Melungeons of Southwestern Virginia and North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee

CHAPTER 22

THE MELUNGEONS

21 December 2016

For several generations,the Bowman, Rosenbaum, and Worley ancestors of Jenny Bowman would intermarry,  with many of these marriages being among 1st cousins.  This was very common among a group of Southerners of mixed race heritage who became known at the Melungeons of the Blue Ridge Mountain region of western Virginia and North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.

Little is known of the Bowman heritage. The name is often spelled “Boman” as well as Bowman. but probably was originally Bauman.  The Bowman, Rosenbaum, and Worley families were all of German descent and probably were from Pennsylvania from where these families migrated down the Great Wagon Trail sometime in the mid 18th Century.

It is a possibility that the Bowmans may have been a product of a mixed marriage between a white man and a “person of color.” It is documented that the Bowman, Rosenbaum, Worley, and Lythcoe familes at various times were enumerated as free persons of color as well as free whites.

Beginning in the early 1800s, or possibly before, the term Melungeon was applied as a slur to a group of about 40 families along the Tennessee-Virginia border. But it has since become a catch-all phrase for a number of groups of mysterious mixed-race ancestry.

The term Melungeon, is of obscure origin. Probably it is from the French qoes “melange”, meaning a mixture. The Melungeons are a people living in the mountains of East Tennessee, western North Carolina, southwestern Virginia, and eastern Kentucky, and are of an atypical appearance and uncertain origin. They have a more swarthy complexion, straight black hair, black or grey eyes, and are not tall but heavy-set.

In the 1800’s the term Melungeon, meaning mixed, was applied to white families of the Blue Ridge Mountain Region with darker skin coloring and dark hair and eyes. When racism took hold in America after the Civil War and race could prevent legal protection and rights these people explained away their heritage as being from Native Americans and Portuguese Sailors.

Many call of these mixed race people believed themselves to be of Portuguese (which they pronounce 'Porter-ghee) descent. The story told to explain their complexion was that they were a mixture of Portuguese,  Anglo-Saxons, and Native Americans.The Melungeon claim to Portuguese heritage dates back to at least to 1848.

"A great many years ago, these mountains were settled by a society of Portuguese adventurers, men and women - who came from the long-shore parts of Virginia. These intermixed with the Indians and subsequently their descendants (after the advances of the whites into this part of the state) with the negros and the whites, thus forming the present race of Melungeons."

The conclusion of anthropologists and geneticists however is that the origin of the Melungeons are a mixture of whites, Native Americans, and blacks creating a mixed-race community that faced social discrimination because of their dark skin. Since the late 20th century the Melungeon DNA Project has shown most individuals who believe they are of Melungeon descent are of European and African descent, rather than having Native American ancestry.

Eighty percent of people listed as free people of color in censuses from 1790–1810 in North Carolina and Virginia, can be traced back to African Americans identified as free in Virginia in colonial times. Based on research, most such free African-American families before the American Revolution were descended from the laboring class, between white women and men of African descent.

In 1662 the Virginia House of Burgess passed a law known as "partus sequitur ventrum" that stated all “children borne in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother...."  Children of a white mother and an African American would be free but known as people of color.

The families known as "Melungeons" in the 19th century were generally well integrated into the communities in which they lived, though this is not to say that racism was never a factor in their social interactions. Records show that on the whole they enjoyed the same rights as whites. For example, they held property, voted, and served in the army;

Circumstancial evidence suggests that John Bowman the ancestor of Jennie Bowman may have been of mixed race ancestry. Indeed he was listed in the 1830 Census of Washington County as a free person of color.

In February 1817, John Rosenbaum sold to John Bowman 105 acres near John Wright in the Tumbling Creek area for $25. John Rosenbaum had bought the land from James and Jennette Keys for $100. He sold this land at a considerable loss probably because of affection he had for his neice who was married to John Bowman although he reserved a portion of the land that contained pine timber for his own use.

           A near neighbor of John Rosebaum and John Bowman was Stephen Beatty [Beaty; Beattie]. Stephen “Beate” had married Elizabeth “Bowman” on 21 Jan 1816, in Washington County, Virginia. It’s a strong possibility that she was a sister or at least relative of John Bowman.

This Stephen Beaty is listed as a free man of color in a deed dated 17 Mar 1830. “Stephen Beaty, a free man of colour to Charles S Bekem, both of Washington County, Virginia… Beaty being indebted to John Catron (Ketron; Kettering) for $21.15 & being desirous to settle same & for $1, sells, land on Laurel Fork of Holston on which sd. Beaty now lives, adjoining land of David Rambo, John Right (Wright) & Mary [Polly] Davis.”

Stephen Beatty was born circa 1789 in Virginia and Elizabeth Bowman was born in 1786 in Virginia. He owned property near Tumbling Creek in the Damascus/Laurel Fork area near where James Keys sold 50 acres to him in 1821. He is listed as a lunatic in 1834 and 1846, indicating some instability.

His 1st wife Elizabeth Bowman left him by 9 February 1841 when in a deed he is listed with a wife, Margaret who is still with him in 1850 and 1860. In the 1860 census of Washington County, Virginia he, as “Stephen Beattie, was listed as age 71, and a mulatto. Stephen Beaty is no longer listed in records by 1866 or before.

Elizabeth Bowman Beaty lived with her son Robert Beaty in 1850 in which she stated she was 64 years old [1786] and born in Virginia. Her son Robert and his entire family are listed as Mulatto but she is not. Robert Beatty and most of his brothers would leave Virginia prior to the Civil War and move to Ohio. He actually joined the Union Army’s 17th U.S. Colored Infantry. A death certificate of one of her daughters said Elizabeth was “Portugee” which is another term for melungeon. The 1850 census showed that Stephen Beatty was a farmer but it did not list his race.

Elizabeth Bowman lived with Stephen Beatty and had 7 children by him before his first breakdown, possibly abandoning him due to his “insanity” first recorded in 1834. By 1850, she is listed under her own surname with supposed son, Robert whose wife is also a Bowman.

Before 1841, Stephen Beatty married Margaret, surname presently unknown and is still living with her in 1850 and 1860 despite another breakdown in 1846. By 1850, only daughter Margaret is with him but Washington Beaty returns to the household by 1860 for a period.

John Beaty, likely the brother of Stephen, had an admirable estate, but perhaps no direct heirs. Since his supposed brother, Stephen had bouts of insanity, his heirs were deemed to be his nieces and nephews, children of Stephen Beaty and Elizabeth Bowman.

On 29 May 1846: James Fulcher, jailor of Washington County Virginia reported to court, that on yesterday, Stephen Beaty a free man of colour, was committed to the jail as a lunatic; therefore ordered Daniel Trigg & John D. Mitchell be, and they are hereby appointed a committee for purpose of examining into the condition of sd. Beaty and that they report to the court the result of their examination. And thereupon sd. committee made a report of their examination… court of opinion that Beaty requires an attendant, and the jailor of Washington County, Virginia is hereby authorized to employ an attendant upon him… court allows $1 per day for such” “court allows clothing for Beaty, provided expense shall not exceed sum of $30 per annum. And it is further ordered that Doctor Daniel Trigg do give to sd. Beaty such medical aid as he may require.” “Saml. Skinner, jailor, exhibited acct. ags. The Commonwealth for imprisoning & dieting Stephen BEATY, confined in jail as a lunatic & for discharging him, amounting to sum of $7.10; made oath thereto; examined & allowed & certified to Auditor.”