What it means to identify as Melungeon

Melungeons are mixed-race people with origins in the Appalachian Mountains. VPM News Focal Point asked Andrew Harris Jr to reflect on his background.
Read More: www.vpm.org/2024-03-21/explor...
www.pbs.org/video/racial-iden...
#virginia #appalachiantrail #appalachia #ancestry #genealogyresearch

[@lindaedwards9756]

I love that !! Can’t erase history, there is good and bad….can’t change it by ignoring it. I am so glad this gentleman was kind enough to give us his perspective. All people are beautiful.

[@Questioner6969]

I am melougeon. I might look white but I am glad I am melougeon. I am glad I was place by God this heritage.

[@lindaedwards9756]

Absolutely 👍

[@dominiquedoeslife]

I’m melungeon. This video is so validating and so important. So thankful that it exists.

[@Livelife257]

70 Years old….Wow! He looks GREAT!!

[@summercarr3521]

Exactly what I was thinking!!

[@written12]

Yeah, he certainly does.

[@Anewme92142]

I love learning this is amazing everybody not just black or white,you must know your history

[@malindawilczynski2774]

It was so important to my GM to keep the heritage hidden, including not displaying and later destroying family pictures. However the DNA tells the truth.

[@lindaedwards9756]

Heartbreaking ❤️‍🩹 she was made to feel that way . She would be proud of your courage to be who you are.

[@afromystik4365]

I’ve been doing my genealogy and I have dna matches with the names Mullins, Williams and Goins! Interesting!!

[@SoldierOfJah]

Do all melungeons also defy the laws of aging?! Cuz when he said 70!!!!

[@cynthiapickett7403]

Very interesting; I have partial Melungeon ancestry (only recently discovered) myself.

[@AjWard-nh5tp]

Everybody mixed up, it's pointless to worry about it. 🙂

[@NaturallyGifted77]

True! We are all humans that is what matters

[@Based_Gigachad_001]

No. Many people are pure.

[@AjWard-nh5tp]

@@Based_Gigachad_001 pure what

[@ashley1919100]

@@Based_Gigachad_001 no

[@Hollylivengood]

Not with a history like the Melungeons. They didn't get there because they were conquering, violent, people. They got there because they were resilient people, who lived really really well.

[@Livelife257]

If we got rid of being just “BLACK or WHITE” we would learn a lot of interesting DETAILS about our ancestry.

[@Hollylivengood]

I learned about the Melungeons while reading about the Maroons. One of the historians had noted that the DNA found in Melungeons is so varied, Spanish, French African American, Irish. He had only a theory, based on being from the area and knowing the history of the area well. They know Maroon communities were there from De Soto's march through Appalachia in the 1600s. Because those conquistadores didn't march without an army of slaves to do all the work for them. Along with indentured people. And nobody liked life under DeSoto, so his theory was, when the slaves made a break for it, more than likely a number of Spanish soldiers went with them. Irish run aways, or any runaways joined them later. Because when they were first mentioned by incomers in the 1700s, they were described as so successful and knowledgeable about guns. Not saying runaway slaves wouldn't be successful, I'm saying if you were escaping a ravaging psychopath like DeSoto, you're not likely to make it without a little army on your side. It's just a theory, but it seems a practical one.

[@guyfaux3978]

The tri-racial identity is common in Brazil, and there used to be all sorts of Portuguese terms for people of specific quantums of this background or that background.

[@beverlyodom-jackson2329]

Yes we are all tri racial my family is from Georgia

[@PinkTorpedo909]

For Gods sake man change the batteries to the smoke alarm!!!

[@514Exc]

I don’t believe there is a dna group for Sicily, the south shares more African ancestry than northern Italy. He may be Sicilian ancestry, historical darker skinned, prior to losing independence

[@broadwaydebut1]

I’m sorry to say and shameful that Italian used the word melogean as a slur. In Italian melongean is an eggplant

[@guyfaux3978]

You're mixing up moolinyon and melungeon-- the latter is derived from the French word "melange," i.e., a combination.

[@Hollylivengood]

Here's the thing, before you make statements like this, you have to at least read about the language. Melan Zana is Italian for egg plant. Melungeon came from French. Mélange, which means a mixture. It started out as a plain description, was used as an insult, then Melungeons took it back as their own.

[@deadtome5381]

Yes my grandmother who was a foster child and her mother had her sister and her when she was 12 and 14 respectively used to say it incorrectly like Mulan Johnny. That's how it sounded when she said it as mullin I have a lot of the mulgeon traits,he'd ridge, teeth, etc. my mother had very rare a b blood type, I question what blood types are common in this mixture.

[@ryancreech7253]

Not a real thing