Melungeons

Melungeons

Will Allen Dromgoole's drawing of a Melungeon at Newman's Ridge, Tennessee, c. 1890
Total population
(Unknown)
Regions with significant populations
Originally in the vicinity of Cumberland Gap (East Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky; later migrations throughout the United States)
Languages
English
Religion
Baptist; other
Related ethnic groups
Redbones, Carmel Indians

Melungeon (/məˈlʌndʒən/ mə-LUN-jən) is a term traditionally applied to one of numerous "tri-racial isolate" groups of the Southeastern United States. Historically, Melungeons were associated with the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia, which includes portions of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and eastern Kentucky. Tri-racial describes populations thought to be of mixed European, African and Native American ancestry. Although there is no consensus on how many such groups exist, estimates range as high as 200. Melungeons were often referred to by other settlers as "Turks", "Moors" or "Portuguese".

According to the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, in his 1950 dissertation, cultural geographer Edward Price proposed that Melungeons were families descended from free people of color (who were likely of both European and African ancestry) and mixed-race unions between persons of African ancestry and Native Americans in colonial Virginia.