Melungeon

Melungeon

Melungeon schoolgirls from Hancock County, Tennessee in front of the Melungeon boarding school in Asheville, North Carolina, c. 1916
Regions with significant populations
United States (East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia,[1][2] North Carolina, and Kentucky[2])
Languages
Southern American English
Religion
Predominately Protestant Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Lumbee, Atlantic Creole, Turks of South Carolina, Chestnut Ridge people, White Southerners, Black Southerners, Native Americans, Dominickers, Redbone (ethnicity), Mulatto, Coloureds, Griqua people, Basters, Métis, Black Indians in the United States, Garifuna

Melungeon (/məˈlʌndʒən/ mə-LUN-jən) (sometimes also spelled Malungean, Melangean, Melungean, Melungin^[3]) was a slur^[4] historically applied to individuals and families of mixed-race ancestry with roots in colonial Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina primarily descended from free people of color and white settlers.^[5][6][7][8] In modern times, the term has been reclaimed by descendants of these families, especially in southern Appalachia.^[9][10][11] Despite this mixed heritage, many modern Melungeons pass as White, as did many of their ancestors.^{[12][13][14][15][16]}

Most of the modern population have an estimated 1-2% non-European DNA, though jumping up to 20% or more in some groups, such as the Lumbee.^[18][19][20] Despite non-European DNA being in the minority for these groups, the impact of the one-drop rule either did, or had the potential to, label them as non-white. This redesignation resulted in some individuals being sterilized by state governments, most notably in Virginia.^[21][22][23]

Many groups have historically been referred to as Melungeon, including the Melungeons of Newman's Ridge,^[24] the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina,^[25][26] the Chestnut Ridge people,^[27] and the Carmel Indians.^[28]

Free people of color in colonial Virginia were predominately of African and European descent; however, many families also had varying amounts of Native American and East Indian ancestry.^{[29][30][31][32][33][34]}

Some modern researchers believe that early Atlantic Creole slaves, descended from or acculturated by Iberian lançados^[35] and Sephardi Jews fleeing the Inquisition,^{[36][37][38][39][40]} were one of the pre-cursor populations to these groups.^[41][42][43] Many creoles, once in British America, were able to obtain their freedom and many married into local white families.^{[44][45][46][47][48]}

In the general US census, Melungeon people were enumerated as of the races to which they most resembled.^[49]