The Mena weekly star., 1912-02-22
STRANGE PEOPLE
OF TENNESSEE
Whose Origin Is Shrouded in Mys'
tery-Admiral Farragut One OF
Them, MaybeTradition OF
Mutiny on Ship.

In the last decade there has been
a deep interest manifested by ed
|ucators, the church and ethnol-
ogists, in what is known as the
mountain people" many thous-
lands OF whom are scattered over
iparts of Kentucky, Tennessee,
North Carolina and Georgia. Much
has been done for these people,
many of whom are descended from
lCovenanter and Revolutionary
stock, but are the unfortunate VIC
| Tins Of environment and lack OF
opportunities. Many strong, virlle
men and women have come from
them. Many have become teachers
land returned to make their own
people their life work. But there
lis also another people, who have
lived in the mountains OF eastern
Tennessee for more than a century;
separate and distinct from all
Iothers, whose ancestry is shrouded
in mystery 1.-The mystery OF obscur-
lily. They have lived their simple
pastoral life and for more than a
hundred years so quietly and OBJ
securely that their name is unknown
to many. No encyclopedia men
tons them, and the ethnologist has
given them no study. They are the
MeIungeons -their very name being
a corruption of some foreign word
unknown to them or to the few
who have given them any study.
lThey have had no poet or seer to
preserve their history.
The Melungeons have tradition
of Portuguese ship and mutiny,
with the successful mutineers
bleaching the vessel on the North
Carolina coast; then their retreat
toward the mountains, farther and
farther away from the avenging
law of man, going on where ma
lures barriers were their protection
from a relentless foe-swept into
1.-THE haven by the hand of fate.
THESE strange people seem to have
lbeen forgotten by century Of
Icivilization, that has left its inn
Ipress on everything else. They
| still have some names that suggest
this Portuguese ancestry-such as
Sylvester, but their surnames are
anglicized to such a degree that to
trace them to the originals would
be impossible.
The Portuguese mutineers came to
a region almost uninhabited and
because settlers were so few and
scattered the strangers were I'M
lmolested. Beyond the mountains
THAT hemmed them in was the insti-
tuition of slavery; when they went
beyond their narrow confines they
lwere in contact with the influence
and prestige OF the STAKEHOLDER. In
all save holding communities, all
lpersons not white, or Indians, were
classed as negroes, and the name
Melungeon was generally under
stood to mean a class of mixed
FLOODED but free negroes. This
they always resented and insisted on
their Portuguese ancestry. By the
constitution of 1884, all persons OF
Icolor were deprived of franchise in
Tennessee, and by an especial act
of the legislature these people
Iwere given the right to vote. To
Iprove they were not negroes, the
beautiful hands and feet of some
Iof the race were examined and the
marked difference between them
and negroes decided the question in
their favor. The late John Neither
Hand of Tennessee obtained the
fright of citizenship for them, and
their deep gratitude was manifest
ed toward him in every way as
Hong as he lived
As a class, they are faithful
friends. They have a kindly ma
lture and personal friendship car
ries a degree of unselhshness that
could we'll be initiated in higher
life. Though they resented being
considered as negroes, they never
presumed to be on an equality with
the whites, but were well content
to occupy an intermediate ground
IA sort of third estate They
lare shrinking, timid people out
side Of their own boundaries. Dur
| ing the Civil war a few OF them
were in the Southern army, but