August 01, 2005

Who are the Melungeons? A group of people in the American Southeast are trying to re-define their racial and cultural identity.

According to historian Wayne Winkler, the Melungeons were originally designated as the decendants of “white trash, renegade Indians, and runaway slaves," and Appalacian parents warned their children to be good "or the Melungeons will get you!" Melungeons were legally defined as non-white, and this definition was used to deny them education or legal recourse. Since the American Civil Rights movement, Melungeons have preferred to be called either "tri-racial" or "multi-racial." Just what that racial mix is has become something of a controversy. Self-identified Melungeon Brent Kennedy has championed the theory that the mix includes Northern European, African, Native American, and Mediterranean roots. However, he is willing to go beyond this definition because he considers melungeon to be a cultural definition because "contrary to what some have said on the lists and elsewhere, the "Melungeon Movement" has nothing to do with championing one theory of origin over another. Those who see it this way once again miss the broader picture. The "Movement" is entirely about accepting diversity and recognizing human kinship, regardless of skin color or hair texture or DNA results. It emphasizes a global, versus tribal, view of humanity." Kennedy also theorizes that Elvis Presley, Ava Gardner and Abraham Lincoln might have Melungeon roots. Here's a link to the book that largely kickstarted the Melungeon movement.

posted by meredithea 19 years ago
  • "Melungeon" has also traditionally geographically defined, an example of type as manifested in a particular place (so by that I'm not Melungeon); the Lumbees of North Carlina (and Baltimore) are similar, among others. See for example Mike Nassau's Melungeons and Other Mestee Groups; another good resource is Brewton Berry's classic book Almost White. Another page by Mike Nassau is "WHAT IS A MELUNGEON?" (He's been busy.)
  • There's also (I should have guessed it) www.melungeon.org
  • Veddy interesting stuff! )))
  • Ooooh! Thank you for this post, meredithea! I've been looking for information on the Melungeons since reading about them in Bill Bryson's the Lost Continent, but I hadn't had any luck looking online. Once again, excellent post.
  • Thanks :) I heard about them on a television show last night, so I got all interested and Googled around a bit. Thanks also for the further links, monkeys!
  • Oh cool! My sister and I grew up in Appalachia (rural east TN actually not too far from Sneedville) and were always hearing stories about the Melungeons up in the mountains (or "blue people" as they were sometimes called). There was often speculation about who in our town might have Melungeon blood. I've enjoyed actually discovering more about the ancestry of these folks.
  • The BBC has a correspondent in Appalachia???
  • Interesting post. Interesting people.
  • Lee Smith wrote a novel with a Melungeon character but I can't remember which one it is. Googling led me to this book which includes Lee Smith and Sharyn McCrumb, among others. Strong recommendations for Lee Smith if anyone's looking for something to read & is interested in Appalachia - she's wonderful.
  • Absolutely facinating, meredithea. I am traveling to Cherokee, NC later this week to shoot some video for the Cherokee Museum and when I read the Cherokee conection, I sent these links to the creative director I am working on the project with. Thanks for the info!
  • One thing I find ironic is how the issues of race are still important here in the US, especially when you compare it to the rest of the Americas. The people of Latin America have a much fuzzier concept of race and culture. Mexicans are, for the most part, a mestizo race. True, you have upper crust Mexicans who trace their pure Spanish blood, but most Mexicans are insistently proud of their mestizo heritage. The Cubans and Brazilians are the most casual about interracial mixing, the Argentines probably the least (due to their mostly European heritage). Anyway, I thought it worth mentioning...
  • While there may not be as much emphasis on race, there is still emphasis on skin color in many countries. One of the profs in my department is from Puerto Rico (yes, still technically part of America) and has talked about the fact that she is "white" and how that helped her attempted acting career (before they stopped producing telenovellas in Puerto Rico) and I've read Island Possesed which is about Haiti and the author, an African-American woman, talks about how some of her friends weren't even welcome in the hotel she was staying in because of their dark complection (she herself was only allowed to stay there because of the status that being American afforded her). Of course, the only other country I've been to is Canada, so I've no first hand knowledge of any other countries (although while in Canada, I am always impressed by the number of interracial relationships on Canadian televison).
  • Great post! You'll want to check out this classic y2karl post at MeFi for more miscegenated goodness.
  • Hey, I'm glad the post helped you, squidranch! Have fun in NC. My great-grandfather claimed to be Cherokee, but I think he was really white (at least mostly). He ran a wild West show, though, so claiming to be Native American could have helped his rep professionally.