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Melungeons ( ) are an ethnicity from the
Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...
who descend from
Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (2004) ...
, Native American, and sub-Saharan Africans brought to America as
indentured servants Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment, ...
and later as
slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
. Historically, the Melungeons were associated with settlements in the
Cumberland Gap The Cumberland Gap is a pass through the long ridge of the Cumberland Mountains, within the Appalachian Mountains, near the junction of the U.S. states of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. It is famous in American colonial history for its rol ...
area of central
Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...
, which includes portions of
East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 count ...
,
Southwest Virginia Southwest Virginia, often abbreviated as SWVA, is a mountainous region of Virginia in the westernmost part of the commonwealth. Located within the broader region of western Virginia, Southwest Virginia has been defined alternatively as all Vir ...
, and
eastern Kentucky Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways * Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 * Eastern Air ...
. ''Tri-racial'' describes populations who claim to be of mixed European,
African African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...
and Native American ancestry. Although there is no consensus on how many such groups exist, estimates range as high as 200,000.


Definition

The ancestry and identity of Melungeons has been a highly controversial subject. Secondary sources disagree as to their
ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
,
linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
,
cultural Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human Society, societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, and habits of the ...
, and
geographic Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
origins and identity. They might accurately be described as a loose collection of families of diverse ethnic origins that migrated to frontier areas; settled near one another; and intermarried, mostly in
Hancock Hancock may refer to: Places in the United States * Hancock, Iowa * Hancock, Maine * Hancock, Maryland * Hancock, Massachusetts * Hancock, Michigan * Hancock, Minnesota * Hancock, Missouri * Hancock, New Hampshire ** Hancock (CDP), New Hampshir ...
and Hawkins Counties in
Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
; nearby areas of
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
; and
Lee County, Virginia Lee County is the westernmost county in the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 22,173. Its county seat is Jonesville. History The area of far western Virginia and eastern Kentucky supported large Archai ...
. Their ancestors can usually be traced back to
colonial Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...
and the
Carolinas The Carolinas are the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina, considered collectively. They are bordered by Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, and Georgia to the southwest. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east. Combining Nort ...
. They were largely
endogamous Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting those from others as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships. Endogamy is common in many cultu ...
through the 19th century and married primarily within their community until about 1900. Melungeons have been defined and documented as having multiracial ancestry. They did not exhibit characteristics that could be classified as those of a single racial
phenotype In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological proper ...
. Most modern-day descendants of Appalachian families that are traditionally regarded as Melungeon are generally
European American European Americans (also referred to as Euro-Americans) are Americans of European ancestry. This term includes people who are descended from the first European settlers in the United States as well as people who are descended from more recent Eu ...
in appearance and often (though not always) have dark hair and eyes and a swarthy or olive complexion. Descriptions of Melungeons have varied widely over time. In the 19th and the early 20th centuries, they were sometimes identified as "
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
," Native American, or light-skinned
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
. In the 19th century,
free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...
sometimes identified as Portuguese or Native American to avoid being classified as
black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
in the segregated slave societies. Other Melungeon individuals and families are accepted and identify as white, particularly since the mid-20th century. They have tended to "marry white" since the 19th century.Paul Heinegg, ''Free African Americans in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Delaware and Maryland''
1999–2005
Scholars and commentators do not agree on who should be included under the term "Melungeon." Contemporary authors identify differing lists of surnames to be included as families associated with Melungeons. The English surname
Gibson Gibson may refer to: People * Gibson (surname) Businesses * Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment * Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based * Gi ...
and Irish surname
Collins Collins may refer to: People Surname Given name * Collins O. Bright (1917–?), Sierra Leonean diplomat * Collins Chabane (1960–2015), South African Minister of Public Service and Administration * Collins Cheboi (born 1987), Kenyan middle- ...
appear frequently, and the
genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...
Pat Elder calls them "core" surnames.Elder, Pat Spurlock (1999). ''Melungeons: Examining an Appalachian Legend'', Blountville, Tennessee: Continuity Press Vardy Collins and Shep Gibson had settled in Hancock County, and they and other Melungeons are documented by land deeds, slave sales, and marriage licenses. The original meaning of the word "Melungeon" is obscure. 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 at Newman's Ridge, Vardy Valley, and other settlements in and around Hancock and Hawkins Counties, Tennessee.


Origins

According to 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 ...
'', which Virginia incorporated into law in 1662, children born in the colonies were assigned the social status of their mother regardless of their father's ethnicity or citizenship. That meant the children of enslaved African or
African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
women were born into slavery, but it also meant the children of free white or
mulatto (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...
women, even if they were fathered by enslaved African men, were
born free ''Born Free'' is a 1966 British drama film starring the real-life couple Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers as Joy and George Adamson, another real-life couple who raised Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lion cub, to adulthood, and released her in ...
. The free descendants of such unions formed the majority of the ancestors of the free families of color listed in the 1790 and 1810 censuses. Early
colonial Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...
was very much a "
melting pot The melting pot is a monocultural metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" with a common culture; an alternative being a homogeneous society becoming more heterogeneous throug ...
" of peoples, and before
slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
hardened as a racial caste, white and black
working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
people had often lived and worked in close quarters and formed relationships and marriages. Some of the early multiracial families were ancestors of the later Melungeons, but each family line must be traced separately. Over the generations, most individuals of the group called Melungeon were persons of mixed European and African descent, sometimes also with Native American ancestry, whose ancestors had been free in colonial Virginia. Edward Price's dissertation on ''Mixed-Blood Populations of the Eastern United States as to Origins, Localizations, and Persistence'' (1950) stated that children of European and free black unions had also intermarried with persons of alleged Native American ancestry. In 1894, the
US Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...
, in its "Report of Indians Taxed and Not Taxed," noted that the Melungeons in Hawkins County "claim to be
Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
of mixed blood." The term "Melungeon" has since sometimes been applied as a catch-all phrase for a number of groups of individuals with mixed-race ancestry. In 1995, Paul Heinegg published ''Free African American Families in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware'', and he has since published regular updates. He found through his research and documented that the great majority of
free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...
in the 1790 and 1810 censuses had ancestors from colonial Virginia, who were the children of unions between free white women and free, indentured, or enslaved African or African-American men. Similarly, in 2012, the
genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...
Roberta Estes and her fellow researchers of 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 ...
reported that the Melungeon lines had likely originated in the unions of black and white
indentured servants Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment, ...
living in Virginia in the mid-1600s before slavery became widespread in the United States. They concluded that as laws to prevent the mixing of races were put into place, those family groups intermarried with one another. Creating an
endogamous Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting those from others as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships. Endogamy is common in many cultu ...
group, they migrated together, sometimes along with white neighbors, from western
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 ...
through the Piedmont frontier of
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
, before they settled primarily in the
mountains A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher th ...
of
East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 count ...
.Travis Loller (AP), "'A whole lot of people upset by this study': DNA & the truth about Appalachia’s Melungeons"
''Associated Press'', 8 March 2021, accessed 11 March 2021
In addition, 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 ...
has documented multiracial ancestry, primarily European and African, for numerous people identified as Melungeon, which affirms the evidence from written documentation.


Evidence

Free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...
are documented as migrating with European-American neighbors in the first half of the 18th century to the frontiers of Virginia and
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
, where they received
land grants A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...
like their neighbors. For instance, the Collins, Gibson, and Ridley (Riddle) families owned land adjacent to one another in
Orange County, North Carolina Orange County is a county located in the Piedmont region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 148,696. Its county seat is Hillsborough. Orange County is included in the Durham–Chapel Hill, NC Metrop ...
, where they and the Bunch family were listed in 1755 as "free Molatas (
mulatto (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...
es)" subject to taxation on tithes. By settling in frontier areas, free people of color found more amenable living conditions and could escape some of the racial strictures of Virginia and North Carolina Tidewater
plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
areas. The historian
Jack D. Forbes Jack Douglas Forbes (January 7, 1934 – February 23, 2011) was an American historian, writer, scholar, and political activist, who specialized in Native American issues. He is best known for his role in establishing one of the first Native Ameri ...
has discussed laws in
South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...
related to racial classification:
In 1719, South Carolina decided who should be an "Indian" for tax purposes since American
ndian Ndian is a department of Southwest Region in Cameroon. It is located in the humid tropical rainforest zone about southeast of Yaoundé, the capital. History Ndian division was formed in 1975 from parts of Kumba and Victoria divisions and is ...
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
mustee 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-eth ...
s,
mulatto (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...
es, etc. all such slaves as are not entirely Indian shall be accounted as negro.
Forbes said that at the time, "mustees" and "mulattoes" were terms for persons of partly Native American ancestry. He wrote,
My judgment (to be discussed later) is that a mustee was primarily part-African and American
ndian Ndian is a department of Southwest Region in Cameroon. It is located in the humid tropical rainforest zone about southeast of Yaoundé, the capital. History Ndian division was formed in 1975 from parts of Kumba and Victoria divisions and is ...
and that a mulatto was usually part-European and American
ndian Ndian is a department of Southwest Region in Cameroon. It is located in the humid tropical rainforest zone about southeast of Yaoundé, the capital. History Ndian division was formed in 1975 from parts of Kumba and Victoria divisions and is ...
The act is also significant because it asserts that part-American ndianswith ''or without'' mphasis addedAfrican ancestry could be counted as Negroes, thus having an implication for all later slave censuses.Jack D. Forbes, "The Use of Racial and Ethnic Terms in America: Management by Manipulation", ''Wíčazo Ša Review/The Red Pencil Review'', Fall 1995, Vol. XI No. 2, pp. 55,58-59.
This view does not have a consensus. In about 1767, some of the ancestors of the Melungeons began to reach the frontier New River area, where they are listed in the 1780s on tax lists of
Montgomery County, Virginia Montgomery County is a county located in the Valley and Ridge area of the U.S. state of Virginia. As population in the area increased, Montgomery County was formed in 1777 from Fincastle County, which in turn had been taken from Botetourt Count ...
. From there they migrated south in the Appalachian Range to
Wilkes County, North Carolina Wilkes County is a county located in the US state of North Carolina. It is a part of the state's western mountain region. As of the 2020 census the population was 65,969, in 2010 the census listed the population at 69,340. Its county seat is ...
, where some are listed as "white" on the 1790 census. They resided in a part that became Ashe County, where they are designated as "other free" in 1800. The Collins and Gibson families (identified as Melungeon ancestors) were recorded in 1813 as members of the Stony Creek
Primitive Baptist Primitive Baptists – also known as Hard Shell Baptists, Foot Washing Baptists or Old School Baptists – are conservative Baptists adhering to a degree of Calvinist beliefs who coalesced out of the controversy among Baptists in the early 19th c ...
Church in
Scott County, Virginia Scott County is a county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,576. Its county seat is Gate City. Scott County was formed by an act of the General Assembly on November 24, ...
. 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 that church (see
Etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
below). While there are historical references to the documents, the evidence has come from transcribed copies. From the Virginia and North Carolina frontiers, the families migrated west into frontier Tennessee and
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
. The earliest known Melungeon in what is now northeast Tennessee was Millington Collins, who executed a
deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferring ...
in Hawkins County in 1802. However, there is some evidence that Vardy Collins and Shep Gibson had settled in Hawkins (what is now Hancock County) by 1790. Several Collins and Gibson households were listed in
Floyd County, Kentucky Floyd County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 35,942. Its county seat is Prestonsburg. The county, founded in 1800, is named for Colonel John Floyd (1750–1783). History On Decembe ...
in the
1820 census The United States census of 1820 was the fourth census conducted in the United States. It was conducted on August 7, 1820. The 1820 census included six new states: Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama and Maine. There has been a d ...
, where they were classified as "
free persons of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...
." In the 1830 censuses of Hawkins and neighboring
Grainger County, Tennessee Grainger County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,527. Its county seat is Rutledge. Grainger County is a part of both the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area and Morristown M ...
, the Collins and Gibson families are listed as "free-colored." Melungeons were residents of the part of Hawkins that in 1844 was organized as Hancock County.Hancock County, Tennessee Genealogy
Rootsweb
By 1830, the Melungeon community in Hawkins County numbered 330 people in 55 families. In adjoining Grainger County, there were 130 people in 24 families. According to Edward Price, "Because of them, Hawkins County had more free colored persons in the 1830 census than any other county in Tennessee except
Davidson Davidson may refer to: * Davidson (name) * Clan Davidson, a Highland Scottish clan * Davidson Media Group * Davidson Seamount, undersea mountain southwest of Monterey, California, USA * Tyler Davidson Fountain, monument in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA * ...
(which includes
Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
) and more free colored families named Collins than any other county in the United States." Melungeon families have also been traced in Ashe County, in northwestern North Carolina. Contemporary accounts documented that 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" but almost never as "Indian". One family described as "Indian" was the Ridley (Riddle) family, as was noted on a 1767
Pittsylvania County, Virginia Pittsylvania County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 60,501. Chatham is the county seat. Pittsylvania County is included in the Danville, VA Micropolitan Statistical Ar ...
, tax list. It had been designated as "mulattoes" in an earlier record of 1755. Estes et al., in their 2012 summary of the Melungeon Core DNA Testing Program, stated 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. The court record of ''Jacob Perkins vs. John White'' (1858) in
Johnson County, Tennessee Johnson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, the population was 18,244. Its county seat is Mountain City. It is the state's northeasternmost county, sharing borders with Virginia and North Carolina. ...
, provides definitions of the time related to race and free people of color. As in Virginia, if a free person was mostly white (up to one-eighth black), he was considered legally white and a citizen of the state:
"Persons that are known and recognized by the Constitution and laws of Tennessee, as free persons of color are those who by the act of 1794 section 32 are taken and deemed to be capable in law to be certified in any case what is in, except against each other or in the language of the statute "all Negroes, Indians, Mulattoes, and all persons of mixed blood descended from Negro or Indian ancestors to the third generation inclusive though one ancestor of each generation may have been a white person, white bond or free."... That if the great grandfather of Plaintiff was an Indian or Negro and he is descended on the mother's side from a white woman, without any further Negro or Indian blood than such as he derived on the father's side, then the Plaintiff is not of mix blood, or within the third generation inclusive; in other words that if the Plaintiff has not in his veins more than 1/8 of Negro or Indian blood, he is a citizen of this state and it would be slanderous to call him a Negro."
During the 19th century, their intermarriages with white spouses caused Melungeon-surnamed families to be increasingly classified as white on census records. In 1935, a Nevada newspaper anecdotally described Melungeons as "mulattoes" with "straight hair."


Assimilation

Ariela Gross has shown by analysis of court cases, the shift from perceptions of an individual as "
mulatto (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...
" to "
white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
" was often dependent upon appearance and, especially, community perception of a person's activities in life: who one associated with and whether the person fulfilled the common obligations of citizens. Census takers were generally people of a community and so they classified people racially 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
Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...
and the United States at times during 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, those groups intermarried. Persons were often identified by the company they kept and which ethnic culture they identified with. There were differences between how people identified themselves and how others identified them. Because of slavery, colonial and state laws were biased toward identifying multiracial people of partial African origin as African or "black" although persons of mixed African and Native American descent often identified and lived culturally as Native Americans, particularly if their maternal line was Native American. Many Native American tribes were organized into
matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's Lineage (anthropology), lineage – and which can in ...
kinship systems in which children were considered born into the mother's clan and took their social status from her people. Inheritance and descent was figured through the maternal lines. Because of the loose terminology and social attitudes to mixed-race persons, the remaining non-reservation American Indians in the
Upper South The Upland South and Upper South are two overlapping cultural and geographic subregions in the inland part of the Southern and lower Midwestern United States. They differ from the Deep South and Atlantic coastal plain by terrain, history, econom ...
were generally not recorded separately as Indians. They were often gradually reclassified as mulatto or free people of color, especially as generations intermarried with neighbors of African descent. In the early decades of the 20th century, Virginia and some other states passed laws imposing the
one-drop rule The one-drop rule is a legal principle of racial classification that was prominent in the 20th-century United States. It asserted that any person with even one ancestor of black ancestry ("one drop" of "black blood")Davis, F. James. Frontlin"W ...
, requiring all persons to be classified as either white or black. Those of any known African ancestry were to be classified as black, regardless of their appearance and how they self-identified or were known in the community. After Virginia passed its Racial Integrity Act of 1924, officials went so far as to alter existing birth and marriage records to reclassify as "colored" some mixed-race individuals or families who identified as and had been recorded as "Indian." Those actions destroyed the documented continuity of identity of several Indian communities. The historical documentation of continuity of self-identified Native American families was lost. If the families happened to be
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, their churches continued to record births and marriages as being among "Indian" families, but the process of loss of historical and cultural continuity appeared to have happened also with some of the non-reservation remnant
Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
Indians of
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
.Dr. Louise Heite, "Delaware's Invisible Indians", Heite Consulting, Inc. Website
According to the ''
Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture ''Tennessee Encyclopedia'' is a reference book on the U.S. state of Tennessee that was published in book form in 1998 and has also been available online since 2002. Contents include history, geography, culture, and biography. The original print ed ...
'', in his 1950 dissertation, the cultural geographer Edward Price proposed that Melungeons were families descended from
free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...
, who were of European and African ancestry, and mixed-race unions between persons of African ancestry and Native Americans in
colonial Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...
, whose territory included the modern-day states of Kentucky and West Virginia.


Acceptance

The families known as "Melungeons" in the 19th century were generally well integrated into the communities in which they lived, but they may still have been affected by racism. Records show that on the whole, they enjoyed the same rights as
whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as " ...
. For example, they held property, voted, and served in the army. Some, such as the Gibsons, owned slaves as early as the 18th century. Under the first
Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
constitution of 1796, male free people of color were allowed to vote. After fears had been raised by the 1831
Nat Turner Nat Turner's Rebellion, historically known as the Southampton Insurrection, was a rebellion of enslaved Virginians that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831.Schwarz, Frederic D.1831 Nat Turner's Rebellion" ''American Heri ...
slave rebellion, Virginia, Tennessee, and other southern states passed new restrictions on free people of color. By its new constitution of 1834, Tennessee disfranchised free people of color, reduced them to second-class status, and excluded them from the political system. In thar period, several Melungeon men were tried in Hawkins County in 1846 for "illegal voting" under suspicion of being
black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
or free men of color and thereby ineligible for voting. They were acquitted, presumably by demonstrating to the court's satisfaction that they had no appreciable black ancestry. Standards were not theby as strict as under the 20th-century "one-drop rule" laws. As in some other cases, racial status was chiefly determined by people testifying as to how the men were perceived by the community and whether they had "acted white" by voting, serving in the militia, or undertaking other common citizens' obligations available to white men: After the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
and the
Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...
, southern whites struggled to regain political power and to re-assert white supremacy over
freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), abolitionism, emancipation (gra ...
and traditionally-free families such as the Melungeons. The white
Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...
-dominated state legislatures passed
Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
. However, issues of race were often brought to court as a result of arguments about money. For example, in 1872, a widowed woman's Melungeon ancestry was assessed in a trial in
Hamilton County, Tennessee Hamilton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is located in the southern part of East Tennessee on the border with Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 366,207, making it the fourth-most populous county i ...
. The case was brought by relatives of her late husband, who challenged her inheritance of money from him after his death. They questioned the legitimacy of a marriage between a white man and a woman known to be Melungeon and argued that the marriage was not legitimate because the woman was of black ancestry. Based on the testimony of people in the community, the court decided the woman in the case was not of African ancestry or had no such ancestors recently enough to matter. During the period of segregation, a North Carolina statute barred "Portuguese" people, presumably Melungeons, as North Carolina does not have a large
Portuguese American Portuguese Americans ( pt, português-americanos), also known as Luso-Americans (''luso-americanos''), are citizens and residents of the United States who are connected to the country of Portugal by birth, ancestry, or citizenship. Americans and ...
community, from whites-only schools. However, under that statute the "Portuguese" were not classified as black and were not required to attend black schools. Modern
anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
and
sociological Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...
studies of Melungeon descendants in
Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...
have demonstrated that they have become culturally indistinguishable from their "non-Melungeon" white neighbors by sharing a
Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
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 make their lives in other parts of the United States.


Legends

In spite of being culturally and linguistically similar to their European neighbors, the multi-racial families were of a sufficiently different physical appearance to provoke 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 European Americans (also referred to as Euro-Americans) are Americans of European ancestry. This term includes people who are descended from the first European settlers in the United States as well as people who are descended from more recent Eu ...
neighbors. Local "knowledge" or myths soon began to arise about them. According to the historian Pat Elder, the earliest of those was that they were "
Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...
" (more specifically, "
Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
"). Jack Goins, an identified Melungeon descendant and researcher, states that the Melungeons claimed to be both Indian and
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
. An example was "Spanish Peggy" Gibson, the wife of Vardy Collins. A few ancestors may have been of mixed Iberian (
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
and/or
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
) and African origin. The historian
Ira Berlin Ira Berlin (May 27, 1941 – June 5, 2018) was an American historian, professor of history at the University of Maryland, and former president of Organization of American Historians. Berlin is the author of such books as ''Many Thousands Gone: T ...
has noted that some early slaves and free blacks of the charter generation in the colonies were "
Atlantic Creole Atlantic Creole is a cultural identifier of those with origins in the transatlantic settlement of the Americas via Europe and Africa.Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
intermarried with descendants of Scotch-Irish immigrants who arrived in the mid-to-late 18th century and settled in the backcountry 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 ...
. Given historical evidence of Native American settlement patterns,
Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It ...
descent is highly unlikely for the original Melungeon ancestral families. Those families were formed during the colonial era in the
Virginia Tidewater Tidewater refers to the north Atlantic coastal plain region of the United States of America. Definition Culturally, the Tidewater region usually includes the low-lying plains of southeast Virginia, northeastern North Carolina, southern Mary ...
areas, which were not Cherokee territory. Some of their descendants may have later intermarried with isolated individuals of Cherokee or other Native American ancestry in East Tennessee. Melungeons in
Graysville, Tennessee Graysville is a town in Rhea County, Tennessee, Rhea County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 1,471 at the 2020 census and 1,502 at the 2010 census. History Graysville is named for William Gray, an early settler who was appointed post ...
claimed Cherokee ancestors. The
anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
E. Raymond Evans wrote in 1979 regarding those 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 ...
In 1999, the historian C. S. Everett hypothesized that John Collins (recorded as a Sapony Indian who was expelled from
Orange County, Virginia Orange County is a county located in the Central Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 36,254. Its county seat is Orange. Orange County includes Montpelier, the estate of James Madison, the ...
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 has 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, has any proven connection to the Melungeon families of eastern Tennessee. Other peoples frequently suggested as Melungeon ancestors are the Black Dutch and the Powhatan Indian group. The Powhatan were an Algonquian-speaking tribe who inhabited eastern Virginia during the initial period of
European colonization The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Turks, and the Arabs. Colonialism in the modern sense began ...
. Speculation about Melungeon origins continued during the 19th and the 20th centuries. Writers recounted folk tales of shipwrecked sailors, lost colonists, hoards of silver, and ancient peoples such as the
Carthaginians The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...
, or Phoenicians. With each writer, new elements were added to the mythology surrounding the group, and more surnames were added to the list of possible Melungeon ancestors. The journalist
Will Allen Dromgoole Will Allen Dromgoole (October 26, 1860 – September 1, 1934) was an author and poet born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She wrote over 7,501 poems; 5,000 essays; and published thirteen books. She was renowned beyond the Sou ...
wrote several articles on the Melungeons in the 1890s. In the late 20th century, amateur researchers suggested that the Melungeons' ethnic identity may include ancestors who were
Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic o ...
and
Sephardi Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...
(Iberian) Jews. The writers David Beers Quinn and Ivor Noel Hume theorize that the Melungeons were descended from Sephardi Jews who fled the Inquisition and came as sailors to North America. They also say that
Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 (t ...
did not repatriate all of the Turks he saved from the sack of Cartagena, but some came to the colonies. However, Janet Crain notes that there is no written documentation to support that theory. The paper on 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 ...
, published by Paul Heinegg, Jack Goins, and Roberta Estes in the ''
Journal of Genetic Genealogy A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...
'', shows that ancestry of the sample is primarily European and African, with only one person having a Native American paternal
haplotype A haplotype ( haploid genotype) is a group of alleles in an organism that are inherited together from a single parent. Many organisms contain genetic material ( DNA) which is inherited from two parents. Normally these organisms have their DNA or ...
. There is no genetic evidence to support the Turkish or Jewish ancestry theories.


Etymology

There are many hypotheses about the etymology of the term ''Melungeon''. Linguists and many researchers believe that it may have been derived from the French ''mélange'', meaning mixture, or perhaps '' ousmélangeons'' meaning " emix/mingle". That etymology is also found in several dictionaries. There were numerous
French Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Bez ...
immigrants in Virginia from 1700, and the
French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
could have contributed a term. Joanne Pezzullo and Karlton Douglas speculate that a more likely derivation of ''Melungeon'', related to the dominance of the
English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
in the colonies, may have been from the now obsolete English word ''malengin'' (also spelled ''mal engin'') meaning "guile", "deceit", or "ill intent." It was used by
Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) 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 recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of ...
as the name of a trickster figure in his epic poem, ''
The Faerie Queene ''The Faerie Queene'' is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books IIII were first published in 1590, then republished in 1596 together with books IVVI. ''The Faerie Queene'' is notable for its form: at over 36,000 lines and over 4,000 sta ...
'' (1590–1596), which was popular in
Elizabethan England The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personific ...
. The phrase "harbored them Melungins" could be equivalent to "harbored someone of ill will" or mean "harbored evil people" without reference to any ethnicity. A different explanation traces the word to ''malungu'' (or ''malungo''), a Luso-African word from
Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...
, meaning "shipmate" and derived from the Kimbundu word ''ma'luno'', meaning "companion" or "friend." The word, spelled as ''Melungo'' and ''Mulungo'', has been found in numerous Portuguese records. It is said to be a derogatory word that was used by Africans for people of Portuguese or other white ancestry. If so, the word was likely brought to America through people of African ancestry. Kennedy (1994) speculates that the word derives from the
Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...
''melun can'' (from
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
''mal`un jinn'' ملعون جنّ), which purportedly means "damned soul." He suggests that at the time, that was a term used by Turks for Muslims who had been captured and enslaved aboard Spanish
galleons Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships first used as armed cargo carriers by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries during the age of sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch Wa ...
. Some writers try to connect the term ''Melungeon'' to an ethnic origin of people designated by that term, but there is no basis for that assumption. It appears the name arose as an
exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
, which a neighboring people of whatever origin called the multiracial people. On October 7, 1840, the polemical ''
Brownlow's Whig The ''Whig'' was a polemical American newspaper published and edited by William G. "Parson" Brownlow (1805–1877) in the mid-nineteenth century. As its name implies, the paper's primary purpose was the promotion and defense of Whig Party p ...
'', of
Jonesborough, Tennessee Jonesborough (historically also Jonesboro) is a town in, and the county seat of, Washington County, Tennessee, in the Southeastern United States. Its population was 5,860 as of 2020. It is "Tennessee's oldest town". Jonesborough is part of the J ...
, 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 that and related articles, he does not identify the Democrat by name.


Modern identity

The term ''Melungeon'' was historically considered an insult, a label applied to Appalachians who were by appearance or reputation of
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 ...
ancestry. In southwest Virginia, the term ''Ramp'' was similarly applied to people of mixed race. That term has never shed its pejorative character.Sovine, Melanie L. "The Mysterious Melungeons: a Critique of the Mythical Image." University of KY PHD dissertation, 1982 In December 1943, Virginia State Registrar of Vital Statistics,
Walter Ashby Plecker Walter Ashby Plecker (April 2, 1861 – August 2, 1947) was an American physician and public health advocate who was the first registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital Statistics, serving from 1912 to 1946. He was a leader of the Anglo-Saxon Club ...
, 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 In 1924, the Virginia General Assembly enacted the Racial Integrity Act. The act reinforced racial segregation by prohibiting interracial marriage and classifying as "white" a person "who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian ...
. He identified specific surnames by county, including "Lee, Smyth and Wise: Collins, Gibson, (Gipson), Moore, Goins, Ramsey, Delph, Bunch, Freeman, Mise, Barlow, Bolden (Bolin), Mullins, Hawkins (chiefly Tennessee Melungeons)".Plecker Letter of December 1943
at Virginia Memory, Library of Virginia.
(
Lee County, Virginia Lee County is the westernmost county in the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 22,173. Its county seat is Jonesville. History The area of far western Virginia and eastern Kentucky supported large Archai ...
borders Hancock County, Tennessee.) He directed the offices to reclassify members of certain families as black, which caused the loss for numerous families of documentation in records that showed their continued identification as Native American. Different researchers have developed their own lists of the surnames of core Melungeon families. Generally, specific lines within families have to be traced to document such identity. For example, DeMarce (1992) listed
Hale Hale may refer to: Places Australia *Hale, Northern Territory, a locality *Hale River, in southeastern Northern Territory Canada *Hale, Ontario, in Algoma District United Kingdom * Hale, Cumbria, a hamlet near Beetham, Cumbria *Hale, Greater Man ...
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 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 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. Since the late 1960s, "Melungeon" has been increasingly adopted by individuals who identify with the ethnic group. The shift in meaning may have resulted from the popularity of ''Walk Toward the Sunset'', a drama written by the playwright Kermit Hunter and produced outdoors.Ivey, Saundra K. ''Oral, Printed & Popular Culture Traditions Related to the Melungeons of Hancock County, TN''
Indiana University dissertation, 1976, accessed 18 February 2013
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 Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original 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 revive interest in the history of Melungeons. The civil rights movement and the social changes of the 1960s further contributed to wider acceptance of members of the group. Research in social history and genealogy has documented new facts about people identified as Melungeons. 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 William McGuire Bryson (; born 8 December 1951) is an American–British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has b ...
devoted the better part of a chapter to them in his '' The Lost Continent'' (1989). N. Brent Kennedy, a non-specialist, wrote a book on his claimed Melungeon roots, ''The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People'' (1994). Kennedy's work was controversial. He identified
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
and
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
as Melungeons. He also believed that there were pre-Columbian
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
and
Phoenicians Phoenicia () was an ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient thalassocracy, thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-st ...
/
Carthaginians The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...
in North America but dismissed them as related as he thought that Melungeons do not look Welsh and the time span from any Phoenicians in North America to today, which he calculated at 2500 years, would probably not allowed any of their physical appearance to survive. With the advent of the internet, many people are researching family history and the number of people self-identifying as having Melungeon ancestry has increased rapidly, according to Kennedy. Some individuals have begun to self-identify as Melungeons after they had read about the group on a website and discovered their surname on the expanding list of "Melungeon-associated" surnames. Others believe that they have certain "characteristic" physical traits or conditions or assume that a multiracial heritage means they are Melungeon. For example, some Melungeons are allegedly identifiable by
shovel-shaped incisors Shovel-shaped incisors (or, more simply, shovel incisors) are incisors whose lingual surfaces are scooped as a consequence of lingual marginal ridges, crown curvature or basal tubercles, either alone or in combination. Shovel-shaped incisors are ...
, a dental feature more commonly found among Native Americans and Northeast Asians, but not restricted to these peoples. After an unsubstantiated hypothesis, popularized by N. Brent Kennedy, that Melungeons are of Turkish origin, some people have identified as having an enlarged external occipital protuberance, dubbed an "Anatolian bump". Academic historians have not found any evidence for this thesis, and it is unsupported by results from 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 ...
. As noted before, the analysis shows that Melungeon descendants overwhelmingly have Northern European and African DNA ancestry. Internet sites promote the anecdotal claim that Melungeons are more prone to certain diseases, such as
sarcoidosis Sarcoidosis (also known as ''Besnier-Boeck-Schaumann disease'') is a disease involving abnormal collections of inflammatory cells that form lumps known as granulomata. The disease usually begins in the lungs, skin, or lymph nodes. Less commonly af ...
or
familial Mediterranean fever Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a hereditary inflammatory disorder. FMF is an autoinflammatory disease caused by mutations in Mediterranean fever gene, which encodes a 781–amino acid protein called pyrin. While all ethnic groups are su ...
. Academic medical centers have noted that neither of those diseases is confined to a single population. Kennedy's claims of ancestral connections to that group have been strongly disputed. The professional genealogist and historian Virginia E. DeMarce reviewed his 1994 book and found that Kennedy's documentation of his Melungeon ancestry was seriously flawed. He had a very indistinct definition of Melungeons although the group had been extensively studied and documented by other researchers. She criticized Kennedy for trying to include people who might have had other than Northern European ancestry and said 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. However, she found that his named ancestors were all classified as white in records; held various political offices, which showed that they could vote and were supported by their community; and were landowners. Kennedy responded to her critique in an article of his own. The
Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians The Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians, known as the Ridgetop Shawnee since 2013, descend from southeastern Kentucky's early multiracial settlers of 1790-1870. Their ancestors migrated to the central Appalachian region in the late 18th to mid 19t ...
in Kentucky, which is neither
federally recognized This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...
or state recognized as an Indian tribe, claims that most families in its area who are commonly identified as Melungeon are of partial Native American descent. The organization says their ancestors migrated to the region in the late 18th and the early-to-mid-19th centuries. Most of these families claimed the Ridgetop Shawnee heritage to explain their dark skin and Indian features and to avoid racial persecution. In 2010, the
Kentucky General Assembly The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It comprises the Kentucky Senate and the Kentucky House of Representatives. The General Assembly meets annually in the ...
passed resolutions that acknowledged the civic contributions of the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians to the state.


Similar groups

The following are other
multi-racial 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-eth ...
groups that at one time were classified as tri-racial isolates. Some identify as Native American and have received state recognition, as have six tribes in Virginia. ;Delaware * Nanticoke-Moors (and in
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
)''Delaware's Forgotten Folk – The Story of the Moors and Nanticokes''
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press
Nanticoke groups in Delaware and New Jersey (where they are intermarried with Lenape) have received state recognition. Most had left the area in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. ;Florida *
Dominickers The Dominickers are 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. The ...
of Holmes County in the
Florida Panhandle The Florida Panhandle (also West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida; it is a Salient (geography), salient roughly long and wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia (U. ...
;Indiana * Ben-Ishmael Tribe, pejoratively called "Grasshopper Gypsies" ;Louisiana *
Redbones Redbone is a term historically used in much of the southern United States to denote a multiracial individual or culture. In Louisiana, it also refers to a specific, geographically and ethnically distinct group. Definition The term has had various ...
(and in Texas) ;Maryland *
Piscataway Indian Nation The Piscataway Indian Nation , also called Piscatawa , is a state-recognized tribe in Maryland that is descended from the historic Piscataway people. At the time of European encounter, the Piscataway was one of the most populous and powerful Nat ...
, formerly also known as
We-Sorts We-Sorts (also Wesorts) is a name for a group of Native Americans in Maryland who are from the Piscataway tribe. It is regarded as derogatory and a pejorative by some, and rarely used by the current younger generation. The Piscataway were power ...
, one of three Piscataway-related groups recognized as Native American tribes by the state ;New Jersey and New York *
Ramapough Mountain Indians The Ramapough Lenape Nation is a state-recognized tribe in New Jersey. They were previously named the Ramapough Mountain Indians (also spelled Ramapo), also known as the Ramapough Lenape Nation or Ramapough Lunaape Munsee Delaware Nation. They h ...
(aka "Jackson Whites") of the
Ramapo Mountains The Ramapo Mountains are a forested chain of the Appalachian Mountains in northeastern New Jersey and southeastern New York, in the United States. They range in height from in New Jersey, and in New York. Several parks and forest preserves en ...
, recognized by both New Jersey and New York as Native Americans ;North Carolina *
Coree The Coree (also Connamox, Cores, Corennines, Connamocksocks, Coranine Indians, Neuse River Indians) were a very small Native American tribe, who once occupied a coastal area south of the Neuse River in southeastern North Carolina in the area no ...
or "Faircloth" Indians of Carteret County *
Haliwa-Saponi The Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe, also the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe, is a state-recognized tribe and nonprofit organization in North Carolina. They are not a federally recognized as a Native American tribe. They are headquartered in Hollister, North Ca ...
, recognized by the state as Native American *
Lumbee The Lumbee are a Native American people primarily centered in Robeson, Hoke, Cumberland and Scotland counties in North Carolina. They also live in surrounding states and Baltimore, Maryland. The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is a state-recog ...
, recognized by the state as Native American *
Person County Indians The Sappony are a state-recognized tribe in North Carolina. They claim descent from the historic Saponi people, an Eastern Siouan language-speaking tribe who occupied the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia. They were previously called the ...
, aka "Cubans and Portuguese" ;Ohio *
Carmel Indians The Carmel Indians (pronounced ''Car'-mul'') are a group of Melungeons who moved from Magoffin County, Kentucky and lived in Highland County in Ohio. Bryson Gibson and Valentine Collins are ancestors to most of the group. Paternal line descenda ...
of Highland County ;South Carolina *
Red Bones Redbone is a term historically used in much of the southern United States to denote a multiracial individual or culture. In Louisiana, it also refers to a specific, geographically and ethnically distinct group. Definition The term has had various ...
(NB: distinct from the Gulf States
Redbones Redbone is a term historically used in much of the southern United States to denote a multiracial individual or culture. In Louisiana, it also refers to a specific, geographically and ethnically distinct group. Definition The term has had various ...
) *
Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic o ...
*
Brass Ankles The Brass Ankles of South Carolina, also referred to as Croatan, lived in the swamp areas of Goose Creek, SC and Holly Hill, SC (Crane Pond) in order to escape the harshness of racism and the Indian Removal Act. African slaves and European inden ...
;Virginia * Monacan Indians (a.k.a. "Issues") of Amherst and Rockbridge counties, recognized by state of Virginia and the federal government (2018) as a Native American tribe, along with five other Virginia tribes ;West Virginia *
Chestnut Ridge people The Chestnut Ridge people (CRP) are a mixed-race community concentrated in an area northeast of Philippi, Barbour County in north-central West Virginia, with smaller related communities in the adjacent counties of Harrison and Taylor. They are of ...
of Barbour County (also known as Mayles or, pejoratively, "Guineas") Each of these groupings of multiracial populations has a particular history. There is evidence for connections between some of them, going back to common ancestry in colonial Virginia. For example, the Goins surname group in eastern Tennessee has long been identified as Melungeon. The surname Goins is also found among the
Lumbee The Lumbee are a Native American people primarily centered in Robeson, Hoke, Cumberland and Scotland counties in North Carolina. They also live in surrounding states and Baltimore, Maryland. The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is a state-recog ...
of southern North Carolina, a multi-racial group that has been recognized by the state as a Native American tribe. In most cases, the multi-racial families have to be traced through specific branches and lines, as not all descendants were considered to be Melungeon or other groups.


See also

*
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 ...
* List of topics related to the African diaspora *
Vardy Community School The Vardy Community School was a Presbyterian mission school established in the Vardy community of Hancock County, Tennessee, United States, in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. At the time of its founding, the school was the only instituti ...
*
Mulatto (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...
*
Pardo ''Pardos'' (feminine ''pardas'') is a term used in the former Portuguese and Spanish colonies in the Americas to refer to the triracial descendants of Southern Europeans, Amerindians and West Africans. In some places they were defined as ne ...


References


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 * DeMarce, Virginia E. (1993)
"Looking at Legends – Lumbee and Melungeon: Applied Genealogy and the Origins of Tri-Racial Isolate Settlements." ''National Genealogical Society Quarterly'' 81 (March 1993):
24–45, scanned online, Historical-Melungeons * Forbes, Jack D. (1993). ''Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples''. University of Illinois Press. * Goins, Jack H. (2000). ''Melungeons: And Other Pioneer Families'', Blountville, Tennessee: Continuity Press. * 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. * 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. * 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 (1997). " The Melungeons"
''All Things Considered''. National Public Radio. 21 September 1997.


External links

* 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-
PDF
addresses issue of 2002 Melungeon DNA study by Kevin Jones, which is unpublished
Melungeon Heritage Association
Official Website
"The Graysville Melungeons"
''Tennessee Anthropologist'', November 1979, hosted at Rootsweb
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
From Louis Gates Jr's "Finding your Roots."
"kindness our heroine shows Melungeon outcast Pearl (Erika Coleman)"
from AC-T review of Big-Stone-Gap film. Accessed 6/8/2016 {{Authority control Multiracial ethnic groups in the United States Pre-emancipation African-American history Society of Appalachia Ethnic groups in Appalachia History of North Carolina History of Tennessee History of Virginia Scotch-Irish American history Multiracial affairs in the United States