Appalachian History: the Melungeons Online

When European settlers first arrived in the area of Mt. Airy, North Carolina, they found land and Indians - both of which they expected. But they also found something they did not expect: the Melungeons.

The Melungeons are one of the most interesting pieces of history in Appalachia. The U.S Bureau of Indian Affairs rejected the idea of granting them status as Indians - although it was clear that they had intermarried with Indians. The Tennessee Constitution refers to them as "free people of color"; most scholars agree that there is at least some African ancestry among the Melungeons. The rest of their ancestry is fodder for consderable debate: Welsh, Arab, Turkish, Portugese, Irish... There are theories and evidences to support your choice. Bill Fields gives a (4-page) summary of the most widely accepted theory - that the Melungeon's European ancestry was some mix of Portugese and Arab or Turkish Muslims who had come to the Americas as sailors and been stranded.

My Interest in the Melungeons...

History and genetics has left me with a bump on the back of my head - an Anatolian bump at the base of my skull in between the two tendons that I tighten when I want to look up. The bump is considered by many to be a unique feature of the Melungeon community in the U.S.; it also exists in central Asian populations like the Turks.

History (or whoever's responsible for such things - I have my ideas) evdently could have been less kind to me than just a small bump on my head; many Melungeon communities have a high incident of children born with 6 fingers on one or both hands - another characteristic that can be found in Turkey.

My belief that I may have some Melungeon blood is also supported by a few other pieces of family history. My Mother's family has been in East Tennessee since the Revolution. Some pictures of my ancestors on her side look like they could have southern European or North African blood: dark skin, curly hairy, etc. Not a typical Scotch-Irish look.

A cousin of mine in Greenville, Tn. has been researching the Cruey family for some time and believes there is a Melungeon link with it, as well...

Melungeon Studies Today...

When I first started reading material about the Melungeons, One of the first things I came across was an online article by Mike McGlothlen: Melungeons and Other Mestee Groups. McGlothlen's article begins with a defination of the term Melungeon that he wrote to explain why he checks "Black" on questions about his ethnic background despite not being culturally Black and despite not having African-American features. His answer, basically, was that the Tennessee Constitution recognized the Melungeons and declared them to be "free persons of color."

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