European conquest of interior Angola began when Portugal attacked the Mbundu kingdom of Ndongo in the modern Malange district of Angola in a military campaign lasting from 1618-1620. At the time, England and its American colonies had no direct trade in African slaves. Nevertheless, during Portugal's war on Ndongo, Africans began appearing in British Virginia aboard Dutch and English privateers, which specialized in robbing Portuguese merchant-slavers leaving the Angolan port of Luanda.
Until recently, not much has been known about the Melungeons' African ancestors. New evidence now indicates that the black ancestors of Melungeons were peoples of Kimbundu and Kikongo-speaking Angola and historic Kongo along Africa's lower west coast. The nation of Mbundu in Angola yielded more black ancestors for Melungeons than any other African people.
From the 1620s, in southern British colonies like Virginia, white northern Europeans intermarried with Indians. They also intermarried with Africans who began entering the American colonies as early as 1619. Melungeons originate from these red, white and black peoples in this period of American history. They began forming identifiable separate mixed communities when the first anti-African laws started restricting some of their freedoms by 1660.
Among the northern Europeans, the Melungeon ancestors include English, Scot, Irish, Welsh, Dutch, and German parents. North American Indian ancestors include people from the tribes of Powhatan, Mattaponi, Monie, Nansemond, Rappahanock, Pamunkey, Chickahominie, Cherokee (Buffalo Ridge) and Choctaw.
Melungeons are an ethnically diverse group originating in early 1600s Virginia, Carolina, Maryland, and Delaware. Their descendants' later spread into Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, and Texas. The earliest Melungeon ancestors were white northern Europeans, Bantu Africans and North American Indians.
This is very evident with my own family. My maternal grandmother is "Melungeon", the reason for her family's objection to her marriage to my grandfather who is "Creole", was that her family or at least the elders knew that they had been "passing" for decades.
Note that there is and no stigma associated with European Americans having Native American ancestry. The stigma is with European Americans having African/African American ancestry no matter how distant. Hence the reason for denying or hiding the TRUTH.
Some individuals begin to self-identity as Melungeons after reading about the group on a website and discovering their surname on an ever-growing list of "Melungeon-associated" surnames, or discovering certain physical traits or conditions purportedly indicative of such ancestry.[35]
Many newly self-identifying Melungeons have no demonstrable connections to families who have been historically known by that term. Often the new claimants had been completely unaware of either the term or the group until learning about them on the Internet.
The term "Melungeon" was traditionally considered an insult, a label applied to Appalachian whites who were by appearance or reputation of mixed-race ancestry, though who were not clearly either "black" or "Indian". In Southwest Virginia, the roughly synonymous term "Ramp" was also used, though this term has never shed its pejorative character.[31]
By 1840, "Melungeon" was apparently being used as a racial pejorative, at least in Tennessee, when the polemical newspaper, the Jonesborough Whig, published an article entitled "Negro Speaking!" The article referenced a rival politician in derogatory fashion: first as "an impudent Malungeon from Washington City, a scoundrel who is half Negro and half Indian," then as a "free negroe".[29]
traces the word to malungu (or malungo), a Luso-African word from Angola meaning "shipmate.",[26][27] from the Kimbundu word ma'luno, meaning "companion"; "friend".
Researchers have shown that the historical evidence through numerous court records demonstrates that the Melungeon families sought to identify as and to be accepted as white.[13] An example is the marriage patterns of the Joshua Perkins family of Johnson County, Tennessee, whose descendants Paul Heinegg traced. He showed that generations of the family had married white or mulatto people, which led to increasingly European-American or white appearance among descendants.[14]
Thank you so much for taping this! I am Robin Goins a direct descendant from Alexander Goins and have always wondered why my dad and Uncles would snub their noses at me when I would even mention the word Melungeon. Now I know. I didn't realize that it was a racial slur word!! I didn't have a clue so I'll listen on and see what else I can learn since my fathers people are mum about the subject...it's almost taboo or something for them. Thank you!!
Hi Robin, glad you liked the vids. Are you descended from Alex Goins of Hancock Co, TN? If so, we're probably related....I THINK I descend from Alexander...I KNOW I'm related in any case. My g-g-grandmother, Viney Johnson Mullins, married Alfred Goins, Alex's son, after she divorced her first husband, Wilson Mullins. Viney's son, Landon Mullins, married a Marry Goins, and they lived around where Goins Chapel is now, so she probably came from Alex's family. Kevin klmullins_2000@yahoo.com
@klmullins65 Hey Kevin! If you go on down the list you will see a Freeling Goins and that was my great grandfather. My father is Fred Goins. Thank you all so much for all the hard work that you've done. I've read and did research myself for years and really appreciate everything that everyone is doing to trace our heritage. I still have family living in Hancock County they never left there.
@candycreekcove, ok, I'm familier with Freeling's line, they go thru John Goins, who was brother to my step-g-g-grandfather, Alfred Goins! Both were Civil War vets. Have you ever been to Goins Chapel, on Newmans Ridge? This is where our family was from, and if Im not mistaken, the cemetary there was known as "John Goins Cemetary"...and I also see where you descend from Vardy Collins, the "Melungeon Patriarch"!
@candycreekcove Because the were ashamed that they have AFrican ancestry, it is really sad how the descendants hold such racist views about their own forefathers.
@shifragri If you will read and do deep research you will find that not all Melungeons were of African ancestry that in fact a lot were of Indian descent. I've realized that the reason my family has closed so tight lipped about our heritage is because to be called a Melungeon back several years ago wasn't such a good thing....it was merely a slur. Do some more research and you'll see what I'm talking about. Good luck!
@candycreekcove I have conducted "deep" research, it is you and your family that has issues with having a distant African ancestor. The fact that you are so eager to dismiss the African part but only embrace the Indian says it all. I really don't understand it, more than likely your last full-blooded African ancestor was probably more than 200- years ago, yet because of your own racism, you people continue to deny the TRUTH.
Hey Family - you should all take a look at this. It's Part 1 of several postings on this topic. The speaker is the President of the Mulungeon Historical Society and REALLY gives a great understanding of this group of people we now know is our heritage.
STOP lying about your Black African ancestry! The Melungeons are a mixed raced people of African, Native American and Northern European. The word Melungeon itself comes form the Kimbundu language of the Bantu people...Angola. Those people begin lying and hiding their African ancestry because of the oppression Black people faced in this country. It is really sick how you people continue to lie.
@shifragri, who denies that Melungeons are mixed race? But if the word Melungeon comes from "Melungo" or "Melang" or whatever, why would no other aspect of their culture remain after 500 yrs, EXCEPT a name that they despised and tried to deny? The word Melungeon was a word used by outsiders to describe them, and nobody's been able to find an earlier use of the word than 1813.
@shifragri, in other words, you cant answer any of the valid questions I asked you, and because of that, you have to call call others racists and accuse them of expressing things they never expressed. Some Melungeon families had ancestors that were African, Native American, AND European..why deny ANY of them?
@klmullins65 The only people who despised the word "Melungeons" are so-called white people who because of their own racist views are afraid that the wider population will discover that they have a distant Black African ancestor. Your denial of the truth is the standard reaction of a so-called white person who discovers that someone in their family "passed". It is o.k., because for all intents and purposes you and your family are white, just stop lying about your roots.
@klmullins65 Since your knowledge about your heritage is severely lacking, the following terms should you desire to learn more will be useful to you and other "white" Melungeons descendants; Racial Passing, Tri-racial isolate (aka Melungeons)
I could be wrong or off, but from what I read on the internet, its the last name of a slave who had a child with a man by the last name Sweat. If your last name is Gowin, Sweat or Cornish than the you are probably of Melungeon descent. ??? Any help here?
@ladyEulaelie, I would say it's all depending on where your family is from. With the name Sweat, I would look towrds the Lumbee tribe in NC, or from the Pee Dee area of NC, lots of Gowins and Sweats in that area, free persons of color. Some call them Melungeon, but it would make things clearer to go by the names they were refered to in those specific areas. They're similar groups, but they all ahve their own unique histories.
@klmullins65 You're welcome. And you mentioned a 2nd conference? Where and when?
Funny thing is that I was born in West Virginia and I'm Sephardic while several people tried to associate us with Melungeons. I was a baby when we moved up north though but family members tell us.
Also: How can I know when yous have your conferences?
@klmullins65 thanks for the videos, i've always had an interest in not-very-well-known ethnic groups, including the Melungeons. good to hear someone who really knows their stuff talking about it thanks again! --Jake
@klmullins65 thanks for the videos, i've always had an interest in not-very-well-known ethnic groups, including the Melungeons. good to hear someone who really knows their stuff talking about it. thanks again! --Jake
@TheMrKoray , that is just one theory of the word "Melungeon"'s origon, but I believe it is a weak theory. For one thing, all evidence points to Melungeon people never actually refering to themselves by that word, it was considered an insult. Others in the region gave them that name, as they gave them different names in differnt areas. Also, NOBODY refers to their own people as "lost souls". The word didnt become widely used until the early 1800s.
My mothers side is from east kentucky(Jenkins) western virginia(Pound)...my mamas maiden name is Goins...my Papa was from Graysville Tn..I am dark dark for my family...my mama always said it was "black irish"...or "cherokee"...but, after I heard of Melungeons I know..i KNOW in my heart thats what I am...Thank you so much for posting this!!
@mrsjaytay, yes, that's what you are! Graysville is one of the larger settlements of people that were sometimes known as "Melungeon". But in Graysville, such families were often simply refered to as "Goinses", even the families that werent Goinses! There is a well-known picture of a Graysville Goins family on the net, the Arch Goins family, google it. Who were your Goinses?
@klmullins65 Hi there.. I am so happy you replied back so soon :) Thank you!! My family that were Goines is my Papa(mamaws Daddy) Emmanuel Goins(manuel),... I don't know much about him..only that he was from Graysville..You really don't even know the sense of belonging I have now!! Thank you!!~Christy
@mrsjaytay , if you email me at klmullins_2000@yahoo.com, I'll send you some more info i have. Btw, I know how you feel about your "sense of belonging:, because last week, I found my g-grandma's maiden name, which was ...GOINS! I've been searching for 15 years, now I'm POSITIVELY SURE of my Melungeon heritage!
@nicholasalanstull , some do, but on the other hand, many non-Melungeon descendants do. In other words, I really dont think it's a bona-fide Melungeon trait. A person is better off using family surnames, locations, racial designations, etc, to base possible Melungeon ancestry on.
@angleable1
It really doesn't matter what they were back then. Being a Turk requires you to have full turkish blood.
azmhyr 7 months ago
5.
European conquest of interior Angola began when Portugal attacked the Mbundu kingdom of Ndongo in the modern Malange district of Angola in a military campaign lasting from 1618-1620. At the time, England and its American colonies had no direct trade in African slaves. Nevertheless, during Portugal's war on Ndongo, Africans began appearing in British Virginia aboard Dutch and English privateers, which specialized in robbing Portuguese merchant-slavers leaving the Angolan port of Luanda.
shifragri 1 year ago
4.
Until recently, not much has been known about the Melungeons' African ancestors. New evidence now indicates that the black ancestors of Melungeons were peoples of Kimbundu and Kikongo-speaking Angola and historic Kongo along Africa's lower west coast. The nation of Mbundu in Angola yielded more black ancestors for Melungeons than any other African people.
shifragri 1 year ago
3.
From the 1620s, in southern British colonies like Virginia, white northern Europeans intermarried with Indians. They also intermarried with Africans who began entering the American colonies as early as 1619. Melungeons originate from these red, white and black peoples in this period of American history. They began forming identifiable separate mixed communities when the first anti-African laws started restricting some of their freedoms by 1660.
shifragri 1 year ago
2.
Among the northern Europeans, the Melungeon ancestors include English, Scot, Irish, Welsh, Dutch, and German parents. North American Indian ancestors include people from the tribes of Powhatan, Mattaponi, Monie, Nansemond, Rappahanock, Pamunkey, Chickahominie, Cherokee (Buffalo Ridge) and Choctaw.
shifragri 1 year ago
1.
THREE MAJOR ETHNIC ANCESTORS OF MELUNGEONS
Melungeons are an ethnically diverse group originating in early 1600s Virginia, Carolina, Maryland, and Delaware. Their descendants' later spread into Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, and Texas. The earliest Melungeon ancestors were white northern Europeans, Bantu Africans and North American Indians.
shifragri 1 year ago
Read Tim Hashaw
MALUNGU: The African Origin of the American Melungeons
shifragri 1 year ago
This is very evident with my own family. My maternal grandmother is "Melungeon", the reason for her family's objection to her marriage to my grandfather who is "Creole", was that her family or at least the elders knew that they had been "passing" for decades.
shifragri 1 year ago
Note that there is and no stigma associated with European Americans having Native American ancestry. The stigma is with European Americans having African/African American ancestry no matter how distant. Hence the reason for denying or hiding the TRUTH.
shifragri 1 year ago
Some individuals begin to self-identity as Melungeons after reading about the group on a website and discovering their surname on an ever-growing list of "Melungeon-associated" surnames, or discovering certain physical traits or conditions purportedly indicative of such ancestry.[35]
shifragri 1 year ago
Many newly self-identifying Melungeons have no demonstrable connections to families who have been historically known by that term. Often the new claimants had been completely unaware of either the term or the group until learning about them on the Internet.
shifragri 1 year ago
The term "Melungeon" was traditionally considered an insult, a label applied to Appalachian whites who were by appearance or reputation of mixed-race ancestry, though who were not clearly either "black" or "Indian". In Southwest Virginia, the roughly synonymous term "Ramp" was also used, though this term has never shed its pejorative character.[31]
shifragri 1 year ago
By 1840, "Melungeon" was apparently being used as a racial pejorative, at least in Tennessee, when the polemical newspaper, the Jonesborough Whig, published an article entitled "Negro Speaking!" The article referenced a rival politician in derogatory fashion: first as "an impudent Malungeon from Washington City, a scoundrel who is half Negro and half Indian," then as a "free negroe".[29]
shifragri 1 year ago
traces the word to malungu (or malungo), a Luso-African word from Angola meaning "shipmate.",[26][27] from the Kimbundu word ma'luno, meaning "companion"; "friend".
shifragri 1 year ago
Researchers have shown that the historical evidence through numerous court records demonstrates that the Melungeon families sought to identify as and to be accepted as white.[13] An example is the marriage patterns of the Joshua Perkins family of Johnson County, Tennessee, whose descendants Paul Heinegg traced. He showed that generations of the family had married white or mulatto people, which led to increasingly European-American or white appearance among descendants.[14]
shifragri 1 year ago
Thank you so much for taping this! I am Robin Goins a direct descendant from Alexander Goins and have always wondered why my dad and Uncles would snub their noses at me when I would even mention the word Melungeon. Now I know. I didn't realize that it was a racial slur word!! I didn't have a clue so I'll listen on and see what else I can learn since my fathers people are mum about the subject...it's almost taboo or something for them. Thank you!!
candycreekcove 1 year ago
Hi Robin, glad you liked the vids. Are you descended from Alex Goins of Hancock Co, TN? If so, we're probably related....I THINK I descend from Alexander...I KNOW I'm related in any case. My g-g-grandmother, Viney Johnson Mullins, married Alfred Goins, Alex's son, after she divorced her first husband, Wilson Mullins. Viney's son, Landon Mullins, married a Marry Goins, and they lived around where Goins Chapel is now, so she probably came from Alex's family. Kevin klmullins_2000@yahoo.com
klmullins65 1 year ago
@klmullins65 Hey Kevin! If you go on down the list you will see a Freeling Goins and that was my great grandfather. My father is Fred Goins. Thank you all so much for all the hard work that you've done. I've read and did research myself for years and really appreciate everything that everyone is doing to trace our heritage. I still have family living in Hancock County they never left there.
candycreekcove 1 year ago
@candycreekcove, ok, I'm familier with Freeling's line, they go thru John Goins, who was brother to my step-g-g-grandfather, Alfred Goins! Both were Civil War vets. Have you ever been to Goins Chapel, on Newmans Ridge? This is where our family was from, and if Im not mistaken, the cemetary there was known as "John Goins Cemetary"...and I also see where you descend from Vardy Collins, the "Melungeon Patriarch"!
klmullins65 1 year ago
@candycreekcove Because the were ashamed that they have AFrican ancestry, it is really sad how the descendants hold such racist views about their own forefathers.
shifragri 1 year ago
@shifragri If you will read and do deep research you will find that not all Melungeons were of African ancestry that in fact a lot were of Indian descent. I've realized that the reason my family has closed so tight lipped about our heritage is because to be called a Melungeon back several years ago wasn't such a good thing....it was merely a slur. Do some more research and you'll see what I'm talking about. Good luck!
candycreekcove 1 year ago
@candycreekcove I have conducted "deep" research, it is you and your family that has issues with having a distant African ancestor. The fact that you are so eager to dismiss the African part but only embrace the Indian says it all. I really don't understand it, more than likely your last full-blooded African ancestor was probably more than 200- years ago, yet because of your own racism, you people continue to deny the TRUTH.
shifragri 1 year ago
@candycreekcove FYI my maternal Grandmother is a so-called Melungeon, most of her relatives "passed".
shifragri 1 year ago
Hey Family - you should all take a look at this. It's Part 1 of several postings on this topic. The speaker is the President of the Mulungeon Historical Society and REALLY gives a great understanding of this group of people we now know is our heritage.
ssolomon56 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
STOP lying about your Black African ancestry! The Melungeons are a mixed raced people of African, Native American and Northern European. The word Melungeon itself comes form the Kimbundu language of the Bantu people...Angola. Those people begin lying and hiding their African ancestry because of the oppression Black people faced in this country. It is really sick how you people continue to lie.
shifragri 1 year ago
@shifragri, who denies that Melungeons are mixed race? But if the word Melungeon comes from "Melungo" or "Melang" or whatever, why would no other aspect of their culture remain after 500 yrs, EXCEPT a name that they despised and tried to deny? The word Melungeon was a word used by outsiders to describe them, and nobody's been able to find an earlier use of the word than 1813.
klmullins65 1 year ago
@klmullins65 I'm not interested in understanding your aversion to the truth about Melungeons.
shifragri 1 year ago
@shifragri, in other words, you cant answer any of the valid questions I asked you, and because of that, you have to call call others racists and accuse them of expressing things they never expressed. Some Melungeon families had ancestors that were African, Native American, AND European..why deny ANY of them?
klmullins65 1 year ago
@klmullins65 The only people who despised the word "Melungeons" are so-called white people who because of their own racist views are afraid that the wider population will discover that they have a distant Black African ancestor. Your denial of the truth is the standard reaction of a so-called white person who discovers that someone in their family "passed". It is o.k., because for all intents and purposes you and your family are white, just stop lying about your roots.
shifragri 1 year ago
@klmullins65 Since your knowledge about your heritage is severely lacking, the following terms should you desire to learn more will be useful to you and other "white" Melungeons descendants; Racial Passing, Tri-racial isolate (aka Melungeons)
shifragri 1 year ago
Comment removed
SleeveBell 1 year ago
ugh I hate the sound of the person moving the camera around
snickersneezer 1 year ago
My last name is Cornish...
I could be wrong or off, but from what I read on the internet, its the last name of a slave who had a child with a man by the last name Sweat. If your last name is Gowin, Sweat or Cornish than the you are probably of Melungeon descent. ??? Any help here?
ladyEulaelie 1 year ago
@ladyEulaelie, I would say it's all depending on where your family is from. With the name Sweat, I would look towrds the Lumbee tribe in NC, or from the Pee Dee area of NC, lots of Gowins and Sweats in that area, free persons of color. Some call them Melungeon, but it would make things clearer to go by the names they were refered to in those specific areas. They're similar groups, but they all ahve their own unique histories.
klmullins65 1 year ago
@klmullins65
Thank you =)
ladyEulaelie 1 year ago
Good video.
Thanks for the posting.
vassephardi 1 year ago
@vassephardi , thanks, glad you liked it. You just missed our 2nd conference!
klmullins65 1 year ago
@klmullins65 You're welcome. And you mentioned a 2nd conference? Where and when?
Funny thing is that I was born in West Virginia and I'm Sephardic while several people tried to associate us with Melungeons. I was a baby when we moved up north though but family members tell us.
Also: How can I know when yous have your conferences?
Thanks again.
vassephardi 1 year ago
@klmullins65 thanks for the videos, i've always had an interest in not-very-well-known ethnic groups, including the Melungeons. good to hear someone who really knows their stuff talking about it thanks again! --Jake
k0vert 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@klmullins65 thanks for the videos, i've always had an interest in not-very-well-known ethnic groups, including the Melungeons. good to hear someone who really knows their stuff talking about it. thanks again! --Jake
k0vert 1 year ago
meluncan its turkish pronancation its turkish word :) it means lost soul.
TheMrKoray 1 year ago
@TheMrKoray , that is just one theory of the word "Melungeon"'s origon, but I believe it is a weak theory. For one thing, all evidence points to Melungeon people never actually refering to themselves by that word, it was considered an insult. Others in the region gave them that name, as they gave them different names in differnt areas. Also, NOBODY refers to their own people as "lost souls". The word didnt become widely used until the early 1800s.
klmullins65 1 year ago
My mothers side is from east kentucky(Jenkins) western virginia(Pound)...my mamas maiden name is Goins...my Papa was from Graysville Tn..I am dark dark for my family...my mama always said it was "black irish"...or "cherokee"...but, after I heard of Melungeons I know..i KNOW in my heart thats what I am...Thank you so much for posting this!!
mrsjaytay 1 year ago
@mrsjaytay, yes, that's what you are! Graysville is one of the larger settlements of people that were sometimes known as "Melungeon". But in Graysville, such families were often simply refered to as "Goinses", even the families that werent Goinses! There is a well-known picture of a Graysville Goins family on the net, the Arch Goins family, google it. Who were your Goinses?
klmullins65 1 year ago
@klmullins65 Hi there.. I am so happy you replied back so soon :) Thank you!! My family that were Goines is my Papa(mamaws Daddy) Emmanuel Goins(manuel),... I don't know much about him..only that he was from Graysville..You really don't even know the sense of belonging I have now!! Thank you!!~Christy
mrsjaytay 1 year ago
@mrsjaytay , if you email me at klmullins_2000@yahoo.com, I'll send you some more info i have. Btw, I know how you feel about your "sense of belonging:, because last week, I found my g-grandma's maiden name, which was ...GOINS! I've been searching for 15 years, now I'm POSITIVELY SURE of my Melungeon heritage!
klmullins65 1 year ago
is it true they have bumps on the back of their heads?
nicholasalanstull 1 year ago
@nicholasalanstull , some do, but on the other hand, many non-Melungeon descendants do. In other words, I really dont think it's a bona-fide Melungeon trait. A person is better off using family surnames, locations, racial designations, etc, to base possible Melungeon ancestry on.
skankspankr 1 year ago