While the Melungeon people faced social isolation due to their non-white heritage, they rarely faced legal penalties for it. In this regard, Melungeons retained enough European ancestry to still participate in many institutions of the United States but still be treated with racial scorn and remain isolated from broader social acceptance. Most Melungeon records show that people who were known as Melungeon were ‘Free Persons of Color’ or FPCs. Most Melungeons had the right to vote as well as the right to military service. ![]() While the Melungeons were certainly a multi-racial group of people they retained many rights that were not normally prevalent at the time in the United States. While the current genealogical research allows scholars a greater understanding of who the Melungeon people are, there are still many complex narratives revolving around their history. The improvements in genetic testing have allowed scholars and genealogists a greater understanding in their knowledge about the Melungeon people. Recent DNA evidence points to ethnic origins ranging from Native American, African, European, and Middle Eastern heritages. These theories fail to recognize the recent DNA evidence which presents the Melungeons as a largely multi-racial people with ethnic differences between families. Another theory that also points to a European origin is the concept that the Melungeons were the result of Desoto’s soldiers’ sexual encounters with Native American women during their travels through the Appalachian Mountains. With the issues of social isolation and racial prejudice, these mixed-race people moved to the Appalachian Mountains to live in isolation.Īnother theory argues that the Melungeons are neither Native American nor African American but the descendants of shipwrecked Portuguese sailors who began living in the Appalachian Mountains. These unions created children who were neither African or European and therefore became social rejects of the larger European society. The Jamestown hypothesis argues that the Melungeon people are the result of unions between European and African indentured servants that lived in close proximity. In this regard, a theory has been postulated that points to the Jamestown hypothesis. Others have pointed to similarities in the African American community that can be compared to the physical attributes of the Melungeon people. Still some point to the Melungeons as having Middle Eastern ancestry explaining their darker appearance, describing them as closer to Turkish people. ![]() Many have theorized that the Melungeons were mixed race children of Native American and European descent. These descriptions and their status as a mysterious group of people who largely stayed isolated among themselves have sparked many theories as to the possible ethnicity of the Melungeon people. Physical descriptions of the Melungeon people generally characterize them as dark olive-skinned people with straight dark hair and a large variety of eye colors. Whether these words have any relation to the modern term Melungeon is a point of debate and can only further stoke the mystery of who the Melungeon people of Appalachia are. The Turkish also have a term known as melun that can mean cursed soul. Older words such as Melan in Greek refer to one who has dark skin. In French, the word Mélange refers to mixture giving the context of a mixed racial group. The term Melungeon is a point of debate having similar relations in multiple languages but no definitive origin. ![]() Others say they are a lost tribe of Indians having no date of their existence here, traditionally or otherwise.” (Jarvis 1903) ![]() Some have said these people were here when the white people first explored this country. It is not a traditional name or tribe of Indians. They have been derisively dubbed with the name “Melungeons” by the local white people who have lived here with them. The debate regarding the origin of the Melungeon people is an old one and can be seen in the testimony of Captain Lewis Jarvis regarding his encounters with Melungeon people in his writing in the Hancock County News in 1903, “Much has been said and written about the inhabitants of Newman’s Ridge and Blackwater in Hancock County, Tenn. The origins and ethnicity of the Melungeons are a point of debate however there are multiple documents and cultural similarities that can be used to determine who the Melungeons most likely are. Within the Appalachian Mountains, from the mountainous regions of Tennessee and Virginia, to parts of Kentucky, there has traditionally been a group of people known as the Melungeons.
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