This Book is Worthless for Melungeon Research

by Janet Crain

The Melungeons were a dark skinned people of indeterminate origin who were documented as having lived chiefly in East Tennessee and the surrounding area as early as about 1800. Once little known, they exploded to prominence in the last quarter of the twentieth century. An outdoor drama; Walking Toward the Sunset and a book; The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People by Brent Kennedy were chiefly responsible for bringing these people to national attention and then the Internet spread their fame like wildfire. Some of this notoriety was good. But some only served to spread false rumors as baseless as the local ones they replaced.

Some very well researched scholarly books followed. All this attention attracted the interest of academia. They arrived en masse to study, poke, prod and analyze the subjects. This book, Through the Back Door: Melungeon Literacies and Twenty-first Century Technologies by Katerine Vande Brake is the result of just such an effort. This is not a book to read to learn about Melungeon history. It has been removed from Mercer's offerings of Melungeon books with good reason. In my opinion, it is not a good book period, because there are too many false statements in it. I just finished this book and I am still wondering why a professional educator would write a book like this. This book represents one of the most flagrant abuses of the use of photos and full names of persons who did not give permission for their use that I have ever heard of.

Among the first rules of publishing being:

In using images, be careful not to:

• defame the person in the image through captions or narration
• portray them in a false light
• libel them or slander them with falsehoods
• injure their reputation
• subject them to hatred or contempt
• hold them up to ridicule
• distort their image by cropping or altering

http://www.pdimages.com/law/lawbookpage.htm

I believe the only infraction not committed was the last one.

Additionally, the author attributed remarks to two people which, if true cast them in a bad light, and, if not true, cast the author, herself, in a worse light. Suppose you were having a friendly chat with someone and she asked you a question about someone you both knew. And suppose you made an off the cuff remark that was rather mean and hateful. And suppose you later learned that the remark was now appearing in a published book. Would you be embarrassed? Would the third party be angry, annoyed or hurt? Two people were supposed to have said two other people were jealous of a 5th person. The way I see it, four people were maligned and embarrassed. Just to add a little, what...local color?

The book is an outgrowth of Dr. Vande Brake's dissertation which was finished in 2005. There was minimal updating to the book which was released in 2009. I can see this book being used as a required textbook for certain courses students have to take to fulfill educational requirements. The chapters about the Vardy Community and the Presbyterian Mission School built there in the 1920's were quite good and interesting, although at times condescending toward the local population. If only the author had stopped there, I could recommend this book with reservations.

But, no, unfortunately she felt a need to expound upon her theories and biases by examining the websites of several people, none of whom were paid to build their websites to my knowledge. Using the pretense of examining how literacy has affected the Melungeon people, she chose to critique three websites authored by and in two cases also owned by persons she thought to be of Melungeon descent. Although the fact that none of the three had lived the Melungeon experience, nor came from an illiterate rural background or even grew up in Tennessee would render the entire exercise moot.

However; I will enumerate the fallacies of this website critique as performed on each website. Her apparently considerable bias toward one of the website owners resulted in a "hatchet" job of an excellent Melungeon resource. The owner spent her own time and her own money building a considerable collection of historical documents and offering access free of charge to anyone who wanted such. She never had any advertisements on the site. These documents had been for the most part very hard to obtain and in many cases unknown to would be researchers. For this she was castigated and taken to task by a so called website design expert.

I must interject at this point that I feel an unasked for and unwanted critique of one's website to be as invasive as a critique of one's closet. "Her shoes were chaotic and a ratty old robe was prominently displayed as the most important item. Furthermore there was no map to guide me". Silly, but no more so than the author's remarks about a stranger's website. And to publish this in a book. The owner is not a famous person, she is not selling anything, she is not asking for pay for the documents she so freely offers. She is a tireless and talented researcher nonpareil. This researcher was accused of disagreeing with Brent Kennedy on every subject and this is simply not true. They kept up a vibrant email exchange of ideas and he agreed with much of her research.

The other two websites came off much better. Although she had mild criticism for Melungeons.com, she praised many aspects of the site. She praised the owner for supplying hyperlinks to books on Amazon and DNA companies, apparently confusing paid affiliate hyperlinks for added information. The owner agreed with her theories and she made that clear.

The third website discussed was that of the Melungeon Heritage Association, known also as MHA. This was a fairly well funded tax exempt organization. Capable of making large donations to the ATAA, the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, a Turkish lobbying group, this organization was apparently able to budget for website expenses such as host and domain name. Wayne Winkler, an officer of MHA was their webmaster and did a good job for what their stated intentions were. Whether he was paid or volunteer I do not know, nor think it relevant. Then and now, MHA was and is a strong Brent Kennedy supporter. While diverse viewpoints were presented, the main emphasis was and is on the premise that Melungeons descend from some hundreds of "Turks" dropped off on Roanoke Island in 1586 by Sir Francis Drake, (which never happened).

This Turkish genetic imput is supposed to account for their looks (dark skin), traits such as 6 fingers and Anatolian knots on the back of their skulls and all the myriad illnesses they were supposed to suffer from.

All of this foolishness has been thoroughly debunked and not just recently.

http://historical-melungeons.blogspot.com/2009/06/melungeon-myth-of-drake-dropping-off.html

It has been about a decade since doctors decided it was a fallacy to attribute Sarcoidosis to exotic genetic backgrounds. The disease was poorly understood when author Brent Kennedy was first diagnosed, but an article in 2001 Discover magazine described Sarcoidosis as a disease anyone could get, including Irish washer women. But did anyone bother to check?

Familial Mediterranean Fever was another exotic disease said to be running rampant in Hancock county, TN. It was not.

Josephs Machado Disease, a debilitating and ultimately fatal disease was said to be found in alarming numbers in Melungeons. However; Dr. Marie Boutte of the University of Nevada-Reno, who studies genetic diseases, particularly Machado-Joseph Disease, was not able to find a single case in a person of Melungeon descent anywhere. Her search was to continue and to date nothing more has been heard. Unfortunately this is another Melungeon Internet Myth that flourishes today.

http://historical-melungeons.blogspot.com/2008/03/melungeon-myth-josephs-machado-disease.html

Other so called Melungeon diseases include Behçet disease, which is not hereditary.



"No one knows why the immune system starts to behave this way in Behçet disease. It is not because of any known infections, it is not hereditary, it does not have to do with ethnic origin, gender, life-style, or age, where someone has lived or where they have been on holiday. It is not associated with cancer, and links with tissue-types (which are under investigation) are not certain. It does not follow the usual pattern for autoimmune diseases."

Wikipedia


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behcet_disease#Causes

http://historical-melungeons.blogspot.com/search?q=disease

It is extremely irresponsible to spread misinformation as this book
surely does.The author states that even if a family becomes "white enough" and moves to a new location, someone in the family will come down with a Melungeon disease or a baby will be born with 6 fingers. This is simply not true. Polydactyly is not hereditary in and of itself. It certainly isn't a Melungeon trait. Of all the Melungeon descendants I am acquainted with, only Brent Kennedy had this. It is not a shameful thing. It occurs with cousin marriages, but it occurs worldwide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polydactyly

I would also take issue with the author's analysis of the Melungeon Rootsweb list and why it split into factions and lost users. The reasons are complex and reflect the author's misconceptions and naivete concerning the evolution of the Internet. People preferred Yahoo groups because they do not have rules like Rootsweb. Yahoo rules, such as they may be, are set by the owner(s). This allows for freer flow of conversation. Rootsweb forbids discussion of politics, religion, and medical advice. So Yahoo groups, of which there are thousands, reflect whatever a small or large like minded group of people want it to reflect. Melungeon-DNA Rootsweb list was created at Rootsweb's suggestion for those who wanted to discuss DNA, not because anyone was mad at anyone. Incidentally -L or -D is no longer appended to the name of a Rootsweb list. Another change since the author finished her dissertation in 2005.

Due to the limitations of space I will not discuss other issues in depth. The DNA errors alone could constitute an entire rebuttal, but I leave that for another time. But I do think it is wrong to publish a book in 2009 that is badly outdated and misleading. And does an injustice to several researchers who have contributed greatly to Melungeon research.

© History Chasers

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Removing the Keystone of Turkish Theory

by Janet Crain

A persistant rumor has spread all over the Internet that Melungeons descend from the some 300 to 600 Turks and other nationalities said to have been left on Roanoke Island in 1586 by Sir Francis Drake. In truth, there is NO evidence there were any left, much less several hundred.

Drake was returning home from the sacking of Cartagena when he decided to visit Roanoke and dispose of some of the freed prisoners and Maroons he had acquired during his adventures. He was carrying a human cargo of several hundred. He is said by Ivor Noel Hume in "Virginia Adventures" to have highly inflated the numbers. This voyage is of great interest to Melungeon researchers because this voyage in 1586 is the basis of the Turkish connection first started by Brent Kennedy's book; Melungeons; an Untold Story of Ethnic Cleansing. It is, in fact, the keystone of the Turkish Connection Theory. Remove it and the rest crumbles. That is what I propose to do.

It is known that many of the people never reached Roanoke. Many died of strange fevers in Florida. Apparently Drake intended to leave the rest of the freed Africans and South American Indians to furnish labor for the new Colony which he expected to have grown to some 600 English by then. In truth there were about 100 men, badly in need of food and suffering the ill effects of their bad treatment of the local Indians. Ralph Lane was in charge at Roanoke and he accepted Drake's offer of minimal food supplies (Drake had been out a long time and was running low himself) and a ship, the Francis, capable of navigation into the bay plus other pinnaces, etc. and armament. All the supplies were loaded onto the Francis along with Lane's best naval officers. Lane wanted to stay a few more weeks exploring the Chesapeake.

But the best laid plans of mice and men can be blown to pieces by a terrible storm such as the one that then struck. Many of Drake's ships which had been waiting "standing in the roadway" off the Outer Banks were blown out to sea by the massive "hurricano" and scurried back to England. The Francis was among them with the badly needed supplies and trained naval navigators. Ralph Lane then accepted Drake's offer to transport the first colonists back to England. Most of the small pinnaces carrying the extra passengers had been dashed to pieces on the shoals during the storms. The Turks, known to have been with Drake, were apparently better safeguarded. They were valuable as trade for English prisoners lanquishing in Ottoman prisons. Some 100 Turks were, in fact, ransomed to their homeland.

So, just who might have gone ashore before the storm hit? Many people have a hard time visualizing the scene at Roanoke. Roanoke is surrounded by very shallow waters, hence the name; Shallowbag Bay. The only way to get there was by laborious offloading of men and supplies to shore boats and threading through the one pass, Fernando Pass, and the treacherous shoals and currents made worse at times by Northwestern winds blowing directly into the Bay. The shore boats were large by our standards and equipped with a mast and sail. They require a skilled pilot and several strong sailors to row. People didn't just hop on one and go sight seeing. Only those with important business such as Sir Francis Drake and Ralph Lane who negotiated several times were transported back and forth. The rest of the fleet with the passengers onboard stood out in the Roadway, the navigable waters off the Outer Banks, which wrap around this area like protecting arms.

I am saying this to lay to rest the idea of a huge number of the passengers dis-embarquing and perhaps being caught off guard by the storms and staying behind. Hume and David Beers Quinn are the authorities on this period and both say there were no Turks left. Hume says no one else, Quinn, at most a very few. Left with no supplies on the Outer Banks what would they have found to eat? If the Indians had not killed them, they would have starved.

It should be noted that the Native Americans communicated by a"grapevine" so efficient that Indians in Canada knew of happenings in the Virginias. No mention of any dumped off passengers was ever made.

Additionally, there was plenty of room for these passengers to sail with Drake. Hundreds had died in the battles in Florida, from fevers, and in the hurricane. Drake was returning with more ships than he left with, having captured many. And they would have furnished badly needed labor to sail these ships back to England.

Add to this the extreme difficulty of unloading these passengers in addition to loading the Roanoke settlers, which the crew deeply resented for the delay and extra work and danger this imposed and it is highly unlikely Drake would have taken such actions.

Ivor Noel Hume says:

Thus the hurricane of June 1586 may have ripped away the first page from the history of blacks in English America.

A cruel and terrible fate for these forgotten people that historians of the time did not consider important enough to even record their fate.

Present Day Map of the Area:


View Larger Map

Native Americans Targeted for Turkish Alliance

The Armenian Reporter March 15, 2008

Turks are saying they were the first Americans

Real Native Americans say they speak with forked tongue

by Anoush Ter Taulian

''Last month, I reported about a January 26 panel discussion on
Turkic and Native American connections, held at the Turkish Center in
New York (see the story in the Community section of the Feb. 9
Reporter) in which the Turks presented their theory that their
ancestors crossed the Bering Strait into the Americas and thus are
the ancestors of some of the present day Native Americans. Since
then, I've been asking Native Americans and what they think of this
theory and I've found they do not welcome these Turkish
claims...............................

............However, the presenters also put forward a claim of
Turkish-Native American relatedness from a much more recent time. It
involves a group of Turks who claim to be related to
the "Melungeons": a population of mixed Indian, white, and black
ancestry, whose members say they are the descendants of the 200
Moors, West Africans, Portuguese soldiers, South American Indians,
and Ottoman Turkish galley slaves that Sir Francis Drake brought to
Roanoke Island, Virginia, in 1586.* There is no record of the number
and origin of the rescued prisoners who made up the diverse
ancestors of today's Melungeons (the group designated "Ottoman
slaves" could have included Bulgarians, Circassians, Abkhazians,
Arabs, Berbers, Greeks – evenArmenians). Nevertheless, there are now
Melungeon societies in the Appalachians; and the town of Wise,
Virginia, and Cesme in Turkey have become "sister cities" and plan to
engage in economic trade – all on the basis of this claim of a
Turkish-Melungeon connection. But according to Anton Edwards, a mixed
Native and African American, "The claims of these Turks are
preposterous." Edwards familiarized himself with some of the
materials used by the Turkish-Melungeon advocates, but came away
unconvinced..........

Continued here
http://www.reporter.am/pdfs/A0315.pdf

* This assertion has no basis in fact. It has not been proven that Sir Francis Drake left any people in North America or if he did, that any survived. And the leap to identifying them as ancestors of the Melungeons is a very long leap, indeed. Additionally, it is a matter of historical record that Drake returned the Turks to their homeland. See David Beers Quinn.

Janet Crain

Who Were the Turks of Sumpter County?

by Pony Hill
4/28/2005

First off let me say this, I have no doubt that prior to the Civil War that the community of mixed-blood persons residing in Sumter County were probably referred to as "Turks". That this label was meant to define a Turkish origin for the group, I do not believe. In other areas at the same time, people of the same mixed-blood were called "Portugeuse" and "Moors" yet their ancestors are not from Portugal or the coast of Africa. 'Turk' was used the same way 'Melungeon' was used in Tennessee...not to explain the origin of a people, just to give a label to a mixed-blood community in order to differentiate it from the whites and blacks around them.

That your ancestor referred to himself as a "Turk" when he lived away from Sumter as a way of explaining his dark skin, is no surprise. In his mind, i suppose, it was a way to explain his racial origin, "I'm not full-blooded Indian, I'm not part Black, I'm a Turk from Sumter County" The fact that he applied for Indian land (it was not freely offered, an individual had to apply) but was turned down because he was a 'Turk' (which at the time was known to the Indian Office as mixed-blood persons of Indian descent but of unknown tribal origin-see below-) should be evident that he at least believed he had some Indian blood. However, at the time, persons called 'Turk' in Sumter were very offended by that label. When a class action suit was filed to allow 'Turk' children into white schools it was very clear that "you do not call them Turk to their face", and it was also noted by historians and ethnologists in the 1930's and 1940's that these people would get fighting mad if you called them Turk. I also have no doubt that there are probably people who now proudly claim to be 'Turk', there are people now who proudly claim to be 'Melungeon', but this is now a more racially tolerant South....prior to World War 2, a sure way to get a black eye was to go to Sumter and call someone a 'Turk' or go to Tennessee and call someone a 'Melungeon'.

Before his death in the early 1800's, Joe Benenhaley was the subject of a court case in Sumter where citizens were objecting to his right to vote. Dr. Brewton Berry made note of this incident in his 1940's book "Almost White". Berry notes that Benenhaley was called to testfiy as to his racial origin. (an important note here is that Berry recounts the testimony as that Benenahley was a 'mestizo' but no mention of 'Turk'.. Tom Sumter, the General's grandson, also called Benenhaley a "mestizo" in his history book but made no mention of Turkish origin) While Benenhaley was testifying, General Sumter stormed into the Courtroom, walked up to the witness stand and firmly shook Benenhaley's hand. (it was well known in the South at that time that no respectful Southern gentleman would shake a Negroes hand) This was all the judge needed to see, and the case was promptly dismissed.

In the 1930's, a court case was pressed to allow 'Turk' children to attend white schools. Reports from this case reveal that all the children subject to the proceedings (including Benehaley, Scott, Ellison, Tidwell, Deas families) were presently attending a special 'Indian School' and all the grandparents claimed to be "of Indian ancestry".

Here are a few historical references as to the racial origin of the 'Turks':

-"The Croatan Indians comprise a body of mixed-blood people residing chiefly in Robeson County, NC. A few of the same class of people reside in Bladen, Columbus, Cumberland, Scotland, and Hoke Counties, NC, and in Sumter, Marlboro, and Dillon Counties, SC. 1914 letter from special Indian agent O.M. McPherson to Commissioner of Indian Affairs

-"The Croatan tribe lives principally in Robeson County, NC, though there is quite a number of them settled in counties adjoining in North and South Carolina. In Sumter County, SC, there is a branch of the tribe, and also in east Tennessee. Those living in east Tennessee are called "Melungeans", a name also retained by them here, which is a corruption of "Melange", a name given them by early settlers (French), which means mixed." 1888 pamphlet published by Mr. Hamilton McMillan of Fayetteville, NC.

-"At one time the Croatans were known as "Redbones," and there is still a street in Fayetteville so called because some of them once lived on it. They are known by this name in Sumter County, SC, where they are a quiet and peaceable people, and have a church of their own. They are proud and high-spirited, and caste is very strong among them."1891 article of Dr. William T. Harris, Papers American Historical Association.

-It is well known that for the majority of the War, General Sumter camped on the Indian lands which were inhabited by the confederated Cheraw and Catawba tribe. Every able-bodied male Indian of that group was enlisted as scouts and warriors under various captains who served under Sumter's command. Sumter never approached the coast, and there are almost entire libraries of writings about Sumter's campaigns which were written by people who witnessed the battles. I'm sure that if Sumter had a Turkish guide during the War, someone would have noted it (why would Gen. Sumter, a man familiar with the area, retain a 'guide' from Turkey?). The only written record states that Sumter used Indian guides, scouts, spys, and warriors extensively.

Full Article Here:

http://www.sciway3.net/clark/freemoors/Indian.htm

A Scientific Researcher's View of the Lack of Evidence for a Turkish Connection

A Scientific Researcher's View

By James S. Elder

Young Turks…

Recently we have seen an over-abundance of newspaper and magazine articles suggesting that Melungeons may have Turkish roots. Such articles are inevitably of the interview type in which the reporter doesn't actually do any research himself but instead lets subjects ramble on about their latest supposed discovery.

Journalists, with white space to fill, love every new conjecture. They neither know of the accuracy of these discoveries nor care if they are accurate. The comedian Carrot Top talking about physics would be as good as Einstein talking about physics for such "reporters". They are, after all, just reporting; and mindless babbling fills column space just as well as real research.

As far as I can determine, the Turkish Melungeon speculation seems to have started with Brent Kennedy and some apparently incorrect information. Kennedy is an entertaining man. I first heard him speak in Gate City, Virginia in October of 1995. According to his introduction at the talk, he holds a Ph. D. in Mass Communications from The University of Tennessee. He is certainly a good communicator. I still have an audiotape of that speech. He told the enthralled crowd about his brush with death from his Melungeon disease, let everyone hear the sound his Mediterranean teeth make when you pluck them with a fingernail, rubbed the bump on the back of his head, and spun a web of Turks stranded in 1586 by Sir Francis Drake at Roanoke Island who migrated to Hancock County and started the Melungeon race. It was an interesting, if not accurate, talk.

He says in the preface to his book that he is neither an historian nor an anthropologist. Nevertheless, he has managed to become a much-publicized name in Melungeon "research" over the past several years.. He certainly has charisma. Unfortunately, for his mass of partisans, his ideas don't appear to stand up to close, or even cursory, scientific examination.

Here's his basic story. According to his book, Kennedy became ill in 1988 with what eventually was diagnosed as erythema nodosum sarcoidosis. Kennedy and his wife went to the library and discovered sarcoidosis is "primarily of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean disease [sic], although it's not unknown among Irish and some Scandinavians as well…". Kennedy gets better, returns to his hometown in Virginia, talks to his family, and finds out his people were oppressed. He gets a research grant in 1995 from the Turkish government and goes to that country for a visit. He thinks that Turks and Melungeons look alike, eat alike, dance alike, dress alike, and have some similar sounding words. From all of this, he deduces that Melungeons are a mish-mash of people including Portuguese from Santa Elena, Dominicans, Jesuits, French Huguenots, Acadians, Drake's Turks and others who mysteriously decided to leave the Atlantic coast and go to the boonies, intermarry with Native Americans and become the Melungeons. He somehow divines "that the Turkish/Moorish element was at least in the beginning the predominant one…".
First of all, sarcoidosis is not predominantly a Middle Eastern or Mediterranean disease. Far from being "not unknown" among the Irish and Scandinavians, those populations, along with Germans and Puerto Ricans, have the highest incidence of the disease.

I examined information from a number of physicians who specialize in treating sarcoidosis as well as information found in standard medical literature. The literature and MDs' definitions and etiologies of sarcoidosis invariably followed that of the National Institutes of Health. The NIH says," Sarcoidosis was once considered a rare disease. We now know that it is a common chronic illness that appears all over the world… It occurs in all races and in both sexes. Nevertheless, the risk is greater if you are a young black adult, especially a black woman, or of Scandinavian, German, Irish, or Puerto Rican origin. No one knows why…No one knows what causes sarcoidosis… Sarcoidosis is currently thought to be associated with a abnormal immune response. Whether a foreign substance is the trigger is [sic] a chemical, drug, virus, or some other substance; how exactly the immune disturbance is caused are [sic] not known". The article these comments are taken from can be found at

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000076.htm .

Simply put, no one knows what causes sarcoidosis. Suggestions have included a virus, a fungus, a bacillus, and even pine pollen. A genetic connection has been suggested but has not been proven by scientific study. It is much more prevalent among the Irish than the peoples of the Middle East. In my view, if sarcoidosis has a genetic link, it certainly seems that someone named Kennedy would be more likely to trace the disease to the Irish than to the Turks.

Kennedy suggests that the similar sound of some Middle Eastern words compared to American words support his conjecture that Melungeons have a Turkish connection. Alabama for instance, according to Kennedy, sounds like "Allah Bamya" meaning God's graveyard in Turkish. The fact is, we don't know exactly where the word Alabama came from. It was the name of a southern Indian tribe who lived in what is now central Alabama. The term first appears in the accounts of the Hernando de Soto expedition of 1540. It was written Alibamo by Garcillasso de la Vega, Alibamu by the Knight of Elvas, and Limamu by Rodrigo Ranjel.

How this term could somehow come from the Turks is "jest-a-bit" fuzzy in my old brain. One writer (not Kennedy) suggested that Turks are somehow cousins of Native Americans through some mysterious Asian connection. I can only surmise that, according to this reasoning, the early Neo-Indians must have brought a bunch of meaningless (to them) Turkish terms with them when crossing the Bering Strait land bridge during the Ice Age and mysteriously applied the terms centuries later to themselves. Or maybe Turks somehow came to the Americas before 1540, headed for the backwoods, met a tribe of Indians and mentioned their term meaning "God's graveyard". The Indians didn't speak Turkish but must have thought Allah Bamya sounded neat and immediately changed the name of the tribe from whatever they had been calling themselves to "Alabama". Maybe not….

Cont. Here:

http://www.freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=50142