Carmel Indians
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The Carmel Indians (pronounced ''Car'-mul'') are a group of
Melungeon Melungeons ( ) are an ethnicity from the Southeastern United States who descend from Europeans, Native American, and sub-Saharan Africans brought to America as indentured servants and later as slaves. Historically, the Melungeons were associat ...
s who moved from
Magoffin County, Kentucky Magoffin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2010 census, the population was 13,333. Its county seat is Salyersville. The county was formed in 1860 from adjacent portions of Floyd, Johnson, and Morgan Counties ...
and lived in Highland County in
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. Bryson Gibson and Valentine Collins are ancestors to most of the group. Paternal line descendants of Bryson Gibson and Valentine Collins who participated in the
Melungeon DNA Project The Melungeon DNA Project is a genetic study started in 2005 by the private company Family Tree DNA of people with identified Melungeon ancestors (according to historic records), mostly residing in Hancock County, Tennessee and people with ancestor ...
belong to
Haplogroup E-M2 Haplogroup E-M2 (or E1b1a) is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. It is primarily distributed in sub-Saharan Africa. E-M2 is the predominant subclade in West-Central Africa, Southern Africa and the African Great Lakes, and occurs at moderate fr ...
. They both lived in Kentucky and many of their descendants later moved to Ohio and were referred to as "Carmel Indians." At one time, anthropologists described both groups as among the "little races" and as tri-racial isolates. Some members of the group claimed American Indian ancestry. This was one way the people could evade some of the racial barriers of
antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum ar ...
and post-Civil War years. Outsiders called them Indians to explain aspects of the differences between their appearance and that of their mostly
European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...
neighbors. They found an adaptive way to evade some of the racial pressures that intensified in some areas after the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. In the postwar South, there was a binary division of society into black and white races. As researcher Paul Heinegg (1997) has documented the ancestry of the majority of the Free Negro population can be traced to African Americans free in
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
before the
American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
. He has found that most of these free African Americans were
mixed-race Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...
children of early unions during the colonial period between white women, indentured servant or free, and African men, indentured servant, free, or enslaved. This was before the racial caste had hardened and, on small farms, white and black workers lived near each other and associated. According to the law, children were born into the social status of their mothers, by the principle of ''
partus sequitur ventrem ''Partus sequitur ventrem'' (L. "That which is born follows the womb"; also ''partus'') was a legal doctrine passed in colonial Virginia in 1662 and other English crown colonies A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The ...
'', adopted in the 17th-century Virginia colony. Since the mothers were white and free, their children were free born. Through the years, some of their descendants continued to marry their cousins of mixed race; some chose ''passing'' as White, and others married within African-American identified families.John S. Kessler and Donald B. Ball, ''North from the Mountains: A Folk History of the Carmel Melungeon Settlement, Highland County, Ohio'', 2001
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References

{{Appalachian people Mulatto Ethnic groups in Appalachia Ethnic groups in Ohio Highland County, Ohio