Mystery of the Melungeons - Unexplained Mysteries Discussion Forums
Mystery of the Melungeons - Unexplained Mysteries Discussion Forums: "The settlers lived in and around these forts 20 years, 'until the English arrived and ran them out of the area.'In addition, the research committee has reason to believe several hundred Turks and other Muslim sailors were put off ships at Roanoke Island, N.C. in 1586 by Sir Frances Drake.'The evidence indicates that both (groups of settlers) intermarried with Native Americans, primarily Cherokees, Creeks, Catawba and Pamunkey,' the information states, 'and that the resultant populations were eventually pushed together in the mountains of western North Carolina and upper South Carolina where they merged.'Members of this community would later make claims of Portuguese, Moorish, Turkish and Native American descent to disbelieving Anglo-Saxons.
The term 'Melungeon,' is spelled based on how it sounded to the earliest Anglo settlers, Collins said. It most likely originated from the Turkish term 'Melun can,' pronounced the same way. Melun can means 'cursed soul,' or 'one who has been abandoned by God.' The Melungeons could not be classified as white, black, mulatto or Indian and were categorized as free persons of color. 'Their significant land holdings were confiscated, they were denied right to education, voting and judicial process, and driven either westward or higher into the mountains of the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia,' according to information supplied by Collins."
The term 'Melungeon,' is spelled based on how it sounded to the earliest Anglo settlers, Collins said. It most likely originated from the Turkish term 'Melun can,' pronounced the same way. Melun can means 'cursed soul,' or 'one who has been abandoned by God.' The Melungeons could not be classified as white, black, mulatto or Indian and were categorized as free persons of color. 'Their significant land holdings were confiscated, they were denied right to education, voting and judicial process, and driven either westward or higher into the mountains of the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia,' according to information supplied by Collins."
posted by Helen Campbell @ 12:37 AM
1 Comments:
At 5:21 AM EDT ,
Anonymous said...
The proposed Turkish origin of the word "Melungeon" is, for me, far fetched. During the XVIIIth century, the Melungeons were inhabitants of an Appalachian "buffer zone" between the British and the French colonial territories. The French "coureurs des bois" (sometimes of mixed Indian/French blood themselves) got in touch with that mountain population whose features revealed a puzzling mixture of bloods. A mixture is called a "mélange" in french. The suffix "on" (cf. "sauvageons", "négrillons", "godichons)has often a diminutive or an affectionate value (and, sometimes, as well, may have a slightly depretiative or ironical value). The French called them "Mélangeons" (i.e. "people whose origins are diverse", the ending "on" marking a kind of perplexity as regards the components of the mixture). Since the nasal sound "an" does not exist in English, it was written "un", which is closer to today's Cajun or French Canadian pronounciation than to standard European French.
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