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 impossible 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 ancestors who worked on the Underground Railroad!

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