name seems to have been given them by early French settlers, who recognized their mixed origin and applied to them the name Melangeans or Melungeans, a corruption of the French word "melange" which means mixed. (See letter of Hamilton McMillan, under North Carolina.)<ref name="North Carolina"/><ref name="TennesseeDOI"/></blockquote> | |||
==Locations== | |||
Other "tri-racial isolate" populations include the: | |||
* ] of Kentucky (] and ] counties) and the ] of Ohio (]) | |||
* ] of ] | |||
* ] of ] | |||
* ] of ], ] | |||
* ] of ] | |||
* ] of ] | |||
* ] of ] | |||
* ] aka The Cubans and Portuguese of ] | |||
* ] and ] of ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] of ](different from the Gulf States Redbones). | |||
* The ] of ] and ] counties Florida. | |||
* ] and ]s of ], ], ] and ]. | |||
* ] in ], ], and ] counties of ] | |||
* A group called ] locally who live in ], ], and ] counties of eastern ]. They have long been identified as Melungeons by people from the rest of Tennessee. | |||
==History== | |||
Each of these groupings of mixed-race populations has a particular history and culture, but historical evidence shows relationships among some of them. | |||
] | |||
In December 1943, ] of Virginia sent county officials a letter warning against "colored" families trying to pass as "white" or "Indian" in violation of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. He identified these as being "chiefly Tennessee Melungeons".<ref name="pleckerletter" /> He directed the offices to reclassify members of certain families as black, causing the loss for numerous families of documentation in records that showed their continued self-identification as being of Native American descent on official forms.<ref name="pleckerletter" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Schrift |first1=Melissa |title=Becoming Melungeon: Making an Ethnic Identity in the Appalachian South |date=2013 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-8032-7154-8 |url=https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1185&context=unpresssamples |chapter=Introduction}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Racial Integrity Act, 1924: An Attack on Indigenous Identity |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/racial-integrity-act.htm |website=] |access-date=25 August 2023 |date=June 21, 2023}}</ref> | |||
==Origins== | |||
Tracing Melungeon origins has always been contentious. According to the research of Pat Elder, the earliest claim about their identity and origin was that they were "Indian," followed later by the notion that they were "Portuguese." In recent years more exotic theories have appeared, in particular the notion that they are "Gypsy" or "Turkish," the latter of which was apparently invented by researcher N. Brent Kennedy. | |||
In the 20th century, during the ] era, some Melungeons attended boarding schools in ], ], and ] which integrated earlier than other schools in the southern United States.<ref name="neal">{{cite news |last1=Neal |first1=Dale |title=Melungeons explore mysterious mixed-race origins |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/24/melungeon-mountaineers-mixed-race/29252839/ |access-date=7 July 2023 |work=USA Today |date=June 24, 2015}}</ref> | |||
Complicating the issue of Melungeon origins is the lack of a clear consensus on exactly who should be considered Melungeon. However, most researchers would agree that Collins and Gibson are core Melungeon surnames, and many also list Goins, Mullins, Bunch, Minor, and a few others (though this does not mean that all families with these surnames are Melungeon). Looking at the multiracial Collins, Gibson and related families of Newman's Ridge, Tennessee, genealogists Dr Virginia E. DeMarce, Paul Heinegg and Pat Elder, as well as Melungeon descendant Jack Goins, have traced these families back to eastern Virginia in the early 1700s, in particular to ]. These families followed the same migration paths into the back country as their English, ], and German neighbors, arriving in East Tennessee in the early 19th century. Despite the claims of some researchers, there is no evidence whatsoever that the Melungeons were already in Tennessee prior to the arrival of the first white settlers. Records show that these families held property, voted, and for the most part were otherwise well integrated into the white communities in which they lived. In fact, there is little indication that they constituted a distinct ethnic group at all. By the 1830 census, most are listed as white. Modern anthropological and sociological studies of the Melungeons have shown that they are culturally indistinguishable from their "non-Melungeon" white neighbors. | |||
===Civil War=== | |||
Southern families with multiracial ancestry have often claimed ] or ] (specifically ]) ancestry as a strategy for denying any African ancestry. Evans (1979) writes: "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...." Although Portuguese and/or Cherokee ancestry may exist in some Melungeon descendants today, there is no historical evidence that the original Melungeon families who migrated from Eastern Virginia to Tennessee had such ancestry. The available historical evidence points to these families being a blend of British, ]n, and Native American of undetermined or mixed tribal origin (possibly ] or ]). | |||
] who joined the ] as a ] at the age of 15.<ref>{{cite web |last=Chavers |first=Dr Dean |date=2018-09-13 |title=The Life of Angus Chavers, a Confederate POW |url=https://ictnews.org/archive/the-life-of-angus-chavers-a-confederate-pow |access-date=2024-08-17 |website=ICT News |language=en}}</ref>]] | |||
Many ], white-passing or otherwise, served in the ] on both sides of the conflict. Some served in the ],<ref>{{Cite web |last=CCW |date=2018-09-06 |title=Jacob Bryant: A Documented Lumbee Indian Who Fought in the Confederate Army |url=https://nccivilwarcenter.org/jacob-bryant-a-documented-lumbee-indian-who-fought-in-the-confederate-army/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=NC History Center on the Civil War, Emancipation & Reconstruction |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Rheinheimer |first=Kurt |date=2009-01-01 |title=The Melungeons: A New Journey Home |url=https://blueridgecountry.com/articles/melungeons-journey-home/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=Blue Ridge Country |language=en-us}}</ref> though others resisted the Confederate government, such as ].<ref>{{cite magazine |date=30 March 1872 |title=The North Carolina Bandits |url=https://cwnc.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/items/show/170 |magazine=Harper's Weekly}}</ref> | |||
In his Foreword to the section on Virginia, North, and South Carolina in Heinegg's work on free ]s, historian Ira Berlin sums up the history of the Melungeons and similar 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 Indian 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." | |||
==Culture== | |||
There is no uniquely Melungeon culture, though specific groups have formed into their own ] on the basis of ancestral connections to historical ] communities.<ref>{{cite web |last=Staff |first=Ben Steelman StarNews |title="The Lumbee Indians" -- black, white and shades of red |url=https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/entertainment/books/2018/10/20/the-lumbee-indians-paints-picture-of-diverse-people/9503203007/ |access-date=2024-08-19 |website=Wilmington Star-News |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Rosenzweig |first=Brian |date=2023-03-05 |title=‘I know who I am:’ A Black mother and son’s journey of learning to embrace their mixed-race American Indian identity |url=https://mediahub.unc.edu/i-know-who-i-am-a-black-mother-and-sons-journey-of-learning-to-embrace-their-mixed-race-american-indian-identity/ |access-date=2024-08-19 |website=UNC Media Hub |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
Due to the lasting impact of ], the ] of initial contact ], and the legacy of ], culturally these mixed-race groups resemble their ] neighbors in culture, with few exceptions.<ref>{{cite web |title=FAQ |url=https://melungeon.org/features/ |access-date=2024-08-19 |website=Melungeon Heritage Association |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
==References== | |||
*Berry, Brewton (1963). ''Almost White''. New York: Macmillan Press. | |||
*DeMarce, Virginia E. (1992). "Verry Slitly Mixt': Tri-Racial Isolate Families of the Upper South - A Genealogical Study." ''National Genealogical Society Quarterly'', v. 80 (March 1992), pp. 5-35. | |||
Melungeon cuisine includes ].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DOJMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA698|title= The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America}}</ref> | |||
*DeMarce, Virginia E. (1993). "Looking at Legends - Lumbee and Melungeon: Applied Genealogy and the Origins of Tri-Racial Isolate Settlements." ''National Genealogical Society Quarterly'', v. 81 (March 1993), pp. 24-45. | |||
==Melungeon families== | |||
*DeMarce, Virginia E. (1996). Review of ''The Melungeons: Resurrection of a Proud People''. ''National Genealogical Society Quarterly'', v. 84, no. 2 (June 1996), pp. 134-149. | |||
] is descended from the ] community of Melungeons.<ref>{{cite web |title=Surprise! Finley related to 'Roots' show host |url=https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2014/surprise-finley-related-to-roots-show-host.php |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=William & Mary |language=en}}</ref>]] | |||
Definitions of who is Melungeon differ. Historians and genealogists have tried to identify surnames of different Melungeon families.<ref name="pleckerletter">{{cite web |last1=Plecker |first1=Walter A. |title=Surnames, by Counties and Cities, of Mixed Negroid Virginia Families Striving to Pass as "Indian" or White |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/surnames-by-counties-and-cities-of-mixed-negroid-virginia-families-striving-to-pass-as-indian-or-white-by-walter-a-plecker-ca-1943/ |website=Encyclopedia Virginia: Virginia Humanities |publisher=Library of Virginia |access-date=12 June 2023}}</ref><ref name="jogg" /> In 1943, Virginia State Registrar of Vital Statistics, Walter Ashby Plecker, identified surnames by county: "Lee, Smyth and Wise: Collins, Gibson, (Gipson), Moore, Goins, Ramsey, Delph, Bunch, Freeman, Mise, Barlow, Bolden (Bolin), Mullins, Hawkins (chiefly Tennessee Melungeons)".<ref name="pleckerletter" /> | |||
*Elder, Pat Spurlock (1999). ''Melungeons: Examining an Appalachian Legend''. Blountville, Tennessee: Continuity Press. | |||
In 1992, ] explored and reported the ] genealogy as a Melungeon surname.<ref>]. “‘Verry Slitly Mixt’: Tri-Racial Isolate Families of the Upper South–A Genealogical Study.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 80.1 (March 1992): -35.aZ</ref> Beginning in the early 19th century, or possibly before, the term Melungeon was applied as a slur to a group of about 40 families along the Tennessee-Virginia border, but it has since become a catch-all phrase for a number of groups of mysterious mixed-race ancestry.<ref name="loller2" /> Through time the term has changed meanings but often referred to any mixed-race person and, at different times, has referred to 200 different communities across the Eastern United States.<ref name="loller2" /> These have included Van Guilders and Clappers of New York and ]s in North Carolina to ] in Louisiana.<ref name="loller2" /> | |||
*Evans, E. Raymond (1979). "The Graysville Melungeons: A Tri-racial People in Lower East Tennessee." ''Tennessee Anthropologist'' IV(1):1-31. | |||
===Paul Heinegg's research=== | |||
*Forbes, Jack D. (1993). ''Africans and Native Americans The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples''. University of Illinois Press. | |||
Award-winning genealogist and engineer<ref>{{Cite web |title=Paul Heinegg, MSA SC 3520-130118 |url=https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/013100/013118/html/msa13118.html |access-date=2024-08-25 |website=msa.maryland.gov}}</ref> Paul Heinegg created a listing some 1,000 family histories of free people of color, categorized by ] and ]. Many families regularly denoted as Melungeon are listed throughout his research, as well as other families listed as being Native American, mulatto, and East Indian. Data is drawn from colonial tax lists and local court from across ], ], ], ], and ].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Heinegg |first=Paul |title=Free African Americans in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware |url=https://freeafricanamericans.com |access-date=2024-08-25 |website=www.freeafricanamericans.com |language=en}}</ref> | |||
==Claims== | |||
*Goins, Jack H. (2000). ''Melungeons: And Other Pioneer Families.'' Blountville, Tennessee: Continuity Press. | |||
Anthropologist E. Raymond Evans wrote in 1979 regarding Melungeons: "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. ..."<ref>Evans, E. Raymond (1979). "The Graysville Melungeons: A Tri-racial People in Lower East Tennessee", ''Tennessee Anthropologist'' IV(1): 1–31.</ref> | |||
In 1999, historian C. S. Everett hypothesized that John Collins (recorded as a ] Indian who was expelled from ] about January 1743), might be the same man as the Melungeon ancestor John Collins, who was classified as a "mulatto" in 1755 North Carolina records.<ref>C. S. Everett, "Melungeon History and Myth," ''Appalachian Journal'' (1999)</ref> However, Everett revised that theory after he discovered evidence that these were two different men named John Collins. Only descendants of the latter man, who was identified as mulatto in the 1755 record in North Carolina, have any proven connection to the Melungeon families of eastern Tennessee.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Church_Cotanch.htm | title= ''Free African Americans,'' ''op.cit.'', Church and Cotanch Families |publisher=Freeafricanamericans.com |access-date=August 21, 2013}}</ref>{{Promotional source|date=September 2023}} | |||
*Heinegg, Paul. ''FREE AFRICAN AMERICANS OF VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA, MARYLAND AND DELAWARE Including the family histories of more than 80% of those counted as "all other free persons" in the 1790 and 1800 census.'' Available in its entirety online at http://www.freeafricanamericans.com | |||
] speculated that the Melungeons may have been ]/] descendants, although he acknowledges an account from circa 1890 described them as being "free colored" and mulatto people.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forbes |first1=Jack D. |title=Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples |date=1993 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |location=Champaign, IL |isbn=9780252051005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5D17DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22A+great+many+declare%22+Forbes&pg=PT240}}</ref> | |||
*Kennedy, N. Brent, with Robyn Vaughan Kennedy (1994). ''The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People''. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. | |||
===Myths=== | |||
*Langdon, Barbara Tracy (1998). ''The Melungeons: An Annotated Bibliography: References in both Fiction and Nonfiction''. Hemphill, Texas: Dogwood Press. | |||
Dispute regarding the origin of Melungeons families has led to a large number of ahistorical and dubious myths regarding their origins. Some myths involve physical characteristics and genetic diseases that are claimed to indicate Melungeon descent, such as ], an ], ], ], ] with ], and ].<ref>{{Citation |last=Chresfield |first=Michell |title=Genetics, Health and the Making of America's Triracial Isolates, 1950–80 |date=2022 |work=The Edinburgh Companion to the Politics of American Health |pages=459–475 |editor-last=Halliwell |editor-first=Martin |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/edinburgh-companion-to-the-politics-of-american-health/genetics-health-and-the-making-of-americas-triracial-isolates-195080/3A703AC97FB8D189B8C66834166B392C |access-date=2024-08-14 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-1-4744-5098-0 |editor2-last=Jones |editor2-first=Sophie A.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Loller |first=Travis |title=DNA study pops myths of Appalachia's Melungeons |url=https://www.telegram.com/story/news/state/2012/05/25/dna-study-pops-myths-appalachia/49621497007/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=The Worcester Telegram & Gazette |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Schrift" /> | |||
Other myths claim that the Melungeons are descendants of lost ] colonists, marooned ] sailors,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-09-10 |title=The Origins of the Melungeons |url=https://lcgsco.org/the-origins-of-the-melungeons/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=Larimer County Genealogical Society |language=en-US}}</ref> descendants of the ] or ]ns,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Melungeons in Virginia |url=http://www.virginiaplaces.org/population/melungeon.html#:~:text=It%20was%20proven%20by%20the,time%20of%20our%20revolutionary%20war, |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=www.virginiaplaces.org}}</ref> ] slaves, or ] settlers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sassounian |first=Harut |author-link=Harut Sassounian |date=2012-07-25 |title=Sassounian: DNA Study Busts Myth that One Million Appalachians Are of Turkish Descent |url=https://armenianweekly.com/2012/07/25/sassounian-dna-study-busts-myth-that-one-million-appalachians-are-of-turkish-descent/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=The Armenian Weekly |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
*McGowan, Kathleen (2003). "Where do we really come from?" ''DISCOVER'', v. 24, no. 5 (May 2003). | |||
==Genetic testing== | |||
*Price, Edward T. (1953). "A Geographic Analysis of White-Negro-Indian Racial Mixtures in Eastern United States." The Association of American Geographers. Annals v. 43 (June 1953), pp. 138-55. | |||
] was part of the Bass family of the mixed-race ] settlement.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Lost Creek Settlement |url=https://lost-creek.org/genealogy/index.php |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=lost-creek.org}}</ref>]] | |||
From 2005 to 2011, researchers Roberta J. Estes, Jack H. Goins, Penny Ferguson, and Janet Lewis Crain began the Melungeon Core Y-DNA Group online. They interpreted these results in their (2011) paper titled "Melungeons, A Multi-Ethnic Population",<ref name="jogg">{{cite journal |last1=Estes |first1=Roberta A. |last2=Goins |first2=Jack H. |last3=Ferguson |first3=Penny |last4=Crain |first4=Janet Lewis |title=Melungeons, A Multi-Ethnic Population |journal=Journal of Genetic Genealogy |date=Fall 2011 |volume=7 |issue=1 |url=https://jogg.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/71.006.pdf |access-date=3 July 2023 |ref=71.006}}</ref> which shows that ancestry of the sample is primarily European and African, with one person having a Native American paternal ]. | |||
*Price, Henry R. (1966). "Melungeons: The Vanishing Colony of Newman's Ridge." Conference Paper. American Studies Association of Kentucky and Tennessee. March 25-26, 1966. | |||
Estes, Goins, Ferguson, and Crain wrote in their 2011 summary "Melungeons, A Multi-Ethnic Population" that the Riddle family is the only Melungeon participant with historical records identifying them as having ] origins, but their DNA is European. Among the participants, only the Sizemore family is documented as having Native American DNA.<ref name="jogg" /> "Estes and her fellow researchers "theorize that the various Melungeon lines may have sprung from the unions of black and white ] living in Virginia in the mid-1600s, before slavery. They conclude that as laws were put in place to penalize the mixing of races, the various family groups could only intermarry with each other, even migrating together from ] through the ] before settling primarily in the mountains of ]."<ref name="loller2">>{{cite news |title=DNA study seeks origin of Melungeons |url=https://www.tampabay.com/incoming/dna-study-seeks-origin-of-melungeons/1231925/ |access-date=30 August 2023 |work=] |agency=] |date=May 25, 2012}}</ref>{{void|Fabrickator|comment|This was previously cited as published on 11 March 2021 in the "News Leader" under the title "A whole lot of people upset by this study: DNA & the truth about Appalachia’s Melungeons" at https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/2021/03/08/new-dna-study-melungeons-attempts-separate-truth-fiction/4611383001/; same story was published in the Progress-Index at https://www.progress-index.com/story/news/2021/03/08/new-dna-study-melungeons-attempts-separate-truth-fiction/4611383001/.}}<ref name="jogg" /> | |||
*Winkler, Wayne (1997). "The Melungeons." ''All Things Considered''. National Public Radio. 21 Sept. 1997. | |||
===Possible Origins=== | |||
Although each group have their own unique admixtures, there have been several points made that might adequately explain a lot of them. On top of this, during the 19th and 20th centuries, many such communities began breaking up and scattering across much of the country, leading to some mixing occurring between many such racially ambiguous groups. | |||
Between approximately 1700-1820, as the Carolinas, Georgia and Appalachia began to be settled, America solidified its interest in the slave trade. As a large part of their attempts to justify Slavery of blacks, they cited their inability to read and write, among other aspects that made them less advanced or Civilized than Europeans. But, this wasn't always the case- some of the people who were enslaved were able to read and write in Arabic, which upset and confused many American colonial settlers at each instance they were discovered. Several such people were known to have escaped, disappeared into Appalachia and may have taken refuge amongst Native Americans or formed their own communities. These slaves were most likely related to the ], neighbors to Benin, the nation where the American colonies sourced their African slaves, who were and still are today a Muslim majority people. If so, this would explain both the black ancestry and the claims of Turkish ancestry amongst some groups. There is well documented evidence showing those Melungeons who lived near Native American communities, particularly between Virginia and South Carolina, came to be very deeply ingrained into these communities, whether they intermarried or not. <ref> https://clas.wayne.edu/news/muslims-arrived-in-america-400-years-ago-as-part-of-the-slave-trade-and-today-are-vastly-diverse-56104#:~:text=Scholars estimate that as many,those related to their faith. </ref> | |||
Among the Scots-Irish and German immigrants who settled Appalachia, there were also a fair minority of both who had the ability to tan. Amongst the Scots-Irish, descendants of the people around where Scotland, England and Wales meet, these are referred to as the Black Irish, despite no such people existing amongst the actual Irish. Amongst the Germans, they are usually just referred to as Black or Swarthy, but a new term sprang up in both Australia and Appalachia- Black Dutch. As many mixed Australians began identifying heavily as Black Dutch to avoid discrimination, some mixed persons in Appalachia followed suit. But, over time, the connotation of being Black Dutch started leading to just as much discrimination and a will amongst white Appalachians to shun anyone they thought might be mixed off into their own separate groups. This caused some people of Native American ancestry (although rare) and authentic Black Irish or Black Dutch ancestry to all merge into one group. In some cases, other misaligned groups of recent immigrants who ended up in Appalachia, such as Italians, were also shunned into these same communities. | |||
Many such people with alleged Native ancestry claim to either be Cherokee or Blackfoot. Cherokee derives from the slang use of Cherokee in early West Virginia and Kentucky to mean Native American in general, with many records from these places showing all tribes encountered occasionally referred to as Cherokees. Blackfoot is more confusing, as the term is clearly as old as pre-1830, when the Indian Removal Act forced the actual Cherokee off their land, but is nonsensical. | |||
==Racial laws and court cases== | |||
Melungeon ancestors were considered by appearance to be mixed race. During the 18th and the early 19th centuries, ] classified them as "mulatto," "other free," or as "free persons of color." Sometimes they were listed as "white" or sometimes as "black" or "negro," or even "Indian."{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}} One family described as "Indian" was the Ridley (Riddle) family, as was noted on a 1767 ], tax list.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}} Another tri-racial family described as “Indian” was the Butler family, as was noted in the 1860 census for ], with the family patriarch (named Simon Butler) being born in Tennessee around 1776.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} | |||
] referenced the 1846 ''State v. Solomon, Ezekial, Levi, Andrew, Wiatt, Vardy Collins, Zachariah, Lewis Minor'', Hawkins County Circuit Court Minute Book, 1842–1848, Hawkins County Circuit Court, Hawkins County Courthouse box 31, 32 and the Jacob F. Perkins vs. John R. White, Carter County, July 1855 Abstract of depositions to support her conclusions made about identity and citizenship in 19th-century United States.<ref name="Ariela Gross 2007">{{Cite journal |last=Gross |first=Ariela |author-link=Ariela Gross |date=2007 |title="Of Portuguese Origin": Litigating Identity and Citizenship among the "Little Races" in Nineteenth-Century America |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27641498 |journal=Law and History Review |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=467–512 |doi=10.1017/S0738248000004259 |jstor=27641498 |s2cid=144084310 |issn=0738-2480}}</ref> | |||
] was the great-grandson of ] Revolutionary War veteran, ]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sharfstein |first=Daniel J. |author-link=Daniel Sharfstein |date=2011-05-14 |title=Black or White? |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/black-or-white/ |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=Opinionator |language=en}}</ref>]] | |||
In 1924, Virginia passed the ] that codified ] or the "], suggesting that anyone with any trace of African ancestry was legally Black and would fall under Jim Crow laws designed to limit the freedoms and rights of Black people.<ref>Smith, J. Douglas. “The Campaign for Racial Purity and the Erosion of Paternalism in Virginia, 1922-1930: ‘Nominally White, Biologically Mixed, and Legally Negro.’” The Journal of Southern History, vol. 68, no. 1, 2002, pp. 65–106. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3069691. Accessed 3 Sept. 2023.</ref> ] were not declared unconstitutional until the 1967 '']'' case.<ref>{{cite web |title=Loving v. Virginia |url=https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/loving-v-virginia |website=History Channel |access-date=4 July 2023 |date=14 December 2022}}</ref> | |||
==Modern identity== | |||
By the mid-to-late 19th century, the term Melungeon appeared to have been used most frequently to refer to the biracial families of Hancock County and neighboring areas.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} Several other uses of the term in the print media, from the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries, have been collected by the Melungeon Heritage Association.<ref name=neal/> | |||
Since the mid-1990s, popular interest in the Melungeons has grown tremendously, although many descendants have left the region of historical concentration. The writer ] devoted the better part of a chapter to them in his '']'' (1989). People are increasingly self-identifying as having Melungeon ancestry.<ref name="kennedy">{{cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=N. Brent |first2=Robyn Vaughan |last2=Kennedy |title=The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People: An Untold Story of Ethnic Cleansing in America |publisher=Mercer University Press |location=Macon, GA |year=1997 |edition=2nd |isbn=0-86554-516-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jqhd3tVSJNkC |via=]}}</ref>{{page needed|date=May 2017}}{{better source needed|date=July 2023}} Internet sites promote the anecdotal claim that Melungeons are more prone to certain diseases, such as ] or ]. Academic medical centers have noted that neither of those diseases is confined to a single population.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.genome.gov/12510679 |title="Learning About Familial Mediterranean Fever", National Human Genome Research Institute |publisher=Genome.gov |date=November 17, 2011 |access-date=August 21, 2013}}</ref> | |||
==Literature== | |||
Author ]'s 1965 novel ''Daughter of the Legend'', set in Tennessee, depicts a love story between a Melungeon girl and a timber cutter from Virginia, and explores socioeconomic and racial tensions among mountain-dwelling families. | |||
A Melungeon character is the titular protagonist and narrator of ]'s '']'', which was a co-recipient of the 2023 ]. The novel takes place primarily in ] and environs. | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
* ] of West Virginia | |||
*] | |||
*] | * ] | ||
* ] | |||
*] | |||
* ] in the Florida Panhandle | |||
*] | |||
* ] | |||
*] | |||
*] | * ] | ||
* ] | |||
* ] ("Jackson Whites") | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
==References== | |||
{{Reflist|30em}} | |||
==Further reading== | |||
{{Refbegin}} | |||
* Ball, Bonnie (1992). ''The Melungeons: Notes on the Origin of a Race''. Johnson City, Tennessee: Overmountain Press. | |||
* Berry, Brewton (1963). ''Almost White: A Study of Certain Racial Hybrids in the Eastern United States''. New York: Macmillan Press. | |||
* Bible, Jean Patterson (1975). ''Melungeons Yesterday and Today''. Signal Mountain, Tennessee: Mountain Press. | |||
* Brake, Katherine Vande. ''How They Shine: How They Shine: Melungeon Characters in Fiction of Appalachia.'' Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. | |||
* Brake, Katherine Vande. ''Through the Back Door: Melungeon Literacies and Twenty-First Century Technologies.'' Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. | |||
* Cavender, Anthony P. "The Melungeons of Upper East Tennessee: Persisting Social Identity," ''Tennessee Anthropologist'' 6 (1981): 27–36 | |||
* Goins, Jack H. (2000). ''Melungeons: And Other Pioneer Families'', Blountville, Tennessee: Continuity Press. | |||
* Dromgoole, William "Will" Allen (1891). '''', Melungeon Heritage Association. | |||
* Hashaw, Tim. ''Children of Perdition: Melungeons and the Struggle of Mixed America''. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. | |||
* , Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing, 1999–2005. Available in its entirety online. | |||
* Hirschman, Elizabeth. ''Melungeons: The Last Lost Tribe in America.'' Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. | |||
* Johnson, Mattie Ruth (1997). ''My Melungeon Heritage: A Story of Life on Newman's Ridge''. Johnson City, Tennessee: Overmountain Press. | |||
* Kennedy, N. Brent (1997) ''The Melungeons: the resurrection of a proud people''. Mercer University Press. | |||
* Kessler, John S. and Donald Ball. ''North From the Mountains: A Folk History of the Carmel Melungeon Settlement, Highland County, Ohio. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. | |||
* Langdon, Barbara Tracy (1998). ''The Melungeons: An Annotated Bibliography: References in both Fiction and Nonfiction'', Hemphill, Texas: Dogwood Press. | |||
* {{cite news|last=Lister|first=Richard|title=Lost people of Appalachia|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/384502.stm|work=]|date=July 3, 2009}} | |||
* McGowan, Kathleen (2003). "Where do we really come from?", ''DISCOVER'' 24 (5, May 2003) | |||
* ]. (1999) "Melungeons", in ''Out of the Woods'', Simon & Schuster. | |||
* Overbay, DruAnna Williams. ''Windows on the Past: The Cultural Heritage of Vardy, Hancock County, Tennessee''. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. | |||
* Podber, Jacob. ''The Electronic Front Porch: An Oral History of the Arrival of Modern Media in Rural Appalachia and the Melungeon Community. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. | |||
* Price, Henry R. (1966). "Melungeons: The Vanishing Colony of Newman's Ridge." Conference paper. ''American Studies Association of Kentucky and Tennessee''. March 25–26, 1966. | |||
* Reed, John Shelton (1997). , ''Southern Cultures'' 3 (Winter 1997): 25–36.{{subscription required}} | |||
* Scolnick, Joseph M Jr. and N. Brent Kennedy. (2004). ''From Anatolia to Appalachia: A Turkish American Dialogue''. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. | |||
* Vande Brake, Katherine (2001). ''How They Shine: Melungeon Characters in the Fiction of Appalachia'', Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. | |||
* Williamson, Joel (1980). ''New People: Miscegenation and Mulattoes in the United States'', New York: Free Press. | |||
* Winkler, Wayne. 2019. ''Beyond the sunset: The Melungeon drama, 1969-1976''. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. | |||
* Winkler, Wayne (2004). "Walking Toward the Sunset: The Melungeons of Appalachia", Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. | |||
* , ''Tell Me More''. National Public Radio. npr.org accessed 12 June 2023 | |||
{{Refend}} | |||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
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* Paul Brodwin, , ''Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry'', Volume 29, Number 2 (2005), 145–178, DOI: 10.1007/s11013-005-7423-2 , addresses issue of 2002 Melungeon DNA study by Kevin Jones, which is unpublished | |||
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* , 1999–2005 | |||
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* , Digital Library of Appalachia. Contains numerous photographs and documents related to Melungeons, mostly from 1900 to 1950. | |||
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* {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140419121342/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/finding-your-roots/stories/race-ethnicity/a-mystery-people-the-melungeons/|date=2014-04-19}} From Louis Gates Jr.'s "Finding your Roots." | |||
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Latest revision as of 21:08, 24 December 2024
Mixed-race group from the South Central Appalachian region of the United States Ethnic groupMelungeon schoolgirls from Hancock County, Tennessee in front of the Melungeon boarding school in Asheville, North Carolina, c. 1916 | |
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United States (East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky) | |
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Southern American English | |
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Predominantly Protestant Christianity | |
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Lumbee, Atlantic Creole, Turks of South Carolina, Chestnut Ridge people, White Southerners, Black Southerners, Native Americans, Dominickers, Redbone (ethnicity), Mulatto, Coloureds, Griqua people, Basters, Métis, Black Indians in the United States, Garifuna |
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Melungeon (/məˈlʌndʒən/ mə-LUN-jən) (sometimes also spelled Malungean, Melangean, Melungean, Melungin) was a slur historically applied to individuals and families of mixed-race ancestry with roots in colonial Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina primarily descended from free people of color and white settlers. In modern times, the term has been reclaimed by descendants of these families, especially in southern Appalachia. Despite this mixed heritage, many modern Melungeons pass as White, as did many of their ancestors.
Most of the modern population have an estimated 1-2% non-European DNA, though jumping up to 20% or more in some groups, such as the Lumbee. Despite non-European DNA being in the minority for these groups, the impact of the one-drop rule either did, or had the potential to, label them as non-white. This redesignation resulted in some individuals being sterilized by state governments, most notably in Virginia.
Many groups have historically been referred to as Melungeon, including the Melungeons of Newman's Ridge, the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, the Chestnut Ridge people, and the Carmel Indians.
Free people of color in colonial Virginia were predominantly of African and European descent; however, many families also had varying amounts of Native American and East Indian ancestry.
Some modern researchers believe that early Atlantic Creole slaves, descended from or acculturated by Iberian lançados and Sephardi Jews fleeing the Inquisition, were one of the pre-cursor populations to these groups. Many creoles, once in British America, were able to obtain their freedom and many married into local white families.
In the general US census, Melungeon people were enumerated as of the races to which they most resembled.
Etymology
The term Melungeon likely comes from the French word mélange ultimately derived from the Latin verb miscēre ("to mix, mingle, intermingle"). It was once a derogatory term, but is used by the Melungeon people today as a primary identifier. The Tennessee Encyclopedia states that in the 19th century, "the word 'Melungeon' appears to have been used as an offensive term for nonwhite and/or low socioeconomic class persons by outsiders."
The term Melungeon was historically considered an insult, a label applied to Appalachians who were by appearance or reputation of mixed-race ancestry. Although initially pejorative in character, this word has been reclaimed by members of the community. The spelling of the term varied widely, as was common for words and names at the time.
According to the 1894 Department of Interior Report of Indians Taxed and not Taxed within the "Tennessee" report, "The civilized (self-supporting) Indians of Tennessee, counted in the general census numbered 146 (71 males and 75 females) and are distributed as follows: Hawkins county, 31; Monroe county, 12; Polk county, 10; other counties (8 or less in each), 93. Quoting from the report:
The Melungeans or Malungeans, in Hawkins county, claim to be Cherokees of mixed blood (white, Indian, and negro), their white blood being derived, as they assert, from English and Portuguese stock. They trace their descent primarily to 2 Indians (Cherokees) known, one of them as Collins, the other as Gibson, who settled in the mountains of Tennessee, where their descendants are now to be found, about the time of the admission of that state into the Union (1796).
Early uses
The earliest historical record of the term Melungeon dates to 1813. In the minutes of the Stoney Creek Baptist Church in Scott County, Virginia, a woman stated another parishioner made the accusation that "she harbored them Melungins." The second oldest written use of the term was in 1840, when a Tennessee politician described "an impudent Melungeon" from what became Washington, D.C., as being "a scoundrel who is half Negro and half Indian." In the 1890s, during the age of yellow journalism, the term "Melungeon" started to circulate and be reproduced in U.S. newspapers, when the journalist Will Allen Dromgoole wrote several articles on the Melungeons.
In 1894, the US Department of the Interior, in its "Report of Indians Taxed and Not Taxed," under the section "Tennessee" noted:
In a number of states small groups of people, preferring the freedom of the woods or the seashore to the confinement of regular labor in civilization, have become in some degree distinct from their neighbors, perpetuating their qualities and absorbing into their number those of like disposition, without preserving very clear racial lines. Such are the remnants called Indians in some states where a pure-blooded Indian can hardly longer be found. In Tennessee is such a group, popularly known as Melungeans, in addition to those still known as Cherokees. The name seems to have been given them by early French settlers, who recognized their mixed origin and applied to them the name Melangeans or Melungeans, a corruption of the French word "melange" which means mixed. (See letter of Hamilton McMillan, under North Carolina.)
History
In December 1943, Walter Ashby Plecker of Virginia sent county officials a letter warning against "colored" families trying to pass as "white" or "Indian" in violation of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. He identified these as being "chiefly Tennessee Melungeons". He directed the offices to reclassify members of certain families as black, causing the loss for numerous families of documentation in records that showed their continued self-identification as being of Native American descent on official forms.
In the 20th century, during the Jim Crow era, some Melungeons attended boarding schools in Asheville, North Carolina, Warren Wilson College, and Dorland Institution which integrated earlier than other schools in the southern United States.
Civil War
Many free people of color, white-passing or otherwise, served in the American Civil War on both sides of the conflict. Some served in the Confederate military, though others resisted the Confederate government, such as Henry Berry Lowry.
Culture
There is no uniquely Melungeon culture, though specific groups have formed into their own tribal entities on the basis of ancestral connections to historical Native American communities.
Due to the lasting impact of colonialism, the decimation of initial contact tribes, and the legacy of American chattel slavery, culturally these mixed-race groups resemble their white settler neighbors in culture, with few exceptions.
Melungeon cuisine includes chocolate gravy.
Melungeon families
Definitions of who is Melungeon differ. Historians and genealogists have tried to identify surnames of different Melungeon families. In 1943, Virginia State Registrar of Vital Statistics, Walter Ashby Plecker, identified surnames by county: "Lee, Smyth and Wise: Collins, Gibson, (Gipson), Moore, Goins, Ramsey, Delph, Bunch, Freeman, Mise, Barlow, Bolden (Bolin), Mullins, Hawkins (chiefly Tennessee Melungeons)".
In 1992, Virginia DeMarce explored and reported the Goins genealogy as a Melungeon surname. Beginning in the early 19th century, or possibly before, the term Melungeon was applied as a slur to a group of about 40 families along the Tennessee-Virginia border, but it has since become a catch-all phrase for a number of groups of mysterious mixed-race ancestry. Through time the term has changed meanings but often referred to any mixed-race person and, at different times, has referred to 200 different communities across the Eastern United States. These have included Van Guilders and Clappers of New York and Lumbees in North Carolina to Creoles in Louisiana.
Paul Heinegg's research
Award-winning genealogist and engineer Paul Heinegg created a website listing some 1,000 family histories of free people of color, categorized by surname and county. Many families regularly denoted as Melungeon are listed throughout his research, as well as other families listed as being Native American, mulatto, and East Indian. Data is drawn from colonial tax lists and local court from across Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Delaware, and South Carolina.
Claims
Anthropologist E. Raymond Evans wrote in 1979 regarding Melungeons: "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. ..."
In 1999, historian C. S. Everett hypothesized that John Collins (recorded as a Sapony Indian who was expelled from Orange County, Virginia about January 1743), might be the same man as the Melungeon ancestor John Collins, who was classified as a "mulatto" in 1755 North Carolina records. However, Everett revised that theory after he discovered evidence that these were two different men named John Collins. Only descendants of the latter man, who was identified as mulatto in the 1755 record in North Carolina, have any proven connection to the Melungeon families of eastern Tennessee.
Jack D. Forbes speculated that the Melungeons may have been Saponi/Powhatan descendants, although he acknowledges an account from circa 1890 described them as being "free colored" and mulatto people.
Myths
Dispute regarding the origin of Melungeons families has led to a large number of ahistorical and dubious myths regarding their origins. Some myths involve physical characteristics and genetic diseases that are claimed to indicate Melungeon descent, such as shovel-shaped incisors, an Anatolian bump, Familial Mediterranean fever, polydactyly, dark skin with bright colored eyes, and high cheekbones.
Other myths claim that the Melungeons are descendants of lost Spanish colonists, marooned Portuguese sailors, descendants of the ancient Israelites or Phoenicians, Romani slaves, or Turkish settlers.
Genetic testing
From 2005 to 2011, researchers Roberta J. Estes, Jack H. Goins, Penny Ferguson, and Janet Lewis Crain began the Melungeon Core Y-DNA Group online. They interpreted these results in their (2011) paper titled "Melungeons, A Multi-Ethnic Population", which shows that ancestry of the sample is primarily European and African, with one person having a Native American paternal haplotype.
Estes, Goins, Ferguson, and Crain wrote in their 2011 summary "Melungeons, A Multi-Ethnic Population" that the Riddle family is the only Melungeon participant with historical records identifying them as having Native American origins, but their DNA is European. Among the participants, only the Sizemore family is documented as having Native American DNA. "Estes and her fellow researchers "theorize that the various Melungeon lines may have sprung from the unions of black and white indentured servants living in Virginia in the mid-1600s, before slavery. They conclude that as laws were put in place to penalize the mixing of races, the various family groups could only intermarry with each other, even migrating together from Virginia through the Carolinas before settling primarily in the mountains of East Tennessee."
Possible Origins
Although each group have their own unique admixtures, there have been several points made that might adequately explain a lot of them. On top of this, during the 19th and 20th centuries, many such communities began breaking up and scattering across much of the country, leading to some mixing occurring between many such racially ambiguous groups.
Between approximately 1700-1820, as the Carolinas, Georgia and Appalachia began to be settled, America solidified its interest in the slave trade. As a large part of their attempts to justify Slavery of blacks, they cited their inability to read and write, among other aspects that made them less advanced or Civilized than Europeans. But, this wasn't always the case- some of the people who were enslaved were able to read and write in Arabic, which upset and confused many American colonial settlers at each instance they were discovered. Several such people were known to have escaped, disappeared into Appalachia and may have taken refuge amongst Native Americans or formed their own communities. These slaves were most likely related to the Songhai people, neighbors to Benin, the nation where the American colonies sourced their African slaves, who were and still are today a Muslim majority people. If so, this would explain both the black ancestry and the claims of Turkish ancestry amongst some groups. There is well documented evidence showing those Melungeons who lived near Native American communities, particularly between Virginia and South Carolina, came to be very deeply ingrained into these communities, whether they intermarried or not.
Among the Scots-Irish and German immigrants who settled Appalachia, there were also a fair minority of both who had the ability to tan. Amongst the Scots-Irish, descendants of the people around where Scotland, England and Wales meet, these are referred to as the Black Irish, despite no such people existing amongst the actual Irish. Amongst the Germans, they are usually just referred to as Black or Swarthy, but a new term sprang up in both Australia and Appalachia- Black Dutch. As many mixed Australians began identifying heavily as Black Dutch to avoid discrimination, some mixed persons in Appalachia followed suit. But, over time, the connotation of being Black Dutch started leading to just as much discrimination and a will amongst white Appalachians to shun anyone they thought might be mixed off into their own separate groups. This caused some people of Native American ancestry (although rare) and authentic Black Irish or Black Dutch ancestry to all merge into one group. In some cases, other misaligned groups of recent immigrants who ended up in Appalachia, such as Italians, were also shunned into these same communities.
Many such people with alleged Native ancestry claim to either be Cherokee or Blackfoot. Cherokee derives from the slang use of Cherokee in early West Virginia and Kentucky to mean Native American in general, with many records from these places showing all tribes encountered occasionally referred to as Cherokees. Blackfoot is more confusing, as the term is clearly as old as pre-1830, when the Indian Removal Act forced the actual Cherokee off their land, but is nonsensical.
Racial laws and court cases
Melungeon ancestors were considered by appearance to be mixed race. During the 18th and the early 19th centuries, census enumerators classified them as "mulatto," "other free," or as "free persons of color." Sometimes they were listed as "white" or sometimes as "black" or "negro," or even "Indian." One family described as "Indian" was the Ridley (Riddle) family, as was noted on a 1767 Pittsylvania County, Virginia, tax list. Another tri-racial family described as “Indian” was the Butler family, as was noted in the 1860 census for Whitley County, Kentucky, with the family patriarch (named Simon Butler) being born in Tennessee around 1776.
Ariela Gross referenced the 1846 State v. Solomon, Ezekial, Levi, Andrew, Wiatt, Vardy Collins, Zachariah, Lewis Minor, Hawkins County Circuit Court Minute Book, 1842–1848, Hawkins County Circuit Court, Hawkins County Courthouse box 31, 32 and the Jacob F. Perkins vs. John R. White, Carter County, July 1855 Abstract of depositions to support her conclusions made about identity and citizenship in 19th-century United States.
In 1924, Virginia passed the Racial Integrity Act that codified hypodescent or the "one-drop rule, suggesting that anyone with any trace of African ancestry was legally Black and would fall under Jim Crow laws designed to limit the freedoms and rights of Black people. Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States were not declared unconstitutional until the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case.
Modern identity
By the mid-to-late 19th century, the term Melungeon appeared to have been used most frequently to refer to the biracial families of Hancock County and neighboring areas. Several other uses of the term in the print media, from the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries, have been collected by the Melungeon Heritage Association.
Since the mid-1990s, popular interest in the Melungeons has grown tremendously, although many descendants have left the region of historical concentration. The writer Bill Bryson devoted the better part of a chapter to them in his The Lost Continent (1989). People are increasingly self-identifying as having Melungeon ancestry. Internet sites promote the anecdotal claim that Melungeons are more prone to certain diseases, such as sarcoidosis or familial Mediterranean fever. Academic medical centers have noted that neither of those diseases is confined to a single population.
Literature
Author Jesse Stuart's 1965 novel Daughter of the Legend, set in Tennessee, depicts a love story between a Melungeon girl and a timber cutter from Virginia, and explores socioeconomic and racial tensions among mountain-dwelling families.
A Melungeon character is the titular protagonist and narrator of Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead, which was a co-recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The novel takes place primarily in Lee County, Virginia and environs.
See also
- Chestnut Ridge people of West Virginia
- Melungeon Jews
- Croatan
- Dominickers in the Florida Panhandle
- List of topics related to the African diaspora
- Mulatto
- Pardo
- Ramapough Mountain Indians ("Jackson Whites")
- Redbone (ethnicity)
- Turks of South Carolina
- Vardy Community School
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- DeMarce, Virginia Easley. “‘Verry Slitly Mixt’: Tri-Racial Isolate Families of the Upper South–A Genealogical Study.” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 80.1 (March 1992): -35.aZ
- "Paul Heinegg, MSA SC 3520-130118". msa.maryland.gov. Retrieved 2024-08-25.
- Heinegg, Paul. "Free African Americans in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware". www.freeafricanamericans.com. Retrieved 2024-08-25.
- Evans, E. Raymond (1979). "The Graysville Melungeons: A Tri-racial People in Lower East Tennessee", Tennessee Anthropologist IV(1): 1–31.
- C. S. Everett, "Melungeon History and Myth," Appalachian Journal (1999)
- "Free African Americans, op.cit., Church and Cotanch Families". Freeafricanamericans.com. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
- Forbes, Jack D. (1993). Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252051005.
- Chresfield, Michell (2022), Halliwell, Martin; Jones, Sophie A. (eds.), "Genetics, Health and the Making of America's Triracial Isolates, 1950–80", The Edinburgh Companion to the Politics of American Health, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 459–475, ISBN 978-1-4744-5098-0, retrieved 2024-08-14
- Loller, Travis. "DNA study pops myths of Appalachia's Melungeons". The Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Retrieved 2024-08-14.
- "The Origins of the Melungeons". Larimer County Genealogical Society. 2021-09-10. Retrieved 2024-08-14.
- "Melungeons in Virginia". www.virginiaplaces.org. Retrieved 2024-08-14.
- Sassounian, Harut (2012-07-25). "Sassounian: DNA Study Busts Myth that One Million Appalachians Are of Turkish Descent". The Armenian Weekly. Retrieved 2024-08-14.
- "The Lost Creek Settlement". lost-creek.org. Retrieved 2024-08-16.
- https://clas.wayne.edu/news/muslims-arrived-in-america-400-years-ago-as-part-of-the-slave-trade-and-today-are-vastly-diverse-56104#:~:text=Scholars estimate that as many,those related to their faith.
- Gross, Ariela (2007). ""Of Portuguese Origin": Litigating Identity and Citizenship among the "Little Races" in Nineteenth-Century America". Law and History Review. 25 (3): 467–512. doi:10.1017/S0738248000004259. ISSN 0738-2480. JSTOR 27641498. S2CID 144084310.
- Sharfstein, Daniel J. (2011-05-14). "Black or White?". Opinionator. Retrieved 2024-08-16.
- Smith, J. Douglas. “The Campaign for Racial Purity and the Erosion of Paternalism in Virginia, 1922-1930: ‘Nominally White, Biologically Mixed, and Legally Negro.’” The Journal of Southern History, vol. 68, no. 1, 2002, pp. 65–106. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3069691. Accessed 3 Sept. 2023.
- "Loving v. Virginia". History Channel. 14 December 2022. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
- Kennedy, N. Brent; Kennedy, Robyn Vaughan (1997). The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People: An Untold Story of Ethnic Cleansing in America (2nd ed.). Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. ISBN 0-86554-516-2 – via Google Books.
- ""Learning About Familial Mediterranean Fever", National Human Genome Research Institute". Genome.gov. November 17, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
Further reading
- Ball, Bonnie (1992). The Melungeons: Notes on the Origin of a Race. Johnson City, Tennessee: Overmountain Press.
- Berry, Brewton (1963). Almost White: A Study of Certain Racial Hybrids in the Eastern United States. New York: Macmillan Press.
- Bible, Jean Patterson (1975). Melungeons Yesterday and Today. Signal Mountain, Tennessee: Mountain Press.
- Brake, Katherine Vande. How They Shine: How They Shine: Melungeon Characters in Fiction of Appalachia. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
- Brake, Katherine Vande. Through the Back Door: Melungeon Literacies and Twenty-First Century Technologies. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
- Cavender, Anthony P. "The Melungeons of Upper East Tennessee: Persisting Social Identity," Tennessee Anthropologist 6 (1981): 27–36
- Goins, Jack H. (2000). Melungeons: And Other Pioneer Families, Blountville, Tennessee: Continuity Press.
- Dromgoole, William "Will" Allen (1891). The Malungeon Tree and Its Four Branches, Melungeon Heritage Association.
- Hashaw, Tim. Children of Perdition: Melungeons and the Struggle of Mixed America. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
- Heinegg, Paul (2005). FREE AFRICAN AMERICANS OF VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA, MARYLAND AND DELAWARE Including the family histories of more than 80% of those counted as "all other free persons" in the 1790 and 1800 census, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing, 1999–2005. Available in its entirety online.
- Hirschman, Elizabeth. Melungeons: The Last Lost Tribe in America. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
- Johnson, Mattie Ruth (1997). My Melungeon Heritage: A Story of Life on Newman's Ridge. Johnson City, Tennessee: Overmountain Press.
- Kennedy, N. Brent (1997) The Melungeons: the resurrection of a proud people. Mercer University Press.
- Kessler, John S. and Donald Ball. North From the Mountains: A Folk History of the Carmel Melungeon Settlement, Highland County, Ohio. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
- Langdon, Barbara Tracy (1998). The Melungeons: An Annotated Bibliography: References in both Fiction and Nonfiction, Hemphill, Texas: Dogwood Press.
- Lister, Richard (July 3, 2009). "Lost people of Appalachia". BBC News Online.
- McGowan, Kathleen (2003). "Where do we really come from?", DISCOVER 24 (5, May 2003)
- Offutt, Chris. (1999) "Melungeons", in Out of the Woods, Simon & Schuster.
- Overbay, DruAnna Williams. Windows on the Past: The Cultural Heritage of Vardy, Hancock County, Tennessee. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
- Podber, Jacob. The Electronic Front Porch: An Oral History of the Arrival of Modern Media in Rural Appalachia and the Melungeon Community. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
- Price, Henry R. (1966). "Melungeons: The Vanishing Colony of Newman's Ridge." Conference paper. American Studies Association of Kentucky and Tennessee. March 25–26, 1966.
- Reed, John Shelton (1997). "Mixing in the Mountains", Southern Cultures 3 (Winter 1997): 25–36.(subscription required)
- Scolnick, Joseph M Jr. and N. Brent Kennedy. (2004). From Anatolia to Appalachia: A Turkish American Dialogue. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
- Vande Brake, Katherine (2001). How They Shine: Melungeon Characters in the Fiction of Appalachia, Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press.
- Williamson, Joel (1980). New People: Miscegenation and Mulattoes in the United States, New York: Free Press.
- Winkler, Wayne. 2019. Beyond the sunset: The Melungeon drama, 1969-1976. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
- Winkler, Wayne (2004). "Walking Toward the Sunset: The Melungeons of Appalachia", Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press.
- Winkler, Wayne and Estes, Roberta (7/11/2012). "For Some People of Appalachia complicated roots", Tell Me More. National Public Radio. npr.org accessed 12 June 2023
External links
- Melungeon Heritage Association
- Mixed Race Studies
- Paul Brodwin, ""Bioethics in action" and human population genetics researMacon, GA: Mercer University Press.ch", Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, Volume 29, Number 2 (2005), 145–178, DOI: 10.1007/s11013-005-7423-2 PDF, addresses issue of 2002 Melungeon DNA study by Kevin Jones, which is unpublished
- Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, 1999–2005
- "Melungeons", Digital Library of Appalachia. Contains numerous photographs and documents related to Melungeons, mostly from 1900 to 1950.
- A Mystery People: The Melungeons Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine From Louis Gates Jr.'s "Finding your Roots."
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