On Sun, Oct 05, 2003 at 09:13:03AM +0800, Grant Lee wrote:
> The mail below was just forwarded to me and has some relevance to this
> topic. (Edited by me for length and typos.) The Melungeons (sic) are
> possibly another example of a state created, blended colonial ethnicity.
> Like many peoples who originated in pre-literate times, they have virtually
> forgotten their origins.
>
> (By way of background, recent DNA surveys have identified -- among present
> day Melungeons -- an unusually high number of genes associated with the
> Mediterranean, the Middle East and South/Central Asia. One intriguing
> theory is that their origins were in "mixed race" people from
> Spanish/Portuguese colonies, on what is now the south east coast of the US.
> The name is said to have the same roots as "melange". CF
> http://www.discover.com/may_03/featfrom.html DISCOVER Vol. 24 No. 5 (May
> 2003) Where do we really come from? By Kathleen McGowan.)
>
>
> > From: "Curtis Christy"[email address deleted]
> > To: <AUS-CONVICTS-L at rootsweb.com>
> > Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2003 8:20 PM
>
> * * * *
>
> > I have no Australian ancestry at all. BUT I think there is a certain kind
> > of relationship to be found between those of us who are descended from the
> > people I come from (in the Appalachian Mountains of Eastern North
> > America)
> > and those of you who are descended from British and Irish ancestors who
> > were
> > taken to Australia to serve sentences as transported convicts . . .
>
> * * * *
>
> > My people are the Melungeons. We are referred to as "tri-racial
> > isolates" -- the ostensibly white descendants of probably at least one
> > African [...] some Indian of the Southeast part of what is now the United
> > States, and [generations] of whites marrying into those lines, making us
> > virtually indistinguishable from most other white people . . . except for
> > some characteristics that may pop up and demand explanation every
> > generation
> > or two. I, for example, have a kind of Sarcoidosis that is usually
> > "reserved" for people of Mediterranean or African descent. I have no
> > ancestry from anywhere near the Mediterranean since before the 1600's.
> > But
> > I do come from Melungeon lines, and although Melungeons have been very
> > effective at hiding their heritage (through the use of the "family secret"
> > no longer passed down), we know that one line in particular were still
> > being
> > referred to as "mulattos" in the mid 1800's.
>
> * * * *
>
> > Many Melungeon families have relied on the story
> > that great-great-great grandpa was a "Portugee" as the
> > easy "Caucasian" explanation for mixed heritage physical
> > features of some family members. When recent genealogical and historical
> > context
> > work . . . and now even DNA studies . . . have revealed
> > an African presence in our blood that is difficult to
> > continue denying, some Melungeon descendants' denial goes WAY beyond the
> > old
> > "river in Africa" adage (i.e., "denial" ain't just a river in Africa!) .
> > . . in fact, ANYWHERE but Africa seems to be the battle-cry of some
> > detractors of the truth behind the well-accepted problem of the Melungeon
> > family secret, why it has been so endemic in our lines, what drove it in
> > case after case, and why the secret IN EVERY CASE ceased to be passed on
> > the
> > next generation [...] the same reason that found it
> > necessary to live in the most remote, inaccessible areas of the
> > Appalachians
> > instead of remaining in North and South Carolina and Virginia as the laws
> > affecting people of color began to change in the tide of development of
> > chattel slavery in those colonies and then states.
>
> * * * *
>
> > So what's all this got to do with your Convict ancestors?
> > >
> > I suspect that the family secret was treated in much the same way:
> > FORGOTTEN and failed to be passed down. Those ancestors did not
> > anticipate
> > YOU and your curiosity OR that there might ever be a
> > great-great-grandchild
> > who might actually be PROUD of the ancestor who was transported for
> > essentially being of a somewhat different social or political
> > point-of-view
> > than those who ran Old Bailey and who meted out "justice" in a way now
> > understood to be more criminal than those it punished.
>
> * * * *
>
> > I fully believe that some of the worst bigotry in the South is a
> > reflection of self-loathing by those who feared the secret getting out so
> > much that they became the most vehement race-haters in their respective
> > regions . . . always the first to rally the cry against people of darker
> > complexion moving their belongings through the valleys and down the
> > hollows:
> > "We don't want your kind around here Git!" . . . thus driving others less
> > far removed from their African further into the brambles and brush, deeper
> > into the obscurity of American mythology, making us less trusting of
> > outsiders...
>
> * * * *
>
> > Curtis
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu