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Chestnut Ridge people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| About 1,500 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 United States | |
| Languages | |
| English | |
| Religion | |
| Protestant | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Melungeons, Native Americans |
The Chestnut Ridge people (CRP) are a mixed-race community concentrated in an area northeast of Philippi, Barbour County, in north-central West Virginia, with smaller related communities in the adjacent counties of Harrison and Taylor. They are often referred to as "Mayles" (from the most common surname — Mayle or Male), or "Guineas" (now considered a pejorative term).[1][2]
The group has been the subject of county histories and some scholarly studies. Some scholars have classified this group as a tri-racial isolate. Contemporary census records frequently designate community members as "mulattos", implying African heritage. Thomas McElwain wrote that many CRP identified as an Indian-white mixed group, or as Native American, but they are not enrolled in any officially recognized tribe.[3] Paul Heinegg documented that many individuals were classified as free people of color, or similar terms in a variety of colonial, local and state records.
Some CRP have identified as Melungeon, a mixed-race group based in Kentucky and Tennessee, and attended the Melungeon unions, or joined the Melungeon Heritage Association. In 1997 two local historians made a presentation about the "Guineas of West Virginia" at the University of Virginia's College at Wise.[4]
- ^ Price, Edward T., "A Geographical Analysis of White-Negro-Indian Racial Mixtures in the Eastern United States" Archived 2008-03-30 at the Wayback Machine, Association of American Geographers Annals, Vol. 43 (June 1953) pp. 138-55.
- ^ Gaskins, Avery F. (1970), "The Epithet "Guinea" in Central West Virginia"; West Virginia University Philological Papers 17: pp. 41-44.
- ^ McElwain, Thomas (1981), Our Kind of People: Identity, Community, and Religion on Chestnut Ridge, A Study of Native Americans in Appalachia, (Stockholm Studies in Comparative Religion, No. 20).
- ^ Joanne Johnson Smith & Florence Kennedy Barnett, "The Guineas of West Virginia: A Transcript of A Presentation at First Union" Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, 25 July 1997; Wise, Virginia
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