Jump to content

Carmel Melungeons

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Carmel Indians)

Carmel Melungeons
Carmel, Ohio
Carmel, Ohio, namesake of the Carmelites
Regions with significant populations
Carmel, Ohio (Highland County)150 (1947)
Magoffin County, Kentucky200 (1950)
Languages
English
Religion
Christianity, Holiness movement[1]
Related ethnic groups
Melungeons, Lumbee, Beaver Creek Indians, Redbones, Free people of color, Haliwa-Saponi, Wesorts, Chestnut Ridge people, Brass Ankles, Free Blacks
Population data from Price (1950).[2]

The Carmel Melungeons, also known as Carmelites, Carmel Indians, or Carmel Hill people (pronounced Car'-mul) were a group of Melungeons who migrated to Highland County, Ohio from Magoffin County, Kentucky.[3] The most common surnames among the families were Gibson, Nichols and Perkins. The ancestors of the group originated from Melungeon communities in eastern Kentucky, who were descended from free Black people in colonial Virginia.[4][5][6]

History

[edit]

Migrating from Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, the mixed-race ancestors of the Carmelites first appeared in Magoffin County on the 1810 census. The group were listed as free Black, mulatto, and white in Kentucky prior to the American Civil War.[7][8][2] By the 1870 census, they had begun to reside in Carmel, under the surnames Nichols, Perkins, and Gibson.[2] Their traditional area of settlement was to the southeast of the intersection of Ohio state routes SR 506 and SR 753.[1]

Ancestral origins

[edit]

Genealogical documentation indicates the ancestry of the Carmel Melungeons can be traced to free African Americans in Virginia before the American Revolution. Author Tim Hashaw states they were originally of Angolan origin.[6][5] Free African Americans were mostly mixed-race children of early unions during the colonial period between free or indentured white women, and African men who were either indentured servants, free, or enslaved. According to partus sequitur ventrem, children were born into the social status of their mothers in the 17th-century Virginia colony.[9][5] Hashaw and genealogist Paul Heinegg state that the Carmelites shared these free Black origins with the Lumbee, Redbones, Haliwa-Saponi, and Brass Ankles.[5][2][6] According to genetic analysis, the Gibson and Nichols families are of paternal European and African origins, via Y-DNA haplogroups R1b1b2 and E1b1a, and maternal European origins, all possessing mtDNA haplogroup H.[10]

Migration and assimilation

[edit]
Map of historic Carmel Melungeon settlement in Ohio.[1]

During the late 1940s, two families of Carmelites were living in Sinking Spring, and several more resided in Cynthiana.[1] By 1963, some of them were seen moving to the cities of Hillsboro, Dayton, Columbus, Springfield, and Akron.[11] They did not remain a distinct group in the 21st century, having married into the local population.[3] Authors John S. Kessler and Donald B. Ball suggest their settlement disappeared due to steady outmigration from 1940-1970. They noted the absence of infant burials after 1971, and the increasing proportion of middle-aged burials near Carmel after 1950, both indicating the absence of younger adults in the area.[1]

Culture and society

[edit]

Carmelites maintained cultural traits from rural Kentucky, notably in language, evidenced by words such as "hit" for it, "lamp oil" for kerosene, the hanging of "shuck beans", and the boiling of laundry in an "outdoor kettle". A documented practice of the group was the digging up of yellowroot and ginseng to sell to local stores.[1][2] They were also said to hunt squirrels and groundhogs for income, including during the off-season.[11] Most raised chickens, some kept pigs, and many kept garden patches for food. Some worked as tenant farmers, but others owned their own small tracts of farmland, occasionally enough for a corn harvest. However, many resided on unoccupied hill land instead.[1][2]

Carmelites sometimes temporarily migrated for work, for instance to the Scioto onion marshes, or for railroad work. Some would winter in Magoffin County and return to Carmel later, living in the shacks of neighbors if theirs had been demolished during their absence. Census records in the 1900s reflect a trend of majority in-marriage.[2]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g Kessler, John S.; Ball, Donald B. (2001). North from the Mountains: A Folk History of the Carmel Melungeon Settlement, Highland County, Ohio. Mercer University Press. p. 14-15, 18, 32, 69, 73, 81. ISBN 9780865547001. Retrieved April 18, 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Price, Edward Thomas, Jr. (November 1950). "The Mixed-Blood Racial Strain of Carmel, Ohio and Magoffin County, Kentucky". Ohio Journal of Science. 50 (6): 281–290. Retrieved April 18, 2026.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ a b "Highland Co.'s lost tribe". The Times-Gazette. Hillsboro, Ohio. June 23, 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2026.
  4. ^ Winkler, Wayne (2005). Walking Toward the Sunset: The Melungeons of Appalachia. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. pp. 69, 251. ISBN 0-86554-869-2. Retrieved January 7, 2026.
  5. ^ a b c d Heinegg, Paul (2021). Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina from the Colonial Period to About 1820. Sixth Edition. Vol. I - Families Abel to Drew. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company. pp. 1, 20. ISBN 9780806359298. Retrieved January 8, 2026.
  6. ^ a b c Hashaw, Tim (2007). The Birth of Black America: The First African Americans and the Pursuit of Freedom at Jamestown. New York, NY: Carroll & Graf Publishers. p. 180-181. ISBN 978-0-78671-718-7. Retrieved January 7, 2026.
  7. ^ “Magoffin County (KY) Enslaved, Free Blacks, and Free Mulattoes, 1860-1880,” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, accessed September 1, 2023, https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/2447.
  8. ^ “Morgan County (KY) Enslaved, Free Blacks, and Free Mulattoes, 1850-1870,” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, accessed September 1, 2023, https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/2484.
  9. ^ Heinegg, Paul, 1997-2005, Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia (3rd edition). Clearfield Company, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland. Also on the web at Paul Heinegg, http://www.freeafricanamericans.com
  10. ^ Estes, Roberta J.; Goins, Jack H.; Ferguson, Penny; Crain, Janet Lewis (2011). "Melungeons, a multi-ethnic population" (PDF). Journal of Genetic Genealogy. 7: 30. Retrieved April 19, 2026.
  11. ^ a b Berry, Brewton (1963). Almost White. London, GB: Macmillan Publishers. pp. 90, 136. Retrieved April 16, 2026 – via Internet Archive.


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carmel_Melungeons&oldid=1349938467"