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Monday 12 January 2004

Culture Shocks

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Hello ^fname^,


This is Nucha Aquino from Thailand/Philippines.  
Welcome to our Small World. We are sending this 
ezine to 3000 readers today.


We publish weekdays. The schedule is roughly like this:
 > Monday - Culture Shock
 > Tuesday - Traveller's Insights
 > Wednesday - International Recipes
 > Thursday - Q&A and Miscellaneous Talks
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Any comment is welcome. Please write to me

Happy New Year ^fname^, we are back form vacation. 
Actually I did not go anywhere, just taking the time out to 
update our web sites. Of course, the job is not done. Enough 
with all the New Year resolution things...

I was not really active on-line, and there was some problem 
with our incoming email... So if you wrote to me but I did 
not reply, please forgive me. I will take care of all emails 
ASAP.

Our list is now double-opt-in if you come from a free ad
site. I want to make sure everyone wants to be here when
he/she subscribes. I am not hoping to see the list grow
as fast as before. It will even shrink. But the quality
of the readers is going to be better as no-one subscribed
by mistake :-)

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Melungeons and the Underground Railroad

By Henry Robert Burke

 

      

   

 

 

   

The Melungeon sub-culture has contributed greatly to 
Appalachian and American Culture in many ways. Now that DNA 
analysis is establishing who Melungeons were/are, I feel 
induced to tell the significant role that Melungeons served 
in creating and operating the Underground Railroad Movement 
in the United States. The Underground Railroad began during 
the early period of slavery, when the first slave received 
help in his effort to escape from slavery. Sometime between 
1793 and 1815, the Underground Railroad became organized and 
eventually helped thousands of fugitive slaves from the 
South make their way to freedom in Canada and places 
outside the jurisdiction of U.S. Fugitive Slave Laws.

Dr. Brent Kennedy, a genuine Melungeon and founder of the
Melungeon Movement, eloquently stated his pride in a 
statement issued at the completion of the first DNA 
analysis, in which he furnished a blood sample for testing. 
He said in effect that his DNA shows various percentages 
European, Native American, Northern India (Gypsy) and 
African genes. He feels that DNA analysis of other 
Melungeons will show similar results. Dr. Kennedy concluded
his statement expressing his pride for being connected to 
all the people of this World! Dr. Kennedy and all Melungeons 
should feel proud of the contributions that their Melungeons 
ancestors have made to the cause of freedom.

During the Slavery Era, the mobility of black people in the
United States was very limited. Laws were enacted not only 
to protect slave owners from loss or their human property, 
but to prevent slave insurrections. While there always a few 
free blacks, they were, for the most part ineffectual in 
moving about freely. Black people could easily be identified 
and restricted because of their dark skin and Negro 
features. Across the entire United States, there were 
countless local, state and/or federal laws that restricted 
the movements and activities Negroes slave or free. This 
made it impossibe for blacks to travel long distances to 
establish and maintain the crucial communications to
operate the Underground Railroad.

Legalizing the enslavement of black people from Africa began 
in Massachusetts in 1640 and in Virginia around 1661, but it 
took until 1700 before Africans completely replaced 
indentured servants as the main labor force on tobacco 
plantations in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. Many 
Gypsy people had been purposely rounded up and arrested all 
over England other parts of Europe, and transported to the 
English Colonies, many ending up in Maryland, Virginia, and 
North Carolina to serve indentures on tobacco plantations.

Unlike white European indentured servants, most Gypsies were
assigned to the hard grueling labor, that eventually became 
the work of slaves. While some history of Gypsy people is 
very well documented, records of the harsh treatment 
accorded them as indentured servants on the tobacco 
plantations is not! The accounts are scanty and often not 
well explained, but enough historical evidence exists to 
verify that Gypsy indentured servants were often treated so 
bad, they died before completing their term of indenture.

Many Melungeons look like well tanned white people. 
Typically Melungeons are tall people with straight hair and 
European features. There was one very important difference 
that distinguished Melungeons from ordinary white people. 
Because of the treatment they received as indentured 
servants and other forms of social discrimination they had 
endured, Melungeons hated slavery!

When their terms of indenture were completed, Melungeons 
moved out to live on the outward fringes of the advancing 
frontier. These were places that naturally attracted 
fugitive slaves. Melungeons, who were already established on 
the frontier sympathized with fugitive slaves as well as 
Indians. Melungeons could and did travel freely on the 
American frontier. From experience they know routes that 
could lead fugitive slaves to freedom. Melungeons felt 
compelled to help fugitive slaves.

After the American Revolutionary War, western expansion 
began along and across the Ohio River. Melungeons were 
already scattered across the mountainous regions of western 
Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. They already had 
experienced helping fugitive slaves. When the northern 
states abolished slavery between 1777 and 1803 the 
Mason-Dixon Line became the boundary between the Northern 
states where slavery was illegal and the Southern States 
where slavery was legal.

In the North, white abolitionists joined Melungeons living 
north of the Ohio River and organized the Underground 
Railroad, but the Melungeon influence reached far back into 
slave states like Virginia. The slave culture was so 
entrenched in the South that it would have been practically 
impossible for fugitive slaves to escape and make it to the 
Northern States without the help of Melungeons.

Melungeons in the North maintained communications with their
relatives in the South. Using this line of communications,
Melungeons in the South provided a crucial service by 
passing fugitive slaves from one Underground Railroad 
station to the next!

Melungeons living in the North along the Ohio River 
continued this activity but were eventually joined by 
increasing numbers of free blacks and white abolitionists. 
The Underground Railroad continued to gain momentum right up 
until the American Civil War began. To cap off their effort 
for freedom, many Melungeons joined the Union Forces and 
fought in the Civil War.

I encourage Melungeons to examine your family histories 
closely. I am sure that you will find that your ancestors 
worked on the Underground Railroad!


------------------

Author Information: Henry Robert Burke is an historian and
writer. You may learn more about the Journey to Freedom at
http://americanodyssey.net Mr. Burke is available for 
lectures and signings. Agent: Myriam Maytorena, M.Ed.
manifestreality@juno.com

   

 

 

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