Early America was far more ethnically and racially complex than we have been taught.

Early America was far more ethnically and racially complex than we have been taught. Some whites were not northern European, some blacks were not sub-Saharan African, and some Indians and some mulattos were not Indians and mulattos… We Melungeons and, indeed, other mixed groups have irrefutable ties not only to northern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, and early America, but also to the eastern Mediterranean, southern Europe, northern African, and central Asia.

N. Brent Kennedy, “Introduction,” in North From the Mountains: A Folk History of the Carmel Melungeon Settlement, Highland County, Ohio, authors John S. Kessler and Donald B. Ball.  (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2001),  pp. ix-x.

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