MELUNGEONS

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...."

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. However, Everett has subsequently revised that position. These were two different men, and only the latter has any proven connection to the Melungeons. 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.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."

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