When asked directly who they were, they simply replied, in broken Elizabethan English, that they were "Portyghee". They were never mentioned in our history books. It would almost seem that they never existed at all. If not for a few inquiring minds and diligent, determined researchers...we may never have even known of their existance.
According to these researchers, the Melungeons may have arrived in the New World long before the settlement of Jamestown. In 1750 the Scotch-Irish encountered the Melungeons in VA and TN. These new settlers greedily swept upon them..claiming their rich farm land as their own and pushing them farther into the utmost reaches of the Appalachias.
The outcast Melungeons would soon be classifed as Mulattos, Portyghee or free white persons. All of their rights were taken away. They were left to themselves to get by as best they could in their bitter, barren mountain homelands.
One of the most agreeable explanations is that these people are the direct descendents of Portuguese sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Cape Hatteras in the 1500's. Others hold firm to the idea that they were deserters of Desoto's expedition who intermarried with the local Native Americans. Still other researchers believe that the Melungeons have roots in Turkey, or elsewhere in the Middle East.
In 1990, a gene frequency study was done on 177 Melungeon blood samples. The results were astonishing. The test showed no significant differences between the Melungeons and populations in Spain, Portugal, Malta, North Africa, Cyprus, Greece, Iran, Iraq, and the Levant (Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon). Several medical maladies have been identified in the Melungeon population including Thalassemia, Bechet's Syndrome, Machado-Joseph Disease, Sarcoidosis, and Familial Mediterranean Fever.
Dr. N. Brent Kennedy, Vice Chancellor of University of Virginia at Wise, is the leading authority on Melungeons. He has recently teamed up with Istanbul University in Istanbul, Turkey searching for more answers.
Whoever they are...or however they arrived here...the number of Melungeon descendents now exceeds more than 200,000. Each year a Melungeon Reunion is held where thousands of people gather annually. From top genetic scientists to the simply curious. Through the efforts of Dr Kennedy and his associates...the shrouded mist of secrecy is slowly being lifted. These proud mysterious people are slowly being revealed. Ever so slowly...they are proudly being RESURRECTED.
those who hid their faces and denied their names
those who never knew us..
yet their blood flows through our veins.
And the last, lost, wild-rabbit of a girl is civilized by a mail-order dress
Something will pass that was Appalachia
And all the movies will not bring it back.