".© 2020 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC.her neighbors she knew in Hancock County, Tenn.Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. However, there has long been discussion that they are of Portuguese and possibly even Turkish descent as well. "Melungeons are clearly not like the mountaineers I knew. Some of my family Melungeons.My great-grandmother was “Black Dutch”, a sect thought to be related to the Melungeons, or perhaps the Melungeons themselves.Liked it? Playwright Kermit Hunter wrote the highly-regarded Walk Toward The Sunset in which Melungeons were portrayed in a romanticized light which helped to develop a sense of pride in the heritage. Others think it is coined from the antiquated and obsolete English word “malengin” which meant bad intention/fraud/deceit. "Warren Wilson had a real concern to do the right thing," said Rodney Lytle, the college's alumni director. There is a bump on the back of the head of some descendants, that is located at mid-line, just above the juncture with the neck. ".Overbay's Melungeon heritage didn't much matter in 1959 on the diverse campus, where she worked on the student newspaper. One of my theories is that perhaps we followed Daniel Boone's route through the Cumberland Gap. Hernando de Soto trooped through the region in 1540 in the first contact with whites for many Native American tribes.In 1567, Captain Juan Pardo brought an army of 125 men to Joara, an Indian town in Burke County, and built a fort — the oldest European garrison in the interior of North America. We went straight up what's now I-26 to Vardy," Overbay said.Researchers have theorized that Melungeons may have been a mixture of European, African and Native Americans. They weren't white. There seems to be no exact definition of who the Melungeon people were.
: /məˈlʌndʒən/ mə-lun-jən) is the name of a Southern U.S. ethnic minority once found in the Appalachian Mountains in parts of the states of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. In more recent years, most Melungeons have become virtually indistinguishable from Caucasians due to the tendency to intermarry as social changes have made interracial marriage increasingly more accepted.Even the initial origination of the term Melungeon is a mystery as some feel it is derived from the French word “mélange” which translates to mixture. "Alma helped break down the Confederate Bars of hate when it was almost illegal for races to mix in schools and in public.
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"She didn't want me to know about Melungeons," Overbay, 73, recalled. Melungeons were considered by outsiders to have a mixture of European, Native American, and African ancestry. Now a professor at Elon University, Lyday has researched Melungeons appearing in literature and periodicals over the past century. In older photos, their physical appearance looks almost Mediterranean or Middle Eastern," Lyday said.A Spanish influence is likely, given that the Southwest and the mountains were explored and settled. These cookies do not store any personal information.Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Who Were the Melungeon People? These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. The history of the racial group known as Melungeons is a topic of much discussion, disagreement and mystery. The majority of records of individuals were those created by the agencies. Virginia passed the Racial Integrity Act in 1924, the so-called "one drop" rule that would strip anyone of mixed race from white legal privileges.The quest to better themselves led many Melungeon students to the Asheville area. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The first known written use of the term came in 1813 in Scott County, Virginia, where a church recorded it spelled as “Melungins.”.The term Melungeon was once seen as a racial slur and was received with a negative connotation; however, that has since softened as many now proudly self-identify as such.
Others take a wider perspective. Census records 4. They were generally accepted in their communities and mostly assimilated save for the fact that they often were restricted in marriage due to laws penalizing the mixing of races. This is rather difficult to describe. The Melungeons were originally found primarily in the Cumberland Gap area of Southwest Virginia, East Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky with notable populations in Hawkins and Hancock counties in East Tennessee and Lee and Scott counties in Virginia.Melungeons have historically been considered “free people of color” who owned land and had voting rights. Most modern-day descendants of Appalachian families traditionally regarded as Melungeon are generally European American in appearance, often (though not always) with dark hair and eyes, and a swarthy or olive complexion.