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Melungeon
Mixed-race group from the South Central Appalachian region of the United States / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Melungeons (/məˈlʌndʒənz/ mə-LUN-jənz) (sometimes also spelled Malungeans, Melangeans, Melungeans, Melungins[3]) are one of the many tri-racial isolate populations originating in colonial Virginia primarily descended from free people of color and white settlers.[4][5][6][7]
![]() Goins family, Melungeons from Graysville, Tennessee, c. 1920s | |
Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
United States (East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia,[1][2] North Carolina, and Kentucky[2]) | |
Languages | |
Southern American English | |
Religion | |
Protestant Christianity, historical minority Judaism, Islam, and Traditional African religions | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Lumbee, Atlantic Creole, Turks of South Carolina, Chestnut Ridge people, White Southerners, Black Southerners, Native Americans, Dominickers, Redbone (ethnicity), Mulatto |
Some modern researchers believe that early Atlantic Creole slaves, descended from or acculturated by Iberian lançados[8] and Sephardi Jews fleeing the Inquisition,[9][10][11][12][13] were one of the pre-cursor populations to these groups.[14][15][16] Many creoles, once in British America, were able to obtain their freedom and many married into local white families.[17][18][19][20][21]
In the general U.S. census, Melungeon people were enumerated as of the races to which they most resembled.[22]