Melungeon
Mixed-race group from the South Central Appalachian region of the United States / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Melungeons (/məˈlʌndʒənz/ mə-LUN-jənz) (sometimes also spelled Malungeans, Melangeans, Melungeans, Melungins[3]) are a group of people from Appalachia who predominantly descend from northern or central Europeans and sub-Saharan Africans. Their ancestors were likely brought to Virginia as indentured servants in the mid-17th century.[1]
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Regions with significant populations | |
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United States (East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia,[1][2] and Kentucky[2]) | |
Languages | |
Appalachian English | |
Religion | |
Protestant Christianity (Baptist; Pentecostal)[citation needed] |
According to the 1894 Department of Interior Report of Indians Taxed and not Taxed within the "Tennessee" report, "The civilized (self-supporting) Indians of Tennessee, counted in the general census numbered 146 (71 males and 75 females) and are distributed as follows: Hawkins county, 31; Monroe county, 12; Polk county, 10; other counties (8 or less in each), 93. Quoting from the report:
The Melungeans or Malungeans, in Hawkins county, claim to be Cherokees of mixed blood (white, Indian, and negro), their white blood being derived, as they assert, from English and Portuguese stock. They trace their descent primarily to 2 Indians (Cherokees) known, one of them as Collins, the other as Gibson, who settled in the mountains of Tennessee, where their descendants are now to be found, about the time of the admission of that state into the Union (1796).
In the general U.S. census, Melungeon people were enumerated as of the races to which they most resembled.[4]