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Graysville Melungeons

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Description: An article on the largest Melungeon community, in Rhea, Roane and Hamilton counties, Tennessee, and the only incorporated town with a Melungeon majority.
THE GRAYSVILLE MELUNGEONS TENNESSEE ANTHROPLOGIST VOL:IV,NUMBER1 1979 THE GRAYSVILLE MELUNGEONS (A TRI-RACIAL PEOPLE IN LOWER EAST TENNESSEE ) By Raymond Evans Abstract Located approximately 30 miles north of Chattanooga, the community of Graysville, Tennessee contains one of the most stable Melungeon settlements in the state. Field work in the community conducted in conjunction with archival research demonstrates that the Melungeons, who now compose more than half of the local population, came from Hamilton County durning the latter half of the nineteenth century. Census records and other archival sources indicate that prior to comming to Hamilton County they had lived in Virginia and North Carolina. In Graysville, the Melungeons strongly deny their Black heritage and explain their genetic differences by claiming to have Cherokee grandmothers. Many of the local Whites also claim Cherokee ancestry and apper to accept the Melungeon claim.The racist discrimination common in Hancock County and in other Melungeon communities is absent in Graysville. Here, the Melungeons interact in all phases of community life,and exogamy with local Whites is common practice.- Goins- and the term "Melungeon" is not used by the people or by their neighbors. Recent field observations of the Graysville Melungeons differ in no way from that of any other small southern Appalachian community. INTRODUCTION No people in Tennessee have been subjected to more romantic speculation than have the so-call "Melungeons" These dark-skinned people, living in a White world,strongly denied their Black ancestry and attempted to explain their color by saying they were of Portuguese decent (Burnett 1889:347-349) Popular writters have elaborated on this theme (c.f.Willis 1971:2-8;Zuber n.d.)They have been claimed to be descendants of the "Lost Tribes of Isreal (Bible1975:74-80),old world Gypsies (Bell1975:21),mythical "Welsh Indians"(Bible 1975:81-82; Willia 1971: 5) or Arabs ( Ball 1945: 5-7;1975 22) others have attempted
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Creation Date: 16-may-1995
Expiration Date: 17-may-2019