Mellungeons and Myth
- Tuesday, October 01, 2002 -
INTRODUCTION
This article was published originally in the December 2002 issue of the Appalachian Quarterly, a genealogical magazine in southwest Virginia. Mountain people were at one time described as pure Anglo-Saxon. This was, of course, pure nonsense. Today some writers seem obsessed with describing mountaineers as mostly Celtic or Scots-Irish. The truth is that the mountain people have a varied ancestry, as do many people in America. I grew up among Gibson and Collins families in Knott County, Kentucky. Some members of a few families were very dark, with a distinctive Indian appearance, while some members had a more African American appearance. There were other local families that were said to have African American or Indian ancestry. Through genealogical research I have established that a very talented Knott County family of banjo players had a grandfather that was described as Mulatto in census records.
Gibson and Collins are common surnames among some remnant Indian populations. They are also the most common surnames among mountain families that are today described as “Melungeon.” There has been a lot of romantic nonsense written about Melungeons in various places, including the Internet. The Gibson and Collins families described today as Melungeon came originally from east Virginia to the border counties of Virginia and North Carolina. From there they migrated to southwest Virginia, northeast Tennessee, eastern Kentucky and to other areas. I have found that several other families in eastern Kentucky also followed this general migration path. It was through this migration path, I believe, that banjos and banjo songs entered Knott County.
MELUNGEONS AND MYTH
I grew up in Knott County, Kentucky. I learned at an early age that there were two groups of Gibson families: one group was described as black, the other white. I remember my father telling me about an elderly Gibson that lived near his grandfather. Dad said this Gibson was "black," but claimed to be Portuguese. I have since learned there is a record of families in northeast Tennessee who claimed to be Portuguese.
My father''s statement was unusual enough that I have remembered it for over fifty years. I was reminded of this recently when I visited a Baptist Minister in Kentucky. We were discussing our families when he remarked in a matter-of-fact manner: "You know, your family is from the old xxxxx Gibson set, but the xxxxx Gibson set were mulattoes." I am not using first names, because this is still a sensitive subject for some people. I have since researched and found that my Gibson ancestors were neighbors of the ancestors of the "black" Gibsons in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee, so I suspect there was some relationship between the families. I have always been curious why some people, whom others defined as mulattoes or Indian, should claim to be Portuguese.
I have read books about Melungeons in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia. Gibson and Collins are the most common names among these people. Gibson and Collins, of course, are names common in east Kentucky, particularly in Knott and Letcher Counties. I feel the Melungeon label has been used as a broad brush to include different families and groups of people that may have had differing origins. None of the people now so labeled ever claimed to be Melungeon. This was originally a derisive term used in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee to describe people with darker skins.
The minutes of the Stony Creek Baptist Church (1801-1814) in Scott County Virginia provide a wonderful window into the past. These minutes have been of interest to me because the most common name in the Church was Gibson. Some of the Gibson members were likely among my ancestors. The disparaging reference in the minutes to a member harboring "Melungins" has generated a lot of comment. The "Melungins" being harbored were probably a different group of people who had moved in, or were passing through the area. These people must have had some obvious differences with the local population. These differences most likely included a darker skin.
The most interesting aspect of the Stony Creek minutes for me, however, was the presence of black members in the church. Black and white people socialized together in early Colonial America and on the early frontier. The increasingly repressive laws regarding free blacks and slaves, especially prior to the Civil War, helped create divisions between black and white neighbors. These laws were coupled with a view, perpetuated by some Northerners and many Southerners, that people with African American ancestry were somewhat less than human. A few Baptist churches in the mountains, however, treated slaves and free blacks with more respect than they received elsewhere. The Stony Creek Baptist Church was one of these. The following question was posed in the minutes for February 26, 1809:
"A query to the church concerning a Black brother or Sister should be taken for a witness against a white Sister or Brother. The church answers, yes."
This statement is a wonderful testament to the members of this church, especially considering the treatment blacks were receiving in other areas of both the North and the South.
