As I watch “Finding Your Roots” on PBS, a weekly habit, I am reminded that all of us who claim ancestry of “Melungeon” or “Cherokee princess” ancestry need to recognize the genetic truths — many of us have Black ancestors. I can document hundreds of “white” folks who moved around Appalachia, from places in East Tennessee and/or SW Virginia into various counties of Eastern Kentucky, to escape labels of “colored”.
It has long been documented that the poor white (English) indentured servants of the early Tidewater Virginia territories, who often were housed with, and treated no better, than African slaves would escape in groups into the wilds of Southside Virginia and western North Carolina. Often, but not always, they were accepted by and assimilated into Native American tribes, but they readily mixed as families.
From far western North Carolina, many settled into coves in the mountains of East Tennessee (see Hancock TN in particular), until racial laws before and immediately after the Civil War forced further movements into SW Virginia (Russell, Wise, Dickenson counties in particular).
When Virginia’s Dept. of Vital Statistics in the “era of eugenics” — 1900-1930 — became its most racist, many of these families once again had to “run from race” into Eastern Kentucky. Some found shelter to “pass” in Pike or Floyd, but most found more flexible homes in Letcher and Knott. These ancestral ties are readily documented via DNA as well as decade-on-decade census mapping from area to area.
I have begun tracking some of these family units by tracking their racial classification census-by-census. The purpose is not to create embarrassment among modern-day descendants, but rather to help each of us to recognize the realistic difficulties of life for poor and enslaved people throughout — and shaping — Appalachian history.