MELUNGEON URLS:

Here is a list of urls that I have found that deal with various Melungeon
families and research. Please send in any urls that you have
used during your research too.

This site contains many other Melungeon connections: Martha Short's
Melungeon links page:
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~mtnties/mlgnlinks.html


Pam Cresswell's:
1. The American Local History Network,
Melungeon Research page;

http://cresswells.com/alhn/melung/index.html

2. The Melungeon Heritage Association, Inc.,
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Inn/1024/

3. The Melungeon List Webpage

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/3778/

4.Short's Country Store; click on Melungeon Information. Martha has two
pages on Melungeons so choose to look at both.

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~mtnties Mountain Ties or

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/3778/ Melungeon Page


5.In Plain Site
A fascinating site describing archaelogical findings in the middle of
the
United States of folks who were not supposed to be here but were.

http://www2.privatei.com/~bartjean/mainpage.htm

6.The Melungeon Outpost; a place for sharing...

http://www.bright.net/~kat/melung.htm

7. GenForum has a Melungeon site where you can read and post queries.

http://genforum.genealogy.com/melungeon/ or go to the GenForum site and
type in: Melungeon

8. If you are on AOL, go to aol's Genealogy Forum, click `Messages,'
`Ethnic and Special Groups,' `Melungeons.' You can read and post queries
here.

9. Under One Sky is a Melungeon news magazine. There are connections
here to
other Melungeon sites.

http://www.geocities.com:80/BourbonStreet/Square/5018/UOS/Page_1x.html

10. The Melungeon Health Education and Support Network
http://www.melungeonhealth.org/
This is my page on the health issues facing Melungeon
descendants. It is MOST important that descendants understand the
Mediterranean illness that can affect them. Please view this page with
that in mind.

11. Home of the Original Kansas Sundowner! Click on the Melungeon
connection.
http://www.fortunecity.com/millenium/redwood/971/.

12. Appalachia Creek Family History & Research
http://members.xoom.com/BJ_Dillon/Appalachiack.htm

13. Appalachian Mountain Families
http://members.xoom.com/Appalachian/

14. The Mystery of the Melungeons
http://archive.msstate.edu/listarchives/afrigeneas/199811/msg00737.html

15.Smythe County News
http://www.smythnews.com/981112/I-Articles/fp-2.htm

16. This site is under construction but keep going back for additions
http://dogwoodpress.myriad.net/dcm/melungeons.html

16. http://www.qni.com/~suni
Our Family Tree- researching Martin, Van Namee, Mann, Goodman, Lowry,
Rutledge, Roark and others; seeking info about Melungeons, Native
Americans and Black Dutch.

17. http://www.korrnet.org/overhome/page3e.html
Hancock County, the home of the Melungeons

18. http://www.murrah.com/gen/redbones.htm
Melungeons and Redbones

19.http://www.theroanoker.com/brc/melung/melung.html
The Melungeons: Blue Ridge Country Magazine

20.http://www.iigs.org/newsletter/9810news/melungeo.htm
The Mystery of the Melungeons, by Nancy Sparks Morrison
IIGS=D6 Newsletter - October 1998

21. http://history.cc.ukans.edu/heritage/cousin/cousin_main.html
Cousins Corner

22.http://www.murrah.com/gen/ashworth.htm
Ashworth Family Page

23. http://hometown.aol.com/bvmundy/Pubpage.html
Leven Cole Page

24.http://home1.gte.net/msnyder1/HOcem.html
Haw Orchard Cemetary, Grayson Co. Va

25. http://www.uwf.edu/~english/Panther-Yates/famhist.htm
Family History Page of Donald and Cedarsong Panther-Yates.

26. http://members.xoom.com/BJ_Dillon/Appalachiack.htm
Appalchian Creek Research page


27. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8056/bakerb.html
Bolling (including Bolen, Boling, Bowling, etc.) and Baker family

28. http://www.abraxis.com/beegee/Genealogy/KyWhitle.html
Bunch Family of KY

29. http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/Virginia_NC.htm
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Delaware Free African
Americans

30. http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/vaindians.htm
Virginia's Indians, Past and Present

31. http://www.kentuckyexplorer.com
The Kentucky Explorer Magazine - this site has a fully functional
message
board with search capabilities. Many Melungeon surnames listed here.

32. http://www.geocities.com/~russmyers/names2.htm#Biggs
Biggs Family Researchers

33. http://members.tripod.com/gardner_2/idxd.htm#davis
Davis Family Researchers

34.http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gowenrf/msie.htm
The Gowen Research
Searching all spellings of this name including Goen, Goings, Goin/s,
Gouen, Gorins and many others.

35.http://www.ls.net/~newriver/nrv.htm
New River Notes, resources for the Upper New River Valley of NC &
VA. (Ashe, Alleghany, Watagua and Wilkes County, North Carolina and
Grayson County, & SW VA.

36. http://www.melungeons.org/hancock13.jpg
A picture showing the view from Newman's Ridge, Hancock Co., TN, right
outside of Sneedville, TN and home of the Melungeons

37.http://www.virginiadynamics.com/melung.htm
The Melungeons: Tri-Racial Isolates In a Clinch (Valley) - a short
article

38.http://artsci.wustl.edu/~stone/history/
Southwest Virginia History and Genealogy (Many Melungeon surnames on the
list.)

39. Melungeon Research page
http://members.aol.com/Strat43z/melung.html

40.From Virginia Tech, comes the story of MELUNGEON-COLORED, by Mildred
Haun.
Excellent story - be sure to read it.
http://athena.english.vt.edu/~appalach/readings/melungeon.htm

41. Renegade Cherokee includes the BOGGS family and more information on
those of Cherokee descent who did not go on the Trail of Tears.
http://community.webtv.net/RenegadeCheroke/RENEGADECHEROKES

42. Melungeon Connections is a new site that has some great info and
connected sites available:
http://www.angelfire.com/in3/melungeon

43 A Taliaferro webpages from which some Tollivers are finding
connections:.
http://assentweb.com/taliaferro/ and http://taliaferro.net/

44. From Gowen research a LOT of information on the Melungeons with
other surnames included and much data on the movement and placement of
Melungeons and their beginnings: Be sure to scroll down and read the part
entitled:
I Am Proud to Be a Melungeon and the two peices by Evelyn McKinley Orr.
http://www.llano.net/gowen/melungia/melungia.001

45. Virginia DeMarce has written much against Brent Kennedy's book. Here
Kennedy defends his theories and gives added information on the
Melungeons:
http://www.llano.net/gowen/melungia/melungia.002

46. Shalacy Manderson, 12 years old, is an up and coming songstress of
Melungeon descendancy. She has a wonderful song her parent wrote, simply
called The Melungeon Song. Visit her page, hear the song and check out
her links to her Melungeon ancestry
http://www.geocities.com/mamashills/MelungeonSong.html

47. Baber Connection: In the Shadows of the Blue Ridges. This
interesting story of one family's trouble with 'color' and the hiding of the picture
of "Baber," in a cedar chest, tells much about the way that many Melungeons
were forced to live.
http://baberfamilytree.org/People/shadows.htm#James Reed Baber

48 Denton Family and other Kentucky Surnames (Denham Connections).
http://www.netwalk.com/~mmchenry/denton.htm

49. Appalachian Origin Fuels Race Debate, an older article but with some
good information
http://www.kentuckyconnect.com/heraldleader/news/101997/forgins.html

50. Family Genealogy:
http://community-2.webtv.net/lrockcastle/FamilyGenealogy/=20
This site has several Melungeon surnames listed.

51. This new website is Sherry Huff's and it contains some Melungeon
surnames:
http://www.megspace.com/family/mourningstar/=20

52. Brenda Nichols Melungeon page. Unlike a lot of us Brenda knew all
her life that she was a Melungeon descendant. This site is from her
prespective as such. :
http://brendanichols.tripod.com/melungeon.html

53. The Melungeon Homepage:
http://www.melungeons.com
The Premier Melungeon research page.

 54.THE WAYBACK MACHINE This following url will get you to some OLD sites that
used to be on the net but are no longer there. IF you know the OLD url,
you insert it into the search engine and most of the time a page or two will
come up.

http://www.archive.org/index.html

55. http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Inn/1024/
  Melungeon Heritage Association

56.http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gowenrf/guests.htm
 Gowen Research Foundation Guests Page

57. http://melungeons.com/
  Melungeons.com

58. http://www.darkfiber.com/blackirish/
  the Black Irish Myth

59. http://home.att.net/~englishamerica/places/va169.htm#Virginia
 American Plantations and Colonies - Virginia Ships & Passengers, 1690-1699

60. http://www.multimap.com/
  Multimap.com: Online Maps to Everywhere

61. http://web.uccs.edu/~history/index/colonial.html
  Begin with Colonial U.S.

62.http://www.geocities.com/bourbonstreet/inn/1024/plecker.html
  Plecker

63. http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Square/5018/Page_8x.html
  Darlene Wilson on Race

64.http://www.geocities.com/~underonesky/Page_14x.html
 Kennedy's response to DeMarce

65. http://www.geocities.com/mamashills/shadows.html
  The Forgotten Ancestors of the West Virginia Guineas

66.http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~mtnties/source.html
Melungeon Source Page

67.http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~mtnties/name.html
 Melungeon Names by Geographic Area

68. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~appalachian/
Appalachian Mountain Families

69. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~ysbinns/vataxlists/
 "1790" / "1800" County Tax Lists of Virginia

70. http://www.cla.sc.edu/sciaa/staff/depratterc/newweb.htm
  Santa Elena home page

71. http://www.ls.net/~newriver/swva/swvahs.htm
 Historical Sketches of Southwest Virginia

72.http://www.udent.com/askadentist.asp?t=48
 Ask a Dentist -  UDENT is Your Source.
 For the shovel teeth naturally!! :-)

73. http://www.geocities.com/mikenassau/definition.htm
  Melungeon Definition 2000 While new information continues to come in about Melungeon origins, this
  concensus definition is still a pretty good one.

The Hi-Jacking of Melungeon Research Part II

The following is taken from a post I made at Ancestry.com. The original Hi-Jacking of All Melungeon research is below this part II and if you have not read it, you need to do so in order to understand the current arguments that are taking place. Just scroll down the page to get to that entry before reading this.

 

A member of the opposing group of Melungeon researchers responded to my original post. Here is my response to her with bits and pieces of her post so that it will make sense:

 

Nancy wrote:
You and your group have HI-JACKED ALL Melungeon research and your response to this post of mine shows what I am saying to be EXACTLY what you are doing.

You refuse to let anyone have any opinion of their own about Melungeons and ONLY the things that you say are supposed to be true. You inundate the internet with hateful mail and then when folks respond you have it deleted!! But at least it is on there long enough for folks to read both sides of the story.
And this post will be on my blogspot soon at:
http://journals.aol.com/nmorri3924/MelungeonResearch/

Your OPINIONS do not make things TRUE. You have NEVER been able to turn this into anything to amount to anything.
You note:

For years you ran this on your page
''Here is an overview of the five major medical problems that some Melungeon descendants inherit. ''

YES, I did. I have never denied this. Then ONE illness was shown to not be inherited, so I changed that, THEN I was ASKED to remove the MJD materials by Marie Boutte with whom I PERSONALLY consulted, not just listened to a report because of the seriousness of the illness and the stigma that it placed upon families amongst whom it was found.

You have ABSOLUTELY NO PROOF of the following statement. YOU WISH it were true. IT is NOT.

"When in fact there was not ONE Melungeon descendant that had inherited it."

Please note the following from my own report which you just used on Marie's talk about MJD which you THOUGHT proved your point. It doesn't!:

Nancy wrote:

"At 10:30 am June 17, 2004, Marie gave a talk to a full room on Machado-Joseph's Disease.
MJD is a rare illness. To date Marie said that she had not identified this illness in any Melungeon family and she was researching in order to do so or eliminate this illness.

PLEASE NOTE the 'to date' - Marie was not able to eliminate this illness simply because of what Brent KNEW.

You just DISPROVED your own wish by copying Kennedy's statement:
"Also conveniently overlooked by DeMarce are half a dozen confirmed cases of the extremely rare genetic disorder Machado-Joseph Disease among Melungeon descendants (most recently in an elderly East Tennessee male now cooperating with Portuguese geneticists at McGill University, and an eastern Kentucky woman diagnosed with MJD this spring at Johns Hopkins, who has also been referred to McGill)."

Aside from these folks mentioned above, I personally spoke with 2 other people who had been diagnosed with this illness. It is ALWAYS fatal and if one parent has it, there is a 50/50 chance that the children can have it. IT STIGMATIZES EVERY family that shows this illness.

AND it SHAMES YOU that you continue to mention this illness, when you KNOW what you are saying about it is NOT TRUE and it is damaging to all Melungeons.

You note:

"No Melungeon diseases,"

NO ONE HAS EVER SAID there were any Melungeon diseases. I have repeatedly said, "there are no Melungeon diseases and there never have been!"

And yet, you continue this litany apparently hoping not only to convince others but yourself that it is true when it already IS TRUE. There are no Melungeon diseases and you and your group are the ONLY ones who use this terminology and are RESPONSIBLE for spreading this lie around the internet.

You said:
"no Melungeon squats,"

I apologize for starting this MYTH in my innocence as a beginning Melungeon researcher. I HAVE ALREADY apologized all over the internet anywhere I find this mentioned. I have been apologizing for YEARS now. NO ONE BUT YOU has ever kept this up. YOU are responsible for spreading this MYTH around the internet simply because you think it embarrasses me, when in fact you are the one who should be embarrassed.

You wrote:
"no Melungeon bumps"
And again this is YOUR MYTH. No one has EVER spoken of a Melungeon BUMP. Anatolian yes, but NOT MELUNGEON and YOU are responsible for spreading this MYTH over the internet.

You said:
"-- we haven't hijacked anything but we sure have straightened out the Melungeon research"

And that is strictly YOUR OPINION of your research capabilites and your EGO speaking!! You can not prove any of the things you have spoken of in THIS e-mail. What you have done is use innuendo, half-truths, untruths and other specious arguments to try to put yourself in a good light and demean others. You embarrass yourself by continuing to do so but apparently you do not see that. Is it not seeing the forest for the trees?

A good researcher does not need to do things like you have done; destroying reputations of disabled folks who are not able to defend themselves should not make you proud. How sad that it seems to for you!
Love and health in family ties,
Nancy
The Melungeon Health Education and Support Network:
http://www.melungeonhealth.org

 

The Hi-Jacking of ALL Melungeon Research

The following opinion was posted to the Melungeon message board at rootsweb.com.

I am also posting it here and in other places to assure that it remains available on the net.

 

To any Melungeon researcher:
Approximately 50 people have hi-jacked ALL Melungeon research, calling it their own and refusing to listen to anyone who has conflicting views.

 

Wherever possible, the owners of lists concerning Melungeons have restricted their membership to those folks who agree with their statements and have refused to allow any statements other than approved ones to be on their lists.  Their stated purpose is to limit their lists to people who support the aims of the list and who are in tune with its philosophy, thus insuring that any IDEA in variance with these aims will never be heard by their membership. Doesn't this sound 'funny' to you?  Isn't something similar going on in Texas today?

 

Some members of these specific lists have been unsubbed from the lists without notification. This also closes the archives of these lists to the view of anyone having an opposing position. What is all the secrecy about? Is there something shameful going on that we should know about and that they don't want known?

 

Even this message board has been taken over by this small group and I feel it is quite likely that my message here will be deleted shortly, so I am placing it on several Melungeon blogs as well. It will remain on the net for folks to find.

 

I firmly DISAGREE with much of what has been written in the last few months on boards such as this one, excepting certain proven documents from the past. I firmly believe that Melungeon research should NOT be quashed by folks who have determined that ONLY the people that they WANT to be Melungeons or descendants can post to this or any list without them posting e-mails with all sorts of complaints, ridicule, nasty words etc. I FIRMLY disagree that the reputations of researchers who are unable because of disability to defend their work should be ruined by POLITICAL debate of something that happened after WW I that has been ongoing in Melungeon research at the present.

 

I have as much right to research and disseminate Melungeon data as anyone else. Yet, I am talked about both behind my back and to my face. I am dismissed from Melungeon research according to this SMALL group of approx. 50 people and made fun of. This affects me, but it also affects hundreds of other folks who would LIKE to know about their Melungeon descended families, possible health issues and more, and yet they are afraid to post simply because of what they have seen posted by a VERY FEW of the most vocal of this group of restrictive Melungeon researchers.

 

The beliefs of this small group of researchers about Melungeons are racist, restrictive, and in my own personal opinion they try to deny anything other than European and Native American ancestry. While I would like to unify people, they divide.

 

If you do not like such tactics, I invite you to join my Melungeon mailing list where folks are friendly, many origins, and genealogies are discussed along with culture, history, dna, and more. There is NO fighting, NO arguments on my list. It is active, different everyday and highly interesting. Please send an e-mail to:
Melungeons-subscribe@topica.com

 

Look for a response from nmorri3924@aol.com and I will be glad to have you joining us.
Love and health in family ties,
Nancy
The Melungeon Health Education and Support Network:
http://www.melungeonhealth.org

 

The Appalachian Region

The map of the Appalachian Region is contained in the following paper by Elizabeth Hirschmann and Don Panther-Yates. Later in the paper, some other pictures are mentioned but they did not transmit with the paper.

Melungeon Ethnogenesis - Part I

The following paper is posted here in seven sections plus two sections of bibliography  due to its length. This is a very interesting paper with some very interesting theories which I believe add greatly to our understanding of just who our Melungeon families were, where they came from and why it is that they hid who they were. 

 

 

Melungeon Ethnogenesis

 

Reconstructing Identity across the Color Line

 

  

Elizabeth C. Hirschman

Professor II of Marketing

School of Business

Rutgers University

New Brunswick, N.J.  08903

hirschma@rbs.rutgers.edu

 

 

Donald Panther-Yates

DNA Consulting

1274 de Calle Commercio

Santa Fe, N.M. 87508

 

 

ABSTRACT

 

            The Melungeons, a person-of-color ethnic group dwelling in southern Appalachia, have recently discovered their multi-racial, non-Christian ancestry.  We describe the process of ethnogenesis via consumption undertaken by Melungeons to connect their identities to this new-found ancestry.  We also examine the social evolution of the Melungeon ethnic label to become a valued personal possession and the public identification of certain physical features as markers of Melungeon ethnicity.  It is argued that ethnicity may be usefully problematized to support novel forms of inquiry into self-identity on racial, genetic and physiological levels.

Melungeon Ethnogenesis - Part II

MELUNGEON ETHNOGENESIS

Introduction

 

            The Melungeons are a people-of-color ethnic group dwelling in the south-central Appalachian Mountains (Ball 1992; Bible 1975; Burnett 1889; Kennedy 1994/7).  Their heaviest concentration lies in the rural, mountainous intersection of eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, eastern Kentucky, western Virginia, and southern West Virginia [see map, Exhibit One].  Other Melungeon communities are found in southern Ohio (the Mt. Carmel Indians), central Tennessee near Chattanooga (Graysville Melungeons), and Sand Mountain, Alabama (Gilbert 1947, Kessler and Ball 2001; Nassau 1994). Estimates of the size of the Melungeon population range from 50,000 to 250,000+ (Beale 1957; Cavender 1981; DeMarce 1992; Elliott 1997; Werner 1973).

            The importance of the Melungeons to consumer behavior theory, and also to the anthropological, sociological, and historical literatures, is their origin as a people and ‘re-discovery’ both by themselves and by social scientists in the 1970’s, 1980’s and especially 1990’s.  Melungeon origins were shrouded in mystery due to several factors: (1) the absence of accurate historical records regarding their ancestry, culture and date(s) of arrival in the Appalachians,  (2) debate both within and outside the group over ‘who’ or ‘what’ is a Melungeon, and (3) purposeful misrepresentation of the group’s ancestry by various political stakeholders.   

Social Science Research          

Anthropological research on Melungeons (Burnett 1889, Pollitzer and Brown 1969, Pollitzer 1972) at first suggested, and then subsequently rejected (Guthrie 1990), a tri-racial origin (Black, White, Indian) for the group.  Cast culturally as a haphazard mixture of renegade Indians, escaped African slaves and outlaw whites early on, the Melungeons came to view themselves – and be viewed by others – as ethnic discards, pariahs and racial outcasts (DeMarce 1992, 1993, 1996; Kessler and Ball 2001).

            However, more recent (Ball 1992, Bible 1975) and current (Kennedy 1994/97) research on the Melungeons suggests a much more succinct set of origins for the group; one that is rooted in socio-cultural factors, rather than the racial categories so often called upon to frame ethnic relations in the Southeastern U.S.  At present, biogenetic, historical, genealogical and anthropological evidence appear to converge on the notion that the Melungeons originated with Spanish and Portuguese colonists and soldiers who arrived in the mid-1500’s (possibly as early as De Soto’s expeditions in 1540) and intermarried with Southeastern American Indian communities such as the Saponi, Powhatan, Cheraw, Choctaw, Yuchi, Cherokee, Pamunkey, Mataponi, and Catawba (Elliott 1997; Everett 1999; Feest 1989; Goins 2000; Merrell 1989; Mira 2001; Mira 1998; Rountree 1990; Wilson 2001; Wilson 1992; Wood and Shields 2000).

            In the latest studies, (Hirschman 2003, Kennedy 1997, Yates 2003), researchers have argued that these early Iberian colonists are more accurately to be regarded as Sephardic Jews and Muslim Moors who had superficially converted to Christianity in order to escape the Spanish Inquisition and then made their way to the New World as colonists (and away from possible religious persecution in Europe).  This line of reasoning proposes that once on North American shores in what were to become South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, it would have been prudent for these colonists to desert their Spanish settlements (where the Inquisition’s tribunals soon followed) and make their way inland to the mountains.  The presence of Sephardic surnames among the Melungeons such as Chavis, Driggers (Rodrigues), Perry (Perrira), Rivas/Reeves, Lopes, and Steel (Castille) lends support to this argument.  Once in the mountains, these Spanish colonists would have intermarried with the resident Indian population, forming a bi-cultural/bi-racial community.

            After these initial Jewish-Muslim-Native American communities were formed, it is proposed, additional settlers of Sephardic and Moorish descent, coming from way stations in Holland, France, Germany, Switzerland, and England, supplemented the population, shifting its ethnic composition further toward Mediterranean, Semitic and North African ancestry (Hirschman 2005).  Surnames in the latter waves included, for example, Blackamoor, Allee, Cassel, Israel, Jacobs, Isbell, Hart, Hartsock (Hertzog), Mayo, Caro, Ferris, Talliaferro, Silber, Abrahams, Rasnick, Hassan, Remy, Cowan, and Isaacs; while Melungeon given names included, for instance, Allaphar, Adoniram, Mecca, Mahala, Talitha, Omar, Dionysus, Mosco, Juanita, Pharabba, Palestine, Esther, Sabra, Nimrod, Cyrus, Rico, Alonzo, Orra and Dovie (Hirschman 2005).

            Popular and scientific interest in the Melungeons was revived in 1994 with the publication of Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People by N. Brent Kennedy, a Melungeon born in Wise, Virginia.  After recovering from a near fatal attack of Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF), a genetically-linked illness unique to Mediterranean and Semitic peoples, Kennedy began investigating his own ancestry in order to discover how “a Scotch-Irish white boy could get a Mediterranean-Jewish-Arab disease”[i] – especially one requiring the presence of a recessive gene in both paternal and maternal ancestry.  Kennedy’s decidedly “non-white boy” appearance (see www.Melungeon.org for an assortment of Melungeon photographs), as well as those of his parents, cousins and several neighbors dwelling in western Virginia’s Wise, Lee, and Scott counties, together with his discovery of falsified family records claiming “white” ancestry, led him to speculate that he was, in fact, of Melungeon descent.

            Kennedy had grown up in Appalachia and beenearly introduced to the term Melungeon; it referred to a mysterious, almost mythical, group of people who dwelled in the nearby mountains in remote settlements.  They were usually described as dark skinned, dark-haired and European-featured, occasionally with dark blue eyes (Ball 1992; Bible 1975).  According to local folklore, they were the descendants of shipwrecked Portuguese sailors or Roanoke Island colonists[ii] who had intermarried with Indians and lived apart from white people.  In some accounts they were described as peaceful and shy; while others described them as violent and criminal (Ball 1976).  Kennedy recalled actually seeing some ‘real’ (i.e., publicly labeled) Melungeons as a child near his home in southwestern Virginia (Kennedy 1997).

            Unexpectedly, Kennedy’s book sold in the tens of thousands of copies.  In it, he had included a list of Appalachian surnames whose genealogies indicated Melungeon ancestry.  He also included photographs of several Melungeons from the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s who had lived in eastern Tennessee, eastern Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia, as well as Virginia.  He proposed that there were ancestral and cultural linkages between the Appalachian Melungeons and the North Carolina Lumbee Indians, the Pamunkey, Catawba, Powhatan and Eastern Band Cherokee Indian nations and Mestizo groups such as the Red Bones, Brass Ankles, Turks, and Cajuns of the coastal southeastern U.S. (Kennedy 1997). 

Within a four to five year period, many persons in Appalachia who had “gone to bed white, woke up to find themselves brown[iii]”.  And what was (possibly) more troubling – having gone to bed Christian, they awoke to find themselves having potentially Jewish and/or Muslim ancestry (Hirschman 2003).  The seemingly quaint practices of their grandparents – for instance, naming children Mecca, Omar, Menorah and Alzina, discarding eggs with blood spots, avoiding pork, and thoroughly washing and salting all other meats took on an ominous new meaning.

ETHNOGENESIS AND CONSUMER RESEARCH

Inquiries into ethnicity have a lengthy history in consumer research.  Beginning with early attempts to describe racially-defined market segments (Bauer and Cunningham 1970), investigations became increasingly sophisticated, addressing issues such as consumer acculturation (Penalosa 1989, 1994), and post-assimilationist strategies (Askegaard, Arnould and Kjeldgaard 2005).  Ethnic identities enmeshed within this research tradition have included African-American (Oswald 1999), Hispanics (Deshpande, Hoyer and Donthu 1986), Indo-Pakistanis (Mehta and Belk 1991) and Inuit (Askegaard et al 2005). 

The present study differs from these predecessors in several theoretically substantive ways.  First, we explore the interaction of race and religion upon consumption as it is manifested within the Melungeon community.  While prior studies have delved into race as a socio-political category (e.g., Oswald 1999) and religion as a cultural shaper of consumption values (Hirschman 1981), to our knowledge these two forces have not been examined conjunctively within consumer research.

Second, the Melungeons spring from a bi-racial and/or tri-racial background; depending upon specific ancestral lineages, individual Melungeons maypossess African, European, Middle Eastern and Native American heritage.  As more American consumers become aware of their own multi-racial origins, the experiences of the Melungeons may serve as salient guides for anticipating changes in consumption in response to new racial knowledge.

Third, because the geographic locale of the Melungeons is both known and circumscribed, their community can be historically situated for purposes of diachronic analysis.  Kennedy (1997), for example, discusses the social evolution of his family from their early status as Free Persons of Color (FPC), during which time they were denied voting rights, to their falsified presentation of themselves as “white” persons of “Scots-Irish descent” – a transformation which also saw their surname altered from Canaday/Khanada to Kennedy.

To weave together these diverse aspects of our analysis, we use a theoretical stance that seems ideally suited to the Melungeons – ethnogenesis.  Hill (1996, p.1) describes ethnogenesis as “the historical emergence of a people who define themselves in relation to a socio-cultural…heritage” and further notes that “ethnogenesis can also serve as an analytical tool for developing critical historical approaches to culture as an ongoing process of conflict and struggle over a people’s existence…within…a general history of domination.”  Most commonly, the term ethnogenesis and its evolving theoretical framework have been used to ground research on the responses of indigenous and African-originating persons to the European colonization of the New World (see e.g. Hill 1996; Jones 2002).  Since the Melungeon people are situated within exactly this historical and cultural nexus, the framework is highly appropriate for them.

The term ethnogenesis was coined by William Sturtevant (1971) in a pathbreaking essay on the socio-cultural evolution of the Creek Indian tribe, originally dwelling in the southeastern United States, into the Seminole Confederation situated in Florida.  As Albers (1996) observes, Sturtevant’s analysis was the first to examine “broad transformational processes in ethnic group identification,…the long-term movements by which the ethnic identities of human communities get changed…(p.40)”.

Within our work, the present-day Melungeon community of Appalachia is described as a particular form of ethnogenetic phenomenon, one that represents “the rapid formation of an entirely new society and culture when individuals of diverse backgrounds are suddenly thrown together by fate and forced to create societies afresh…Such societies have been characterized by anthropologists as neoteric or cenogenic…for they embody unique and unprecedented biological and cultural blends…Many of these new societies owe their existence to the major upheavals and displacements of persons associated with European conquest and expansion during the last five centuries (p. 117).”  We will argue that the Melungeon community was originally formed during the 1500’s from just such social and political forces, and that it is now experiencing a re-discovery and re-birth through a second set of social forces – the post-modern desire for ethnic “rootedness” and the advent of genetic testing.

Primary focus is placed upon learning how Melungeons construct their self and ethnic identities through consumption practice.  As Stojanowski (2005, p. 417) observes, “the study of ethnicity, identity and ethnogenesis is one potentially unifying agenda for a holistic anthropology.”   We concur with this view and believe that analogously, an examination of ethnicity, identity, and ethnogenesis may serve as a unifying perspective for consumer behavior theory.

[i]  Personal communication, October 2000

[ii] The Roanoke Island Colony was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1587.  By 1591, the hundred or so colonists had mysteriously disappeared (see Miller 2000)

[iii] Public comment by attendee at Melungeon Second Union, Wise, Virginia, 2001.

Melungeon Ethnogenesis - Part III

p. 11

PURPOSES

The purposes of the present inquiry are threefold: first, we examine within an ethnogenic framework how persons of Melungeon ancestry are reconstructing their ethnic identity through purposeful changes in consumer behavior. We explore, for example, how food-ways, medical practices, and musical styles have been used to redefine these individuals’ sense of self and community, resulting in an emergent culture of consumption. This purposeful reconstruction of self through consumer behavior involves prospecting consumables not sampled previously in order to see if they are a comfortable fit for one’s new ethnic identity, and also retrospecting one’s traditional consumer preferences in an effort to discern novel ethnic meanings.

Second, our inquiry explores the social and personal struggles within the Melungeon community over the past five years resulting from access to newly available DNA data, genealogical records, and historical writings. This knowledge is being used to construct ethnic boundaries regarding who and what is a Melungeon. In short, modern Melungeon ethnogenesis is still very much in a fluid and volatile state. Of central interest in this regard is the social evolution of the ethnic label "Melungeon" from a derogatory racial term to one of sought-after status – from denigrating epithet to desirable personal possession. We explore the notion that certain, ‘exotic’ ethnic ancestries are emerging in multicultural postmodernism as important, valued symbols of personal uniqueness and can be core components of self identity (e.g., Bleakley 1997; Daniel 1992; Morello 2000). Newly desirable ethnic labels, such as Melungeon, often inspire contentious struggles over self and group definition precisely because they are now seen as valued symbolic possessions.

Third, the idea of ethnicity as a possession is carried more deeply into a consideration of personal physical traits becoming publicly recognized markers of ethnic membership. Because Melungeons have specific physical characteristics which set them apart from other ethnic communities, persons of Melungeon descent who possess more of these physical markers are deemed more ethnically genuine than descendants having fewer or none of these distinctive characteristics. We develop a discussion of the ethnicized body as an heirloom possession and specific physical markers as valued attributes (Curasi, Price and Arnould 2004).

METHOD

We two authors are of Melungeon descent, something we became aware of around five years ago. Prior to that, we had identified ourselves ethnically as a WASP and an American Indian, respectively. Since learning of this ancestry, we have attended six Melungeon Gatherings during the summers of 2000 – 2005 both as observers and participants. These gatherings were instituted in 1998 in Wise, Virginia by Brent Kennedy and the Melungeon Heritage Association, and have been held subsequently in Kingsport, Tennessee (2), Sneedville, Tennessee, Middlesboro, Kentucky, and Frankfort, Kentucky, all locales of substantial Melungeon populations.

Additionally, extensive personal correspondence via e-mail, telephone, face-to-face conversations, and written mail/fax has been carried on between the two authors and several key members of the Melungeon community, including Brent Kennedy, Wayne Winkler, Jack Goins, Curtis Christie, Nancy Sparks Morrison, and Helen Campbell. These persons are cousins of ours and of each other, the Melungeon community being highly in-bred owing both to choice and geographic isolation. In constructing the present interpretation, we combined insights gained from direct discussions with the informants named above, Melungeon e-bulletin board postings, Melungeon Gathering presentations by diverse speakers and extensive readings in Appalachian regional history.

CONSUMPTION ETHNOGENESIS: LEARNING TO CONSUME LIKE A MELUNGEON

Patricia Albers in a 1996 paper, "Changing Patterns of Ethnicity in the Northeastern Plains, 1780-1870" does a compelling job describing the "transformations in ethnic identities based on cooperation and fusion" (p. 91) that took place among three Plains Indian tribes, the Ansinihoen, Cree and Ojibwa, who later merged with French, English and Indigenous metis groups. She develops a theoretical continuum of multi-ethnic fusion. In her view, "one end of the continuum is represented by polyethnic alliance formation in which different ethnic groups share territory, engage in joint military action, and collaborate in a variety of ceremonial and subsistence activities (p. 93)". She positions what she terms the emergent ethnic community at the other end of this continuum and states that here "the process of ethnogenesis has reached completion…Groups that were once distinct are now joined…In the process they not only form a political entity that is separate from their parent populations, but…an ethnic identification that is distinctive as well,…an identity that emphasizes unity and solidarity over any differences in their ethnic pasts (p. 93)."

An additional pattern Albers (1996, p. 93-94) describes residing toward the middle of the continuum is the hybridized group coalition: "here intermarriage and co-residency become so pervasive and widespread that local settlements with dual ethnic origins begin to constitute a socio-political body…apart from those of either parent bloc…At this point, ethnogenesis is not yet completed, because the hybrid populations still retain [an] umbilical connection to either or both parent blocs (p. 94)."

In our view, the originally-formed Melungeon community (1540 – 1890) constituted an emergent ethnic community; one which combined aspects of Sephardic Jewish, Muslim Moorish and Indigenous culture (see Hirschman 2005). Nearby hybridized communities tended to be dominated by Indigenous culture which Albers (1996) terms an ethnic bloc confederation. Included among these communities would be the Chickasaw, Cherokee, Pamunkey and Powhatan nations post-1650 (Kennedy 1997; Yates 2003). The Lumbee nation of North Carolina would likely constitute, as with the Melungeons, an emergent ethnic community (see Blu 1980).

Supporting this classification is the fact that among the Melungeon communities in Appalachia there were shared conventions of worship (Old Primitive Baptist), funerary procedures, foodways (e.g., ‘tomato’ and ‘chocolate’ gravy) and child-rearing patterns that set them apart from both white and indigenous settlements in the area (Bible 1975; Ball 1969; Kennedy 1997).

As will be discussed below, this original community was largely destroyed during the late 1800’s to early 1900’s as a result of racist activities which occurred at the local, state and federal levels. The present Melungeon community, in our view, is in the early stages of ethnogenesis – it is attempting to learn what it means to be a Melungeon. As we shall show, learning to consume like a Melungeon is a key ingredient in the ethnogenic process.

Early in the Melungeon Movement (1995-2000) efforts were made to extend consumption boundaries to the products and practices of those groups from which particular Melungeons believed themselves to be descended (Adams 2000, Wilson 2001, and see also Kennedy 1997). This frequently meantidentifying specific foodstuffs, musical styles, herbal remedies and so forth to sample and "see if it feels right", as one put it. As Melungeon ethnogenesis evolved from 2000 to the present, attention increasingly has turned to melding these newly-adopted ethnic folkways with the traditions of southern Appalachian regional culture with which most Melungeons grew up. At present, several Melungeons seem to have arrived at a comfortable homeostasis, balancing their former consumption patterns with newly acquired tastes and behaviors. We term this prospecting, because it suggests a purposeful searching to consume in ways viewed as appropriate to one’s new ethnic identity. Prospecting consumer behaviors may be directed toward any area of consumption, but most commonly seem to occur with regard to foodstuffs. Metaphorically we interpret this as a way of imbibing/sampling one’s new self; while metaphysically it implies re-constructing oneself from the inside out.

Occasionally, pre-existing Appalachian practices have been imbued with new meanings, as they become recognized as links to a previously invisible Melungeon ancestral past. We term this process retrospecting, as it involves the re-interpretation by group members of objects, practices, and behaviors they already engage in as being previously ‘hidden’ or ‘unseen’ markers of their new ethnic status. For example, the recollection that one’s grandparents strictly avoided pork had not been previously recognized as indicating Jewish or Muslim ethnicity.

Herbal Remedies

In several instances herbal remedies present in Appalachian culture for many generations have been retraced to Melungeon and American Indian roots. Because both of these ancestries were deemed a negative status within the southeastern U.S. until recently, the use of herbal medicines prior to Melungeon ethnogenesis usually was not attributed to one’s own ancestors, but rather said to be the province of a specific ‘herb doctor’ or ‘herb healer’ unrelated to oneself. Postings from the Melungeons @ Topic-A community bulletin board describe some of these remedies which now are publicly being claimed as part of the poster’s Melungeon ancestral history:

My great aunt got so aggravated when we couldn’t get her any more Swamp Root and Black Root. My father-in-law used slippery elm, yellow root, burdock root, calmus, and others. Catnip tea has a calming effect on the stomach…You can tie a piece of potato on a wart for a day or two and it will go away…, or [you can] go to one of our people here in the hills and they will rub it and it will go away. My wife can attest to that from experience. My wife’s elderly cousin once kissed our newborn infant, so that she would not have thrush mouth. (3/16/2003MTA)

My dad is into all the herbs…and like pressure points in your body…He does make lots of field trips to the foothills to collect specimens and take photos,…like wild tobacco and Indian herbs. He is a colorful little Melungeon…. Also to clear up seed warts,…he can make them come out and die…I had a large one on my foot… and he got rid of it right away… (3/16/2003 MTA)

I know grandpa grew herbs and used a cut stick just a little longer than my son was to cure him of asthma, and it worked…He could dowse for water, but his brother, Richmond Brewer, could not only dowse for it, but tell you how deep to dig. And of course, we had our ‘dreams’ and ‘feelings’ that came true. I still have them. It was never called magic in our family, but a gift from God to be used for good. If you used it for evil, it was dangerous. Grandma could take a needle, put it on a string, and it would go in a circle if you were having a girl and back and forth if you were having a boy…She was always right. Didn’t have ultra-sound back then, but didn’t need it. (1/28/2004) MTA

I know for a fact my kin kept some parts of [dangerous] animals they had [killed] up on their properties as charms of some kind, maybe to keep future animals at bay… I know my Dad’s Aunt Ella told me herself about a mountain lion that someone had killed and nailed a paw to the shed … (1/28/2004) MTA

My father taught me some about Cherokee medicine that he knew. We’d spend time looking for herbs in the woods together. Some of the herbal stuff he taught me has been tremendously useful in my life, and he taught me some of the Native spirituality he learned growing up…My friends when I was young were weirded out by some of the foods we ate, like pokeweed Jellico, roasted cat tails (young cattail plants can be cooked like corn on the cob, the roots can be made into a starchy flour), and venison jerky...My father was a Spencer who lived in North Carolina around the Grassy Creek area…He had ruddy skin, black hair and ice blue eyes…Had very Indian-looking features." (4/27/3003 MTA)

The attribution in the quote directly above to "Cherokee medicine" is what Albers (1996) would term an ‘umbilical link’ to one of the Melungeons’ founding ethnicities. Historically, several Southeastern indigenous communities fed into the Melungeon population from the 1500’s onward (Yates 2003). These became amalgamated after 1640 when susceptibility to European diseases caused a demographic collapse among Native populations across the Eastern seaboard (Stojanowski 2005). The Cherokees, a native nation already in place prior to the arrival of European colonists, intermarried with Europeans from the outset. This early pattern of hybridization likely saved both the Cherokee culture and population, as illnesses such as smallpox, typhus and measles decimated less mixed indigenous peoples (Albers 1996, Hill 1996; Sattler 1996; Stojanowski 2005; Yates 2003).

Because the Cherokee, by default, became the dominant indigenous nation in the area inhabited by Melungeons, those Melungeons who believe they have Native ancestors often label them as "Cherokee". In actuality, by the 1700’s the Cherokee were a collection of several surviving Native peoples; likely their folkways and genetics reflected a diversity gained from both Indigenous and European inputs. Thus, when current Melungeons hark back to Cherokee consumption practices, they are making attributions to an already ethnically mixed society.

However, it is important to understand the repatriation of Melungeons with their indigenous medicinal heritage as an act of complex and multi-layered meanings. On one level it represents a willingness to publicly avow animistic, non-scientific cultural practices. Most Melungeon medical traditions are based on Nature-grounded spirituality and what would be regarded by many American consumers as archaic superstition. The current willingness to not only publicly announce these practices, but to attest to their efficacy speaks to a new-found confidence in the wisdom of one’s forebears. On a different level, it gives voice to an anger and resentment toward the larger culture outside Appalachia, whose dominance and repressive ways led to ethnic abandonment or concealment over the past two to three generations. On yet an additional level, the reclamation of such practices signifies a bond across all those indigenous peoples made to feel less worthy, less desirable and less ‘evolved’ than the colonializing populations who engulfed them (Bell 2005; Haley and Wilcoxon 2005).