Beginning
in the early 1800s, or possibly before, the term Melungeon (meh-LUN'-jun) was used
as a derogatory term to describe a group of about 40 families along the
Tennessee-Virginia border. Often described as Portuguese and dressed strangely,
references to members of this group are scattered about historical records of
Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and even Ohio. There is no assumption that Melungeons in
this various regions were related in any way other that being of mixed heritage
and sharing similar features. Features such as darker skin color often paired
with blond or light-colored hair and blue eyes set them apart from the European
descended features of others in these regions during this time. [Photos of
Melungeon families have not been included in this blog entry so as not to
exploit the unnamed and un-cited use of images of people who have long since died]
I
include the aforementioned definition of Melungeon to illustrate that Kentucky
has a long history with the term Melungeon and has similar usage for its
meaning. There are many mixed race groups in the Americas and although much of
the Melungeon research focuses on specific geographical majority groups other
Melungeon groups existed and their descendants are still living to this
day. Many historians report that
Kentucky Melungeons were mainly from the Quadrule Indians although its
difficult to prove Cherokee Indians were present in the Harlan County, Kentucky
region where a significant population of Melungeons resided at the time. Searching Kentucky historical records is also
difficult due to the fact that since Kentucky’s commonwealth in 1792, it
utilized the ¼ rule that indicated that any person with ¼ or more Negro blood
was labeled mulatto, but the word Mulatto was used to convey Negro as
well. Other Melungeons were also
reported to have “passed” as denial of any African heritage was a common practice.
 |
|
Quadrule Falls Summer Print-
Anthony Heflin.
http://fineartamerica.com/products/quadrule-falls-summer-anthony-heflin-art-print.html Located adjacent to Martins Fork Lake, a 340-acre (1.4 km2) reservoir in Harlan County, Kentucky. The lake was impounded from a branch of the Cumberland River in 1979 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and is part of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Bell County, Kentucky. The lake is named for James Martin, an early pioneer in the area. The Waterfall in the picture is named after the Quaadrule Indian tribe that once resided there. http://www.harlancountytrails.com/martinsforkwma.php |
According
to the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians: “…conclude that the Quadrule existed
and that the entomology of the name derived from the word Quadroon, that was
commonly used to described persons of 1/4 African American heritage. However,
the early settlers obviously considered these Quadrule to be Native American
not African American. But historically it can be safely claimed that these
Quadrule were a tri-race.”[i]
There
are varied traditions about the occupations that Melungeons held, but in
Kentucky they culminated in occupations surrounding the coal mines, often
supplementing their income with hunting, fishing and digging for ginseng and
other roots to sell and trade.[ii]
Melungeons
were often categorized as free persons of color, but according to some
historians this group tried to hide or diminish the possibility of its African
heritage. There are several reports of
Melungeons refusing to allow their children to attend school with Negro
children and explicitly forbidding marriage with Negroes and Native Americans,
ironically enough. The reality is that
these mixed race individuals lived in a time where embracing one’s African
heritage was not an option for political, social and economic reasons. Today
the rejection of this ancestry can only be viewed as one thing, racism.
Since
its origination, the term Melungeon has become a catch-all phrase for a number
of groups of mysterious mixed-race ancestry.[iii] Historian
Michael Gomez argues in his work, “Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of
African Muslims in the Americas” that the multitude of references to Portuguese
and Moors in relation to the Melungeons created their folkloric
background. “In the struggle against
racialism in the United States, however, a kind of embraquecimento occurred, a form of sanitizing that sought to void
the African component.”[iv] Some
residents were all too proud to claim Portuguese and even Turkish ancestry, dependent
upon his or her situation, but when the Melungeon Core Y DNA Project[v]
undertook a genetic study in 2005 to analyze the DNA of Melungeon descendants
in Tennessee many were not pleased with its findings. In 2012, Janet Crain, Roberta Estes, Penny
Ferguson and Jack Goins co-authored "Melungeons: A Multi-Ethnic Population"
published in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy.
This article defined the Melungeon families and then discussed what was
revealed about each family line by their DNA results. It is important to note
that the significance of Native American genetic link is not emphasized, but
instead the African. You can download
the paper at
http://www.dnaexplain.com/Publications/PDFs/MelungeonsMulti-EthnicPeopleFinal.pdf.
On DNA-explained.com[vi]
you can also view video footage of the 2013 symposium[vii]:
The African Diaspora: Integrating Culture, Genomics and History was held at the
Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, DC. The National Human Genome Research Institute,
the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the National
Museum of Natural History featured scholars, scientists and practitioners from
various disciplines who are exploring the African Diaspora throughout
historical, cultural and genomic lenses with the purpose of understanding a
person’s ancestry and how that impacts individual health and collective
identity.
Setting
the Stage for Understanding Ancestry of African Americans (Panel) - Corey Dade
(Moderator) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K4A7e3clMM
Who were the Melungeons? Who are the
Melungeons today?
“The Melungeon people were reticent about their heritage and often hid their ethnic ancestry for fear of discrimination, one of the reasons the group became a “lost tribe,” even to themselves. EC Hirschman’s research has turned up genealogical and DNA evidence that suggests that such luminaries as Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, John Sevier (Xavier), President Abraham Lincoln, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash, subject of the film “A Beautiful Mind,” were of this same ethnic ancestry.”[viii] It is important to note that it is extremely difficult even with DNA testing to definitively prove genetic links to original Melungeons as direct links to earlier heritage were often broken as descendants married. What is important is that these individuals by most accounts were trans-racial (African, Native American, and White European) descended.*[ix] Today with resources such as Ancestry.com many Melungeons are embracing their African and Muslim heritage. Sadly some resources, such as one of the largest online resources for Melungeons, The Melungeon Heritage Association, fail to address the significance or role of Islam in Melungeon history.[x] I am not arguing from a perspective that Islam had a more significant role than it did, but I am acknowledging that Islamic names (Arabic, Turkish and Spanish (Moors)) are recorded throughout American history and to assume as many scholars did that the Islam that explorers, slaves, and early settlers brought with them simply and universally died out seems preposterous. It is more plausible that the conversos[xi] of the Iberian Peninsula are a better example of taqiyyah[xii] utilized by Muslims who needed to protect their lives and livelihood in foreign lands. This does put into question the resources for searching out one’s Muslim American heritage. Does Ancestry.com have a DNA group for Sharif, the African descendants of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) who were also transported to the Americas during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade?
“The Melungeon people were reticent about their heritage and often hid their ethnic ancestry for fear of discrimination, one of the reasons the group became a “lost tribe,” even to themselves. EC Hirschman’s research has turned up genealogical and DNA evidence that suggests that such luminaries as Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, John Sevier (Xavier), President Abraham Lincoln, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash, subject of the film “A Beautiful Mind,” were of this same ethnic ancestry.”[viii] It is important to note that it is extremely difficult even with DNA testing to definitively prove genetic links to original Melungeons as direct links to earlier heritage were often broken as descendants married. What is important is that these individuals by most accounts were trans-racial (African, Native American, and White European) descended.*[ix] Today with resources such as Ancestry.com many Melungeons are embracing their African and Muslim heritage. Sadly some resources, such as one of the largest online resources for Melungeons, The Melungeon Heritage Association, fail to address the significance or role of Islam in Melungeon history.[x] I am not arguing from a perspective that Islam had a more significant role than it did, but I am acknowledging that Islamic names (Arabic, Turkish and Spanish (Moors)) are recorded throughout American history and to assume as many scholars did that the Islam that explorers, slaves, and early settlers brought with them simply and universally died out seems preposterous. It is more plausible that the conversos[xi] of the Iberian Peninsula are a better example of taqiyyah[xii] utilized by Muslims who needed to protect their lives and livelihood in foreign lands. This does put into question the resources for searching out one’s Muslim American heritage. Does Ancestry.com have a DNA group for Sharif, the African descendants of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) who were also transported to the Americas during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade?
In more
recent years various studies have been produced to either support or debunk the
notion of Melungeon origins in families in the previously noted regions. I will not advocate for a position from
either side of such studies as I am not a scholar in this area and various “evidence”[xiii]
is in abundance. Not in abundance is genealogical
proof that is essential for most of the claimants of Melungeon status. Resources
such as the Melungeon Heritage Association[xiv]
seek to bring legitimacy and serve as an organizing body for researchers
seeking to pursue thorough research in the areas of genealogical history of
Melungeons. It was on this very website
that I first discovered the name of one of my maternal ancestors and was able
to note some very interesting characteristics of Melungeons, that albeit
superficial are still very present in my family. Additionally blogs such as Documenting the Melungeons and text such
as Pat Spurlock Elder’s Melungeons: examining an Appalachian Legend [xv]offer
research to dispel the misinformation in print and on the web.
In an episode
of KET’s (KY’s PBS channel) show “Kentucky Life” hosted by Bryon Crawford in
which the Melungeons of Kentucky are discussed. The episode is entitled “In
Search of Origins”[xvi]
and can be watched online here.
On a
non-Melungeon specific note one might also find the DNA research of the Atlanta
Masjid of Al-Islam[xvii]
significant because it establishes genealogical chains linking back to the
Hausa of Africa and other regions of African were Islam was present and/or
prevalent. The research findings were
recorded and can be viewed online via YouTube here.
[i]
http://ridgetopshawnee.blogspot.com/p/who-were-quadrule-indians-of-harlan.html
[ii]
Berry, Brewton. Almost White. New York: Macmillan, 1963.
[iii]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/24/melungeon-dna-study-origin_n_1544489.html
[iv]
Gomez, M. A. (2005). Black crescent: The experience and legacy of African
Muslims in the Americas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (191-2)
[v]
Conducted by Family Tree DNA https://www.familytreedna.com
[vi]
http://dna-explained.com/2014/02/02/the-african-diaspora-conference-videos-available/
[vii]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K4A7e3clMM
[viii]
Hirschman, E C, and D Panther-Yates. "Suddenly Melungeon! Reconstructing
Consumer Identity Across the Color Line." Research in Consumer Behavior.
11 (2007): 241-260.
[ix]
It is also possible that these persons were of Turkish descent dependent upon
where they were living.
[x]
A search of the term “Islam” or “Muslim” on this site offers 1 result. http://melungeon.ning.com/main/search/search?q=kentucky&page=2
[xi]
A Converso is a Muslim or Jew who
publicly converted to Christianity during the Spanish Inquisition for fear of
death.
[xii]
Taqiyyah is the practice of hiding
one’s belief under duress and it is mentioned in the Noble Qur’an in three
places: (1) Let not the believers take the disbelievers as guardians instead of
the believers, and whoever does this will never be helped by Allah in any way,
unless you indeed fear a danger from them (illa an tattaqu minhum tuqat)[3:28].
(2) Whoever disbelieved in Allah after his belief—except him who is forced
thereto and whose heart is at rest with faith. [16:106] (3) And a believing man
from Pharaoh’s family who hid his faith… [40:28]. Content sourced from: Inquiries About Shi'a Islam by Sayyid Moustafa Al-Qazwini
[xiii]
Evidence here alludes to photographs, family stories, newspaper references and
other artifacts
[xiv]
http://melungeon.ning.com
[xv]
Elder, Pat S. Melungeons: Examining an Appalachian Legend. Blountville, Tenn:
Continuity Press, 1999.
[xvi]
http://www.ket.org/kentuckylife/400s/kylife416.html
[xvii]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM-YRQZCz3k
[xviii]
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/Melungeon/2006-07/1153698062
No comments:
Post a Comment