Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-06
THE MELUNGEONs.
The Strange People I'm Tennessee who
Make Moonlight Whisky.

1 Make Moonlight Whisky.
DIR. BURNETT DISCUSSES THEIR ORIGIN BEFORE
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL socIETr--A PEOPLE
! PAPERS PRESENTED
"a note on the Melungeons' was the rather
unpromising title Of an extremely interesting
paper read last evening before the Anthropo-
logical society by DIR. Swan NJ. Burnett. lie
gends OF the Melungeons," he said, 81 first
heard at my fathers knee as a child in the
mountains of eastern Tennessee and the name
had such ponderous and inhuman sound as to
associate them in my mind with the giants and
| o6res OF the wonder tales listened to in the
winter evenings before the cracking logs in the
| wlde-mouthed fireplace. And when I CHANGED
to waken in the night and the fire had died down
on the hearth, and the wind swept with demo-
MAC shrek and terrifying roar around and
| through the house, rafting the windows and the
loose clapboards on the roof, shrank under
the bedclothes trembling with fear that was
lmost an expectation that one of these huge
! creatures would come down the chimney with
a rush, seize me with his dragon-like arms. and
carry me off to his cave in the mountains, there
to devour me piecemeal."
| MELUNGEoNs ARE PEOPLE.
SIN the course of time, however, I came to
learn that these creatures with the awe-inspir-
ing name were people somewhat like our
| selves. but with difference. learned, too,
that they were not only different from us, the
| white, but also from the negroes-slave or free
and from the Indian. They were something
set apart from anything had seen or heard of.
| Neither was the exact nature OF this difference
manifest even in more mature years. when a
childish curiosity had given away to an inter-
| est more scientific in its character. There was
! evidently caste distinction as there was be-
tween the white and negro, and there was also
difference between them and the free
negroes. No one seemed to know posi-
lively that they or their antecedents
had ever been in slavery, and they did not
themselves claim to belong to any tribe of In
dams in that part of the country. They re-
sented the appellation Melungeon, given to
them by common consent by the whites, and
proudly called themselves Portuguese. The
current belief was that they were mixture of
the white.- Indian and negro. On what data
| that opinion was based have never been able
to determine. but the very name Melungeon
would seem to indicate the idea OF
MIXED PEOPLE
in the minds of those who first gave them the
name. have never seen the name written nor
do know the precise way of spelling it, but
the first thought that would come to one on
hearing it would be that it was corruption of
the French word melangee-mixed.
1t was not, however, until had left East
Tennessee and became interested in anthro-
pology-chiefy through my membership i'll this
society-that the peculiarities of these people
came to have any real significance for me, and
/ was then too far away from them to investi-
gate the matter personally to the extent de-
| sired. have, however, for several years past
pursued my inquiries as best could through
various parties living in the country and visit
ing it, but with no very pronounced success.
/ have thought it we'll, however, to put on rec
ord in the archives of this society the few notes
have been able to obtain, trusting that some
one with better opportunity may be induced to
pursue the matter further.
FROM NORTH CAROLINA
sit appears that they came originally into
East Tennessee from North Carolina, and the
largest settlement of them went to what was at
that time Hawkins county. but which is now
Hancock. 1 have not been able to hear of
them in any of the lower counties OF East
Tennessee. and those l have seen myself were
in Cooke county. bordering on North Carolina
At what time this emigration took place is by
no means certain, but 1t was certainly as long
ago seventy-five or eighty years. One man,
Old Col. Collins in Hancock county. claims
that his father fought in the Revolution.
They are known generally by the names of
their families, as the Collinses. &C.. and on ac-
count OF the caste restriction which has always
been vigorously maintained. They do not in
termarry with the whites, and. SO far as know.
they have not recently intermarried with the
negroes or Indians. AS stated before, they
are held by the whites to be a mixed race with
at least a modicum of negro blood, and there is
at least one instance on record in which the
matter was brought before the courts 1t was
before the war-during the time of slavery
that the right of a member Of these people to
vote was called in question. The matter was
finally carried before jury. and the question
decided by an examination of the feet One,
believe, was found to be
SUFFICIENTLY FLAT FOOTED
to deprive him of the right of suffrage. The
other four or five in number were considered
as having sufficient white blood to allow them a
vote. Col. John Netherland a lawyer of con-
siderable local prominence, defended them.
1T should be stated, however, that there is
disposition on the part of the more thought
full of those among whom these people live to
give some credence to their claim of being a
distinct race, a few inclining to the Portu-
gese theory, some thinking that they may pos
sibly be gypsies, while yet Others think that
they may have entered the country as Portu-
guese or gypsies and afterward some
families may have intermingled with
the negroes or Indians or with both. So far as
have been able to learn, however, there was
not at any time settlement of Portuguese in or
near North Carolina of which there could have
been an off-shoot. Those that l have seen had
physical peculiarities which would lend plausi-
bilty to any one of the foregoing theories.
They are dark, but of different hue to the
ordinary mulatto, with either straight or wavy
hair, and some have cheek bones almost as
high as the Indians. The men are usually
straight. large and fine looking, while an old
woman saw was sufficiently hag-like to have
sat for the original Meg Merriles. As rule
they do not stand very high in the community,
and their reputation for honesty and truthful
ness is not to be envied. In this however.
there are said to be individual exceptions.
ILLICIT DIsTrIIFps
1T is perhaps characteristic of them that
since revenue tax has been placed by the
government on the manufacture of spirituous
liquors these people have been engaged largely
in Illicit distilling. But whatever NAV have
been their origin, it is still fact of interest
| that there has existed i'll East Tennessee for
nearly hundred years a class of people held
both by themselves and by the people among
| whom they live distinct and apart from the
three other races by whom they are surrounded
and trust that these few imperfect notes may
be the cause of making the study of them by
some one more competent than myself one of
photographic importance and value. For as
sistance in getting information am partcu-
larly indebted to DIR. J. u. Pierce, of Hawkins
county, Tenn. and to DIR. Gurley, OF the Smith
sonian institution"
The paper gave rise to quite discussion.
and the opinion was expressed that this might
be another instance of the permanency of a
people.
OTHER PAPERS,
The next paper, ON ''Stone monuments of