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Melungeon

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Melungeons
Arch Goins and family, Melungeons from Graysville, Tennessee. Photo from the 1920s.
Regions with significant populations
Cumberland Gap and surrounding counties, eastern United States
Languages
English
Religion
Predominantly Baptist
Related ethnic groups
Redbones

Melungeon (mɛlʌndʒʌn) is a term traditionally applied to one of a number of "tri-racial isolate" groups of the Southeastern United States, mainly in the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia: east Tennessee, southwest Virginia, and east Kentucky. Tri-racial describes populations thought to be of mixed (1) European, (2) sub-Saharan African, and (3) Native American ancestry. [1] Although there is no consensus on how many such groups exist, estimates range as high as 200. [2] [3] Some self-identifying Melungeons dislike the term tri-racial isolate, believing that it has pejorative connotations. Until the late 20th century, some considered the term Melungeon to be pejorative.

Definition

The ancestry and identity of Melungeons are highly controversial subjects. There is wide disagreement among secondary sources as to their ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and geographic origins and identity. Whether Melungeons constitute a specific race or ethnicity at all is debatable. They might more accurately be described as a loose collection of families of diverse origins who migrated and intermarried with one another. Melungeon is a category on the U.S. census, tabulated under "SOME OTHER RACE 600-999". In the 2000 Census, Melungeon was category 662, but the number varies from census to census.[4]

Melungeons are defined as having racially mixed ancestry, thus do not exhibit characteristics which can be classified incontrovertibly as being of a single racial phenotype. Most modern-day descendants of Appalachian families traditionally regarded as Melungeon are generally Caucasian in appearance, often, though not always, with dark hair and eyes, and a swarthy or olive complexion. Descriptions of Melungeons vary widely from observer to observer, from "Middle Eastern" to "Native American" to "light-skinned African American."[5]

A major factor in the wide variation in descriptions is the lack of a clear consensus on exactly who should be included under the term Melungeon. Almost every author on this subject gives a slightly different list of Melungeon-associated surnames, but the British surnames Collins and Gibson appear most frequently (genealogist Pat Elder calls them "core" surnames). Many researchers also include Bowling, Bunch, Goins, Goodman, Minor, Mise, Mullins, Wise, and several others (although not all families with these surnames are Melungeon). Not all of these families were necessarily of the same racial background, and each line must be examined individually. Ultimately, the answer to the question "Who or what are Melungeons?" depends largely on which families are included under that designation.

The original meaning of the word "Melungeon" is obscure (see Etymology below). From about the mid-19th to the late 20th centuries, it referred exclusively to one tri-racial isolate group, the descendants of the multiracial Collins, Gibson, and a few other related families of Newman's Ridge, Vardy Valley and other settlements in and around Hancock County, Tennessee. Some researchers limited application of the term further to the descendants of two early 19th century settlers of that area, Vardy Collins and his brother-in-law Shepherd Gibson. Recently, however, some researchers have begun to use Melungeon to mean almost all traditionally recognized tri-racial isolate groups of the Eastern United States.

Origins

A common belief about the Melungeons of east Tennessee is that they are an indigenous people of Appalachia, existing there before the arrival of the first white settlers. But genealogists working in the late 20th century have documented, through a range of tax, court, census and other colonial, late 18th and early 19th century records, that the ancestors of the Melungeons migrated into the region from Virginia and Kentucky as did their English, Scots-Irish, and German neighbors.[6]

The likely background to the mixed-race families later to be called "Melungeons" was the emergence in the Chesapeake Bay region in the 17th century of what historian Ira Berlin (1998) calls "Atlantic Creoles." These were freed slaves and indentured servants of European, West African, and Native American ancestry (and not just North American, but also Caribbean, Central and South American Indian: see Forbes (1993)). Some of these "Atlantic Creoles" were culturally what today might be called "Hispanic" or "Latino", bearing names such as "Chavez," "Rodriguez," and "Francisco." Many of them intermarried with their English neighbors, adopted English surnames, and even owned slaves. Early Colonial America was very much a "melting pot" of peoples, but not all of these early multiracial families were necessarily ancestral to the later Melungeons.

"The historical and anthropological evidence ... suggests that in general a significant portion (though not necessarily all) of the ancestry of the Magoffin County, Kentucky, and Highland County, Ohio, enclaves originated principally from an admixture of African Americans and Whites in the early colonial period (from the late 1600s until about 1800) and secondarily from an admixture with presently unknown Native American groups in the mid-Atlantic coast region."[7]

Historian Dr. Virginia E. DeMarce and genealogist Paul Heinegg, as well as Melungeon descendant Jack Goins, have traced the "core" Gibson and Collins families back to Louisa County, Virginia in the early 1700s. [8] [9][10] Those families were of mixed European, Saponi Indian, Later some of the family members may have married into Black families after leaving Louisa county VA and they were identified as "mulattos" and Indian in subsequent records, according to the classifications of the times (during the 1700 and 1800's there was no classification for native american so they was listed as either mullatto or free person of color). The Gibson family can be traced back even further to Charles City County, Virginia in the late 1600s. Reference: http://www.angelfire.com/wv2/dillon1944/old_thomas_collins_of_flatt_river.htm

Photos of these Collins descendants: http://www.saponitown.com/images/collin2.jpg http://www.saponitown.com/images/collins.jpg

And here is reference source right to Jack Goins himself: http://www.jgoins.com/old_thomas_collins.htm


According to genealogist Paul Heinegg, the Gibson family probably derived from Elizabeth Chavis and her partner, whose descendants were called "mulattos" and "negros." [11] The Chavis family was an early and large mixed-race family in several Eastern Virginia and North Carolina counties. Today, Chavis and its variants is one of the most widespread of the surnames associated with "tri-racial isolate" groups in the Eastern U.S., though it is not a typical Melungeon surname. Some researchers believe the surname was originally Chavez, but in the 1940s Brewton Berry claimed it was derived from Chavers or Shavers.[12]

Those families migrated in the first half of the 18th century from Virginia to North and South Carolina. The Collins, Gibson, and Ridley (Riddle) families owned land adjacent to one another in Orange County, North Carolina, where they and the Bunch family were "free Molatas (mulattos)" taxable on tithes in 1755. By settling in frontier areas, free people of color found more amenable living conditions and could escape some of the racial strictures of plantation areas. [13], [14]

Beginning about 1767, the ancestors of the Melungeons moved northwest to the New River area of Virginia, where they are listed on tax lists of Montgomery County, Virginia, in the 1780s.[15] From there they migrated south in the Appalachian Range to Wilkes County, North Carolina, where they are listed as "white" on the 1790 census. [16] They resided in a part of that county which became Ashe County, where they are designated as "other free" in 1800. [17]

Not long after, Melungeon Collins and Gibson families were members of Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church in nearby Scott County, Virginia, where they appear to have been treated as social equals of the white members. The earliest documented use of the term "Melungeon" is found in the minutes of this church (see Etymology below). [18]

From Virginia and North Carolina the families crossed into Kentucky and Tennessee. The earliest known Melungeon in Northeast Tennessee was Millington Collins, who executed a deed in Hawkins County in 1802.

Several Collins and Gibson households appear in Floyd County, Kentucky, in 1820, when they are listed as "free persons of color". [19] On the 1830 censuses of Hawkins and Grainger County, Tennessee, Melungeon families are listed as "free-colored." [20], [21] Melungeons were residents of the part of Hawkins that became Hancock County in 1844. [22]

Although ancestors of Melungeons migrated alongside the early European settlers of Appalachia, contemporary accounts documented that by appearance they were considered to be mixed race. During the the 18th and early 19th centuries, census enumerators designated them as "mulatto," "other free," or as "free persons of color." Sometimes they were listed as "white," sometimes as "black" or "negro", but almost never as "Indian." One family described as "Indian" was the Melungeon-related Ridley family, listed as such on a 1767 Pittsylvania County, Virginia, tax list,[23] though they had been designated "mulattos" in 1755. [24] During the 19th century, the Melungeon families begin to be classified as white on census records with increasing frequency, a trend that has continued to the present [25]. As recently as 1935, however, some members were described as "mulattoes" with "straight hair." [26]

The independent Melungeon researcher Kennedy (1994) characterized the gradual change of classification of Melungeons from a "mulatto" to a "white" population as an "ethnic cleansing." But the historical evidence thoroughly documents that these families created their own assimilation as whites through voluntary intermarriage with whites, leading to an increasingly lighter appearance among descendants.

A second important factor in the shift from "mulatto" to "white" was that definitions of the racial categories were often imprecise and ambiguous, especially for "mulatto" and "free person of color." In the British North American colonies and the United States at various times in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, "mulatto" could mean a mixture of African and European, African and Native American, European and Native American, or all three, as documented by historian Jack D. Forbes (1993). That loose terminology could sometimes lead to wholesale reclassifications of indigenous peoples, as in the case of the Indians of Delaware.[27]

The families known as "Melungeons" in the 19th century were generally well integrated into the communities in which they lived, though this is not to say that racism was never a factor in their social interactions. Records show that on the whole they enjoyed the same rights as whites. For example, they held property, voted, and served in the Army; some, such as the Gibsons, even owned slaves in the 18th century. [28]

On the other hand, several Melungeon men were tried in Hawkins County, Tennessee, in 1846 for "illegal voting." They were acquitted, presumably by demonstrating to the court's satisfaction that they had no African ancestry. Melungeon ancestry was questioned again in an 1872 trial in Hamilton County, Tennessee. This case questioned the legitimacy of a marriage between a white man and a Melungeon woman. Once again a court decided that the Melungeons were not of African ancestry. [29]

Modern anthropological and sociological studies of Melungeon descendants in Appalachia have demonstrated that they are culturally indistinguishable from their "non-Melungeon" white neighbors, and share their Baptist religious affiliation and other features. Some descendants of the early Melungeon pioneer families have migrated from Appalachia. Today, people in other parts of the United States may claim this ancestry. Notable Melungeons include U-2 pilot Gary Powers.[30]

Legends

In spite of being culturally and linguistically identical to their white neighbors, these multiracial families were of a sufficiently different physical appearance to invite speculation as to their identity and origins. Sometime during the first half of the 19th century, the pejorative term "Melungeon" began to be applied to these families, thus effectively creating an ethnic group that did not previously exist. It would therefore be anachronistic to speak of "Melungeons" prior to that period. Local traditions soon began to arise about this "people" who lived in the hills of Eastern Tennessee. According to Pat Elder, the earliest of these was that they were "Indian" (often specifically "Cherokee"). Melungeon descendant Jack Goins states, however, that the Melungeons themselves claimed to be both Indian and "Portuguese." One early Melungeon was called "Spanish" ("Spanish Peggy" Gibson, wife of Vardy Collins).

Despite the scant evidence, Iberian (Spanish and/or Portuguese) and Native American ancestry are both possible, given the history of multiracial families in the Melungeons' time and place of origin (late 17th century-early 18th century Eastern Virginia). However, claims about such ancestry made by Melungeon descendants in the 19th century or later should not necessarily be taken at face value. Many Southern families with multiracial ancestry have claimed Portuguese and/or American Indian (specifically Cherokee) ancestry as a strategy for denying any African ancestry.

Although the available historical evidence makes a specific tribal origin such as Cherokee highly unlikely for the original Melungeon families, some of their descendants may have later intermarried with families of Cherokee ancestry in East Tennessee. Anthropologist E. Raymond Evans (1979), regarding the Cherokee claims of the Melungeons of Graysville, Tennessee, writes:

"In Graysville, the Melungeons strongly deny their Black heritage and explain their genetic differences by claiming to have had Cherokee grandmothers. Many of the local whites also claim Cherokee ancestry and appear to accept the Melungeon claim...." [31]

A much more recent claim of a specific tribal origin for Melungeons is Saponi, an early Virginia Siouan tribe. Elder (1999) suggested that the Saponi and other tribes who resided for a time at Fort Christanna in Virginia may have been a component of Melungeon ancestry. Historian C. S. Everett initially hypothesized that John Collins the Sapony Indian, who was expelled from Orange County, Virginia, about January 1743 for firing at a white planter, might be the same man as the Melungeon ancestor John Collins, called a "mulatto" in 1755 North Carolina.

But Everett has revised that theory, when discovering evidence that these were two different men named John Collins. Only the latter man, identified as mulatto in the 1755 record in North Carolina, has any proven connection to the Melungeons. [32] Descendants of Thomas Collins say their family story is that they were descended from a Saponi Indian. According to their family accounts, ancestors lived "as Indians" in Virginia in Louisa County, which is also consistent with people choosing to identify as Indians. In later government records, some members were noted as Indians.[citation needed]

Another source frequently suggested for Melungeon ancestry is Powhatan, a group of tribes inhabiting Eastern Virginia when the English arrived. During the 19th and 20th centuries, speculation on Melungeon origins continued, producing tales of shipwrecked sailors, lost colonists, hoards of silver, and ancient peoples such as the Carthaginians. With each author, more elements were added to the mythology surrounding this group, and more peoples were added to the list of possible Melungeon ancestors. The most influential of these early authors was probably Will Allen Dromgoole, who wrote several articles on the Melungeons in the 1890s. [33]

More recent suggestions by amateur researchers as to the Melungeons' ethnic identity include Gypsy, Turkish, and Jewish. There is no evidence that Melungeons themselves ever claimed any of those ancestries. Nor does any creditable historical evidence exist to support such theories. There is ample evidence from the research of David Beers Quinn and Ivor Noel Hume that all the Turks rescued by Drake in the sack of Cartagena were repatriated to their homeland.

A casual reader of Internet sources on this group might be left with the impression that there exists in the hills of East Tennessee an enclave of people, probably of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern origin, who have been in the area since before the arrival of the first white settlers. Such romantic fictions find no support among academic historians and genealogists, however. Historian Dr. Virginia E. DeMarce, former president of the National Genealogical Society, and author of several articles on the Melungeons, said in a 1997 interview: "It's not that mysterious once you...do the nitty gritty research one family at a time...basically the answer to the question of where did Tennessee's mysterious Melungeons come from is three words. And the three words are Louisa County, Virginia."[34]

Etymology

There are many hypotheses about the etymology of the term "Melungeon". Kennedy (1994) speculates that it derives from the Turkish melun can (from Arabic "mal`un jinn" ملعون جنّ) which means "damned soul". Another theory traces the word to malungu, a Luso-African root from Angola meaning "shipmate." [35] One theory, long favored by linguists and many researchers on the topic and found in several dictionaries, is that the name derives from the French mélange, or mixture. An underlying assumption in many suggested etymologies seems to be that "Melungeon" and the people designated by that term have a common origin. For example, Kennedy believes this group to be at least partly of Turkish origin; thus, for him, their name must also be Turkish.

The earliest known written use of the word "Melungeon" is in an 1813 Scott County, Virginia Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church record:

"Then came forward Sister Kitchen and complained to the church against Susanna Stallard for saying she harbored them Melungins. Sister Sook said she was hurt with her for believing her child and not believing her, and she won't talk to her to get satisfaction, and both is 'pigedish', one against the other. Sister Sook lays it down and the church forgives her."

The usage of this word in the minutes without definition suggests it was a word familiar to the congregation. It appears at first glance to refer to a group of people: this is how Goins (2000) and others read it. However, such a reading seems at odds with the fact that several Melungeons were at the time members of the church, namely Thomas and Charles Gibson and Valentine Collins. Also, there is no record of any group called "Melungeons" prior to this time.

A more likely derivation for "Melungeon" could be from the now obsolete English word "malengin" (also spelled "mal engine") meaning "guile," "deceit," or "ill intent," and used as the name of a trickster figure by Edmund Spenser in his epic poem The Faerie Queene. [36] Thus, the phrase "harbored them Melungins" would be equivalent to "harbored someone ill will," or could mean "harbored evil people" without reference to ethnicity. Judging by these church minutes, then, it appears that the families who would later be called "Melungeons" in Tennessee were not yet known by that term in 1813 Virginia. [37]

By 1840 "Melungeon" had apparently become a racial pejorative, at least in Tennessee: a Jonesborough, Tennessee, newspaper article of that year entitled "Negro Speaking!" refers to a competing politician in derogatory fashion first as "an impudent Malungeon from Washington Cty, a scoundrel who is half Negro and half Indian," then as a "free negroe". [38] Since Washington County borders Hawkins, the term "Melungeon" was presumably already associated by that time with Northeast Tennessee. However, it is unclear whether the word referred to a specific set of families or was just a generic label for a certain category of African American. The article does not provide the politician's name, but the 1830 census for Washington County, Tennessee lists the names of several free colored families, including several surnamed Hale. [39] DeMarce (1992) listed Hale as a Melungeon surname, but Elder (1999) found no evidence that they were connected to the core Collins and Gibson families. By the mid-to-late 19th century, at least, the term appeared to refer specifically to the multiracial families of Hancock County and neighboring areas.

There seems to be no written evidence to demonstrate the process whereby a word meaning "ill will" in 1813 had come to mean a "half Negro ... half Indian" or "free negroe" by 1840. Even today, though, some people in Eastern Tennessee still use the term to mean something like "boogeyman," suggesting a possible intermediate stage.

Several other uses of the term from mid-19th to early 20th century print media have been collected at this website.[40]. As can be seen, the spelling of the term varied somewhat from author to author, until eventually the form "Melungeon" became standard.

Modern identity

The term "Melungeon" was traditionally considered an insult, a label applied to Appalachian whites who were by appearance or reputation of mixed-race ancestry, though who were not clearly either "black" or "Indian". In Southwest Virginia, the roughly synonymous term "Ramp" was also used, though this term has never shed its pejorative character.[41]

Thanks to a play of the late 1960s, however, "Melungeon" began to lose this negative connotation and become a self-applied designation of ethnicity. This shift in meaning was probably due to playwright Kermit Hunter's outdoor drama Walk Toward the Sunset.[42] This play about Melungeons was first presented in 1969 in Sneedville, Tennessee, the county seat of Hancock County. Making no claim to historical accuracy, Hunter portrayed the Melungeons as indigenous people of uncertain race who were mistakenly perceived as black by the white settlers. Thanks to the increased interest in Melungeon history that this drama sparked, as well as its painting of Melungeons in a positive, even romantic, light, many individuals began for the first time to self-identify as Melungeons. The purpose of the drama was "to improve the socio-economic climate" of Hancock County, and to "lift the Melungeon name 'from shame to the hall of fame'".[43] The increasing acceptance of minority groups by Americans in the wake of the social changes of the 1960s was likely also a factor in this shift.

Interest in the Melungeons has grown tremendously since the mid-1990s due to their being featured in a chapter of Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent and N. Brent Kennedy's popular book on his claimed Melungeon roots, The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People. In addition, the Internet has provided access to numerous websites devoted to the "mysterious" Melungeons. Together with this growth in interest, and perhaps because of it, the number of individuals claiming Melungeon heritage has vastly increased.[citation needed] Many newly self-identifying Melungeons have no demonstrable connections to families who have been historically known by that term, and often they had been completely unaware of either the term or the group until learning about them on the Internet.

Some individuals begin to self-identity as Melungeons only after reading about the group on a website and discovering his or her surname on an ever-growing list of "Melungeon-associated" surnames. Alternatively, one may discover he has certain physical traits or conditions purportedly indicative of such ancestry.[44] For example, Melungeons are allegedly identifiable by "shovelled incisors," a dental feature very common among, but not restricted to, Native Americans and Northeast Asians. [45] A second feature attributed to Melungeons is an enlarged external occipital protuberance, dubbed an "Anatolian bump" after the unsubstantiated claim that this feature appears among Anatolian Turks with higher frequency than in other populations. This latter notion stems from the hypothesis, popularized by N. Brent Kennedy, that Melungeons are of Turkish origin.

Another claim found often on the Internet is that Melungeons are more prone to certain diseases, such as sarcoidosis or familial Mediterranean fever, although neither of those diseases is confined to a single population.[46] [47] The "disease" claim originated with N. Brent Kennedy, who began his quest into Melungeon origins after he was diagnosed with sarcoidosis. His own ancestral connections to this group are a matter of debate. In her review of his 1994 book, genealogist Dr. Virginia E. DeMarce found that Kennedy's attempted documentation of his Melungeon ancestry was seriously flawed and did not properly take account of existing historical records or genealogical practice.[48]. Kennedy responded to her critique in this article.[49]. Claims that certain physical traits and conditions are more prevalent among Melungeon families still rest on anecdotal evidence, however, and are not yet supported by any scientific research.

DNA testing

At the suggestion of N. Brent Kennedy, a DNA study on Melungeons was carried out in 2000 by Dr. Kevin Jones, using 130 hair and cheek cell samples. These samples were taken from subjects who were largely chosen by Kennedy himself as representative of Melungeon lines. McGowan (2003) described Dr Jones' discovery of the political aspects of genetic research when the results of the study caused disappointment among some observers. "...Jones concluded that the Melungeons are mostly Eurasian, a catchall category spanning people from Scandinavia to the Middle East. They are also a little bit black and a little bit American Indian."[50] This study has to date not been submitted to a peer-reviewed scientific journal, nor has a list of those contributing samples been published. It is unclear to what extent the subjects were actually descendants of families historically designated or since documented as "Melungeon."

More recently, Jack Goins has started a Melungeon DNA Project, with the goal of studying the ancestry of hypothesized Melungeon lines. So far, Y chromosomal DNA testing of male subjects with the Melungeon surnames Collins, Gibson, Gill, Goins, Bunch, Bolin, Goodman, Stowers, Williams, Minor and Moore has revealed evidence of European and sub-Saharan African ancestry: Y haplogroups R1b, R1a, J2; and E3a, respectively.[51][52] This finding is consistent with the documentation and research by Paul Heinegg and Dr. Virginia DeMarce.[53] One Goins line looks likely to be a variety of Y haplogroup L with roots in Portugal, Spain and Italy.[54] Taken as a whole, such findings appear to verify the early designation of Melungeon ancestors as "mulattos", that is, descendants of white Europeans and Africans.

Similar groups

Other so-called "tri-racial isolate" populations include the:

Each of these groupings of mixed-race populations has a particular history, and there is evidence for connections between some of them. The Goins group has long been identified as Melungeons by people from the rest of Tennessee, and the surname Goins is also found among the Lumbees.

Sociologist Brewton Berry (1963) used the term "Mestizo" for these groups, but that alternative has not been generally adopted.

In his Foreword to the section on Virginia, North, and South Carolina in Heinegg's work on free African Americans, historian Ira Berlin sums up the history of such groups thus:

"Heinegg's genealogical excavations reveal that many free people of color passed as whites--sometimes by choosing ever lighter spouses over succeeding generations. Even more commonly, they claimed Indian ancestry. Some free people of color invented tribal designations out of whole cloth. Here Heinegg, entering into an area of considerable controversy, explodes what he declares the 'fantastic' claims of many so-called tri-racial isolates." [55]

References

  1. ^ Melungeon Heritage Association
  2. ^ William Harlan Gilbert, Jr., "Surviving Indian Groups of the Eastern United States", Report to the Board of Regents of The Smithsonian Institution, 1948
  3. ^ Donald B. Ball and John S. Kessler, "North from the Mountains: The Carmel Melungeons of Ohio", Paper presented at Melungeon Heritage Association Third Union, 20 May 2000 at University of VA's College at Wise, Virginia Accessed 14 Mar 2008
  4. ^ US Census, Appendix G, Code List
  5. ^ Shirley Price, "The Melungeons Are Coming Out in the Open", Kingsport Times-News, 28 Jan 1968, accessed 9 Apr 2008
  6. ^ see Demarce, Heinegg
  7. ^ Donald B. Ball and John S. Kessler, "North from the Mountains: The Carmel Melungeons of Ohio", Paper presented at Melungeon Heritage Association Third Union, 20 May 2000 at University of VA's College at Wise, Virginia, Accessed 14 Mar 2008
  8. ^ Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans in Colonial Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, Church and Cotanch Families
  9. ^ Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans, op.cit., Gibson and Gowen Families
  10. ^ Jack Goins, "Definition of the Melungeons"
  11. ^ Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans, op.cit., Chavis Family
  12. ^ Brewton Berry. The Mestizos of South Carolina, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 51, No. 1 (Jul., 1945), pp. 34-41
  13. ^ Orange Co, NC - Census - Early Tax Records, 1755-1779
  14. ^ Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans, op.cit., Church and Cotanch Families
  15. ^ Tax List of Montgomery County, Virginia, accessed 14 Mar 2008
  16. ^ 1790 Federal Census for Wilkes County, North Carolina, accessed 14 Mar 2008
  17. ^ 1800 Census - Ashe County, NC, accessed 14 Mar 2008
  18. ^ Stony Creek Baptist Church Minute Books
  19. ^ 1820 Census - Floyd Co, KY
  20. ^ 1830 Census - Hawkins Co, TN
  21. ^ 1830 Census - Grainger Co, TN
  22. ^ Hancock County, Tennessee Genealogy
  23. ^ Pittsylvania Co, VA Tax List, 1767
  24. ^ Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans, op.cit., Pettiford and Ridley Families
  25. ^ Census, Hancock Co, TN
  26. ^ Nevada State Journal, 10 Nov 1935, p.6
  27. ^ Dr. Louise Heite, "Delaware's Invisible Indians"
  28. ^ Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans, op.cit., Gibson and Gowen Families
  29. ^ Jack Goins, Hamilton County, Tennessee Court Case Research, (selected transcripts)
  30. ^ Sergei N. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower, State College: Penn State Press, 2000, p. 377.
  31. ^ Melungeon Heritage Association Website
  32. ^ Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans, op.cit., Church and Cotanch Families
  33. ^ Melungeon Heritage Association Website
  34. ^ "Melungeons", National Public Radio
  35. ^ Tim Hashaw, "Malungu: The African Origin of the American Melungeons", Eclectica Magazine, Jul/Aug 2001
  36. ^ Joanne Pezzullo and Karlton Douglas, "Melungeon or Malengin?"
  37. ^ Stony Creek Baptist Church Minute Books
  38. ^ Melungeon Heritage Association Website
  39. ^ 1830 Census, Washington County, Tennessee
  40. ^ Melungeon Heritage Association Website
  41. ^ Sovine, Melanie L. "The mysterious Melungeons: a critique of the mythical image." U. KY dissertation, 1982.
  42. ^ Ivey, Saundra K. "Oral, Printed & Popular Culture Traditions Related to the Melungeons of Hancock County, TN." Indiana U. dissertation, 1976; [1]
  43. ^ Shirley Price, "The Melungeons Are Coming Out in the Open", Kingsport Times-News, 28 Jan 1968, accessed 9 Apr 2008
  44. ^ Melungeon Forum, Genealogy.com Website
  45. ^ Yuji Mizoguchi, Shovelling: A Statistical Analysis of Its Morphology, U. of Tokyo, Bulletin No.26, Feb 1985
  46. ^ University of Maryland Medical Center Website
  47. ^ Learning About Familial Mediterranean Fever, National Human Genome Research Institute
  48. ^ Dr. Virginia, E. DeMarce, Review Essay: The Melungeons, National Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. 84, No. 2, June 1996, pp.134-149
  49. ^ Dr. Brent Kennedy Responds to Virginia DeMarce, Southeastern Kentucky Melungeon Information Exchange
  50. ^ Kathleen McGowan, Where Do We Come From?, Discovery, 1 May 2003, accessed 14 Mar 2008
  51. ^ Family Tree DNA Website
  52. ^ Melungeon DNA Project: Y DNA Results
  53. ^ see Demarce, Heinegg
  54. ^ Melungeon DNA Project: Y DNA Results
  55. ^ Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans, op.cit., Foreword, accessed 5 May 2006

Bibliography

  • Ball, Bonnie (1992). The Melungeons (Notes on the Origin of a Race). Johnson City, Tennessee: Overmountain Press.
  • Berlin, Ira (1998). Many Thousands Gone : The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University 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.
  • Bryson, Bill. (1989). The Lost Continent : Travels in Small Town America.
  • DeMarce, Virginia E. (1992). "Verry Slitly Mixt': Tri-Racial Isolate Families of the Upper South - A Genealogical Study." National Genealogical Society Quarterly 80 (March 1992): 5-35.
  • 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.
  • DeMarce, Virginia E. (1996). Review of The Melungeons: Resurrection of a Proud People. National Genealogical Society Quarterly 84 (June 1996): 134-149.
  • Dromgoole, Will Allen (1890). "Land of the Malungeons" Nashville Daily American, newspaper, writing under the name Will Allen, August 31, 1890: 10. Article available at: [2]
  • Elder, Pat Spurlock (1999). Melungeons: Examining an Appalachian Legend. Blountville, Tennessee: Continuity Press.
  • Evans, E. Raymond (1979). "The Graysville Melungeons: A Tri-racial People in Lower East Tennessee." Tennessee Anthropologist IV(1): 1-31.
  • Everett, Christopher (1998). "Melungeon Historical Realities: Reexamining a Mythopoeia of the Southern United States". Conference paper, Conference on Innovative Perspectives in History. Blacksburg, Virginia: Graduate Program, Department of History, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, April 17-18, 1998.
  • 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.
  • 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. Available in its entirety online at freeafricanamericans.com
  • Johnson, Mattie Ruth (1997). My Melungeon Heritage: A Story of Life on Newman’s Ridge. Johnson City, Tennessee: Overmountain Press.
  • Kennedy, N. Brent, with Robyn Vaughan Kennedy (1994). The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People. Macon, Georgia: 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). Available at [3]
  • Offutt, Chris. (1999) "Melungeons." Out of the Woods Simon & Schuester.
  • Price, Edward T. (1953). "A Geographic Analysis of White-Negro-Indian Racial Mixtures in Eastern United States." The Association of American Geographers. Annals 43 (June 1953): 138-155. [4]
  • 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.
  • 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 (2004). "Walking Toward the Sunset: The Melungeons of Appalachia." Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. [5]
  • Winkler, Wayne (1997). "The Melungeons." All Things Considered. National Public Radio. 21 Sept. 1997.

See also

External links

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