Walter Ashby Plecker was unassuming in appearance: a small-town doctor whose penchant for number-crunching earned him the position of registrar in Virginias Bureau of Vital Statistics in 1912. But appearances were indeed deceiving. With Plecker at the helm, the bureau went on an all-out war against "amalgamation".
Plecker was not the author of the Racial Integrity Law of 1924--Virginia's infamous "one drop" statute, which created two racial categories, "pure" white and everybody else. But he--and allies such as John Powell of the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America--pushed hard to enforce the act's provision for "ancestral registration".
Virginians shied away from compliance in that area, according to J. David Smith in The Eugenic Assault on America: Scenes in Red, White, and Black. Indeed, "passing" might have been commonplace among whiter-skinned African- Americans since at least 1662, when the first anti-miscegenation laws were passed in Virginia, but even for allegedly "pure" whites, proof of racial purity might have been difficult to obtain.
Detail from John Rolfe and Pocahontas, J. W. Glass, early 1850s. See http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html
And at least one group of whites who had been proud of their so-called impurity lobbied successfully to have the act revised. The aristocratic descendants of Pocahontas-- resentful of being lumped in with "Negroes, Mongolians, American Indians, Malayans, or any mixtures thereof, or any other non-Caucasian strains"--twisted arms until the legislature decreed that persons with no more than one-sixteenth Native American ancestry might still be considered white.
But Plecker's power to grant birth, death, and marriage certificates gave him unprecedented and awesome powers over Virginians who had less clout than the Pocahontas contingent. With the stroke of a pen, Plecker could write an individual into "Negro" status--and legal and social oblivion. Plecker was only too willing to exercise that power, thus making him a figure of dread to Indians in general, but particularly to the Powhatan remnants in Rockbridge and Amherst counties, until his retirement and subsequent death in 1946.
William Terrill Bradby, a Pamunkey, in full regalia. The Pamunkeys were very conscious of the importance of maintaining a "wild" image and even sent a representative to the 1893 World's Fair. See http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html
According to Helen Rountree, a Old Dominion University professor who has written extensively on Virginia's Powhatan tribes, Plecker believed that all Indians had "polluted" their blood by mingling it with free African-Americans--or "free issues", in the local vernacular. Plecker thus saw those who claimed Indian ancestry as opportunists seeking what Rountree called a "way station to whiteness"-- in other words, he saw all Indians as blacks attempting to "pass."
Plecker's beliefs placed him squarely in the mainstream of the American eugenics movement, which assaulted the rights of poor whites as vigorously as those of racial minorities. (Compare, for example, the case of Carrie Buck, an 18-year-old Caucasian girl from Lynchburg who was believed, it now appears erroneously, to be "feeble- minded." In a case that went before the Supreme Court, the state vigorously pursued and won the right to sterilize Buck to prevent her from passing on her "imbecility.") But the desire to make Native Americans simply "vanish," whether into the African-American population or into thin air, had much deeper roots.
Peter Houck, author of Indian Island in Amherst County, cites Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 as the first sustained and coordinated effort in Virginia to drive the Powhatans from their land. But we cannot forget that the nation's Indian removal policy was formulated by that great defender of liberty Thomas Jefferson and carried out by that great defender of the common man Andrew Jackson. Indeed, long before Ulysses S. Grant had developed "vanishing" into an official "Peace Policy," Virginians had mastered the mechanics.
"In time, you will be as we are," Jefferson promised in his 1809 Indian address. "You will become one people with us. Your blood will mix with ours; and will spread with ours over this great Island..." Absorption into the white race--a consummation devoutly to be wished from one perspective--was the lure Jefferson tossed before the tribes.
The Majors, a Mattaponi family, ca. 1900. See http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html
As for those who "mingled their blood" with African-Americans, they, too, would be absorbed--though they might not like the consequences. Let us consider the example of the Gingashins. This eastern tribe had two strikes against it: Its members refused to give up their traditional lifeways; even worse, they intermarried freely and unashamedly with blacks.
This was anathema to Virginia elites. Intermarriage with whites could be, and was, tolerated. Intermarriage with blacks, however, was an intolerable challenge to the arbitrary color line that had been in place since the first chattel slavery law passed in 1661. Thus, in 1813, the Gingashins made their way into the history books, becoming the first U.S. tribe to be terminated.
Needless to say, Gingashin identity did not die with the legal decree. As late as 1855, Rountree notes, county maps showed an "Indian Town," an Indiantown Creek, and a settlement of seven houses. Eventually, however, white antagonism, not to mention opportunism, forced the Gingashins to merge into a sympathetic African-American community. Tribes such as the Pamunkeys, Mattaponis, Upper Mattaponis, Nansemonds, Rappahannocks, and Chickahominies took note of the lesson--and learned how to resist.
A century later, armed with the awesome power of the state, Plecker declared war on these people. Consulting a listing of surnames associated with Native American ancestry-- such as Beverly (from beaver), Sparrow, Penn or Pinn, Fields, Bear, and so on--and drawing his authority from century-old census records that were likely to list Indians as "mulattoes"--particularly if the census were taken in summertime, Houck notes-- Plecker embarked on a crusade to re-classify every Native American in the state as an African-American.
A marriage certificate from 1940. Note that "mixed" is handwritten below the typed designation "Indian."
See http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html
Plecker intimidated mid-wives, wrote threatening pamphlets, editorialized in newspapers, and trained an entire generation of county clerks and health service workers in his methods. When all else failed, he simply changed records to suit his prejudices, striking out the designation "Indian" and replacing it with "Negro" or "colored" or "mulatto"--or writing notations on the back.
But while Powhatans suffered under Plecker's tyranny, they refused to vanish. When necessary, they sacrificed both family ties and good will in the African-American community by refusing to attend Jim Crow schools or segregated churches.
These isolationist tactics cost them--Indian communities in Amherst were often poor and poorly educated--but they appear to have worked. It is worth noting that Amherst Indians who successfully held themselves aloof from "black contamination" regained tribal recognition in the 1980s. Another group, also living in Amherst County, which proudly claimed African, Native, and Caucasian ancestry--the Buffalo Ridge Cherokee--did not.
-
- http://www.dickshovel.com/dela.html
- http://www.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/hoos/images/pleck.jpg
- Helen Rountree's article in the Chesopian magazine (vol 10, 1972, p. 87) gives excellent detail on the racism in Virginia with which the Indians had to deal in the first half of the 20th Century.
"Battles in Red, Black, and White: Virginia's Racial Integrity Law of 1924," a brief overview by Kendra Hamilton at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html
- http://www.lynncjackson.com/family/main.htm "Moors & Nanticokes"
- http://www.mitsawokett.com/ "Mitsawokett"
- E-mail messages from Ned Heite, Lynn Jackson, Paul Heinegg, Ron Welburn, Michael Everette Bell
References:
COMMENTARY
Note: The following message addresses a problem in Virginia. While not as blatantly egregious as the Virginia situation, records of the Native American-descended population of Delaware also suffered and will be discussed below.
From: B. Fulton (b-dfulton@erols.com) 5 Oct 2000:
Trying to locate documentation regarding Native Americans is very difficult. Dr. Walter Ashby Plecker spent decades trying to deny the existence of Indians in Virginia.... Virginia's former registrar of the Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dr. Plecker, believed there were no real native-born Indians in Virginia and anybody claiming to be Indian had a mix of black blood. He classified Indians as Blacks and even issued in 1943 a list of surnames belonging to "mongel" or mixed-blood families suspected of having Negro ancestry who must not be allowed to pass as Indian or White.
Plecker ran the Bureau from 1912 to 1946. He helped pass the 1924 Racial Integrity Act, a strict race classification and law. Dr. Plecker changed and/or destroyed labels on vital records to classify Indians as "colored, mongrel, mulatto", investigated the pedigrees of racially "suspect" citizens, and provided information to block or annul interracial marriages with Whites. He not only did this to Indians, but other races as well. Any wonder why we have difficulty locating records? This law is still in place.
Please, understand, I'm not trying to be political. But, I think it is necessary for those who are searching their Native heritage to understand why records in the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics are incorrect or missing. The following is a transcribed copy of the certificate that Plecker had affixed to all "suspect" birth, death, and marriage certificates in Virginia.
“WARNING-- To be attached to the backs of birth or death certificates of those believed to be incorrectly recorded as to color or race.
“Howe in his History of Virginia, 1845, pages 349-350 says of the Mattaponi and Pamunkey Indians of King William County: "Their Indian character is nearly extinct by intermixture with the white and negroes."
“Encyclopedia Britannia, Eleventh Edition, Volume 14, page 460 and 464, says of Chickahominy Indians. "No pure bloods left, considerable negro and mixture," and of Pamunkeys, "All mixed-bloods: some negro mixture."
“The Handbook of American Indians (Bulletin 30), Bureau of American Ethnology, under the heading "Croatan Indians," The theory of descent from the colony may be regarded as baseless, but the name itself serves as a convenient label for a people who combine in themselves the blood of the wasted native tribes, the early colonists or forest rovers, the runaway slaves or other negroes, and probably also of stray seamen of the Latin races (Italian, Portuguese, etc) from coasting vessels in the West Indian or Brazilian trade.
“Across the line in South Carolina are found a people, evidently of similar origin, designated- "Redbones." In portions of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee are found the so-called "Melungeons" (probably from French melange, "mixed") or "Portuguese" apparently an offshoot from Croatan proper, and in Delaware are found the "Moors." All of these are local designations for people of mixed race with an Indian nucleus differing in no way from the present mixed-blood remnants known as Pamunkey, Chickahominy, and Nansemond Indians in Virginia, excepting in the more complex loss of their identity. In general, the physical features and complexion of the persons of this mixed stock incline more to the Indian than to white or negro.
“The same under "mixed-bloods," says; "The Pamunkey, Chickahomniy, Marshpee, Narraganset, and Gay Head remnants have much negro blood, and conversely there is no doubt that many of the broken coast tribe have been completely absorbed into the negro race."
“In 1843, 144 freeholders of King William County in a petition to the legislature to abolish the two Indian reservations of that county, B.12d7, State Library, say: "There are two parcels or tracts of land situated within said County, on which a number of persons are now living, all of whom by the laws of Virginia, would be deemed and taken to be free mulattoes, in any Court of Justice; as it is believed they all have onefourth or more of negro blood; and as proof of this, they would rely on the generally admitted fact, that not one individual can be found among them, of whose grandfathers and grandmothers, one or more is or was not a negro; which proportion of negro blood constitutes a free mulatto, see R C Vol. 1st page." These conclusions are confirmed by responsible citizens now living in that county December 1927.
“A. H. Estabrook and Ivan E. McDougle in their book, "Mongrel Virginians," 1926, describe a group of mixed bloods centering in Amherst County and extending to the Irish Creek Valley in Rockbridge, and to other surrounding counties, known locally as "Issue" or "Free Issue." They say, page 15: "These freed negroes mated with themselves or the half-breed Indians in the County.
“Therefore: In consideration of the above and other similar evidence relating to all or practically all groups claiming to be "Indians", The Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics accepts the belief that there are no descendants of Virginia Indians claiming or reputed to be Indians, who are unmixed with negro blood, and in accordance with the requirements of the Vital Statistics and Racial Integrity Laws that births and deaths be correctly recorded as to race, classifies as negro or colored, persons, either or both of whose parents are recorded on the birth or death certificate or marriage license, or who are themselves recorded are Indian, Mixed Indian, Mixed, Melungeon, Issue, Free Issue, or other similar non-white terms.
“The Bureau of Vital Statistics has consented to accept an interrogation mark as indication that the writer of the certificate considered the individual as probably of colored origin, but preferred not stating the fact, to appear in the local record.
“This warning will apply also to any who may be incorrectly recorded as white, when known to be of Negro, Malay, Mongolian, West Indian, East Indian, Mexican, Filipino, or any other non-white mixture.
“The above statement of information now available, is given for the guidance of those to follow us in this work, and is intended to apply to the individual whose birth is reported on the certificate Vol._____No.____ to which this is attached.”
From Rarihokwats (four_arrows@canada.com), 6 Oct 2000
In 1924, the Racial Integrity Law institutionalized the "one drop rule", under which any person, including Indians, who was believed to have "one drop" or more of "Negro blood" was designated as Black. A person with no "non-Caucasian blood" was classified as white, as well as persons who claimed 1/16th or less "Indian blood".
This exemption was to protect prominent white persons who claimed to be descended from Pocahantas. To be anything but white in Virginia meant exclusion from employment, education, and basic services. The "ancestral registration" provisions of the law were strictly enforced by Dr. Walter Ashby Plecker, a small-town doctor who became registrar of the state's Bureau of Vital Statistics in 1912.
In 1925, he began a campaign to force the U.S. Census Bureau to report no Indians in Virginia in 1930. The Census Bureau conceded to mark Virginia Indians with a footnote: "Includes a number of persons whose classification as Indians has been questioned." Plecker believed that all Indians had 'polluted' their blood by mingling it with free African-Americans.
Plecker thus saw those who claimed Indian ancestry as opportunists seeking what Helen Rountree called a 'way station to whiteness'-- in other words, he saw all Indians as blacks attempting to 'pass.'" Nonetheless, in 1930, the U.S. Census reported 779 Indians in Virginia, noting for the first time there were 59 Indians in Caroline County. Plecker's successor, Russell E. Booker Jr., termed Plecker's activities from 1912 to 1946 as "documentary genocide"
A copy of the Plecker letter quoted earlier on these pages is at
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/hoos/images/pleck.jpg
Helen Rountree's article in the Chesopian magazine (vol 10, 1972, p. 87) gives excellent detail on the racism in Virginia with which the Indians had to deal in the first half of the 20th Century. See also
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html
Stewart/Bradby Story from Jackie Stewart Jennings, 6 Oct 2000:
I'm posting this story here for those that have expressed interest. I'm not pretending to know the full story - only parts. Only recently was this story related to me by my father who lived on the Pamunkey reservation.
Plecker's information was of interest to me because it tied into the story of my father's life on the reservation. I am certain my father is not aware of any Plecker decree or how it affected his, or his family's or the tribe's lives.
He was the youngest of the seven Stewart children. His older siblings may be aware of Plecker but I'm not sure - and I don't know how to bring it up. Here it is.
During the Depression most of the Indians on his reservation were starving. My father remembers not being fed for many days. Sometimes he would eat once a week. He said it was always like that during the depression. Apparently an agency took pity on these people and one day sent a truck of food (cheese and bread) only to be sent away by the families because they were too proud to accept handouts. They asked for work instead.
My father was about 6-7 years old at the time. So much for Plecker's "mongrels" and "pseudo-Indians." I do not know how they ate during that time but the Pamunkey River did provide some sustenance. He spoke of eating shad roe from the river.
I do believe this was a form of "genocide." I don't think Plecker counted on them sticking it out and helping each other. Their sense of family was very great. During this same period, my father's oldest sister, Daisy, and he found work in a cannery somewhere in VA. While my Aunt Daisy packed the cans, my father, Aubrey sterilized them.
My Aunt Daisy told him the following (and I'm paraphrasing): "We always canned during the summer months and it was very hot all the time. We worked in a large building with no ventilation. Aubrey, I remember looking up at you stirring the cans and the sweat was just pouring off of you. I knew it was over 100 degrees in that building but because you were always working in that steam it had to be 140. I couldn't stop crying, you were so little and had to work so hard." He was 9 years old!
They were lucky, because they found work occasionally during that time. My father's response to this story was that he felt it did not hurt him it only helped. My father told me everybody was starving and they tried to look after each other. These people are examples of the "Greatest Generation." I know that there are many people with similar depression-era stories.
And we know the minorities were hit the hardest during the depression. Both blacks and indians or mongrels, as Plecker fondly called these extraordinary people, had it the worse. I believe, the indians really were hit the hardest because of Plecker's decree and the intense prejudice it produced. My father and his family were shunned from society - even by poor whites. I can remember when I was young understanding my father's need to be sensitive to others of color. He never expressed it that way - we just never said an unkind word about another race. He remembers being called the "n....." word through most of his childhood.
In Plecker's letters he mentioned that these Virginia indians were trying to evade the draft. Interesting, maybe some did but from my family's experience, that was not the case. All my uncles, including my father served their country with distinction during WWII. My father, Aubrey, was a sailor and enlisted when he turned of age. He was part of the clean-up operation in the Pacific. He also witnessed an atomic explosion on a Pacific atoll knowing that being that close could cause cancer. All the sailors knew about the affects of atomic radiation. My Uncle Stanley served in the Army during WWII. He chased Rommel all over Africa during the African campaign and fought on the Cassarine (sp?) Pass. I understand that one of my uncles was part of the Normandy Invasion. They all volunteered and they all came back alive. So much for evading the draft.
These people are so modest that they feel they've done nothing special. Everyone of them succeeded through hard work and perservence. Not one of them could attend a public school. My father attended the one-room elementary Pamunkey school that, I think, still sits on the reservation. He was sent away to a Cherokee High School or boarding school. After the war he went on to college, the only one in his family that did.
After the war, most of his siblings moved off the reservation to find work in Philadelphia. His two sisters remained on the reservation. Every one of them succeeded in life. It's interesting to note that most of them started up their own businesses and financially did very well. My Aunt Daisy, who was one of the sisters that remained on the reservation, became a very prominent figure in the tribe and a talented potterer.
I'm sure there's much more to their history but they are very reluctant to talk about it. When I pressure my father to recount more of their story, he just says, "It was a very painful and terrible time. No one wants to remember."
From Thomas F. Brown, 7 Oct 2000:
<<In Plecker's letters he mentioned that these Virginia indians were trying to evade the draft.>>
Interesting, maybe some did but from my family's experience, that was not the case. Some of the draft-age men of the "tri-racial" groups refused to serve in the colored regiments, but were willing to serve in white regiments. My recollection from the literature is that in some cases they were accomodated by allowing them into white units, and in other cases were excused from service altogether because of the racial classification issue.
From Gene R. Griffith ( Littlewolf), 9 Oct 2000:
My family was one of the families that Walter Plecker took an interest in to the point that he took one of my aunts and cousins when they were little less than teenagers and had them declaired feebled minded and had them put into a home for the feebled minded in Lynchburg,VA. Had them sterlized and then experimented on each of them. Some were left almost blind and other things too numerous to mention.
The last of my aunts who Plecker did this to, died just this past month and until the day that she died she was still cursing Plecker's name for what he had done to her. She was 71 and had lived all these years in the torment that he made for her. May the Great Spirit finally give her the peace she so richly deserves.
Only in the past two years were we finally given permission to regain our true race of Monacan Indian the state of VA. made it possible for all native people to submit the change of race forms who had been so disposed of. I am now listed as a True Indian as is my mother her mother and her mother before her.
From Terri Rosenthal <tlr@carasan.com>, 3 Jun 2009Via lower-delmarva-roots@rootsweb.com
Here is some info on (Walter Plecker)...*letter that he wrote*. He was in fact a "country doctor" who ended up becoming the /State Registrar for the Bureau of Vital Statistics/ of the state of Virginia. He was an evil man...and ruined many lives with his views, including my own family. You were white or black...there were no Native Americans left living in VA as far as he was concern. He changed information on marriage licenses, death certificates, birth certificates and on the census..along with any other document he could control though his office. He bulled workers, doctors, clergy, midwives and any one else that would fill out documents that would have race information on them. He is also the one that made it possible to have a young women that *he* deemed unfit to have children as she was handicapped, sterilized without her consent. What he did to people of color, Native Americans and others that he thought of as less then a white, less then him, has taken years to undo in the state of Va. And in some cases his poison, along with other men in power in my state with the same views...may never be undone. They even had "hit" list of families that they went after. If I was his relation....I would change my name and never tell anyone.
When you look at what he did and many like him you can see parallels with what happened to many families in Germany in the 20s and 30's...before the war even came about. I am sure if he thought he could round up all those he hated, Blacks, Native Americans, and those of mixed blood and any one else he thought was inferiorly ...he too would have sent us to a gas chamber...but he could not do that...so he ruined their lives and identities instead.
You don't need to take my word on this...there is so much information about him out there. Go look for yourself. ...and yes just the mention of his name makes me angry to think that he was able to do what he did to so many and no one stopped him. How sad for all of us, then and now.
-----------------
Walter Plecker LettersA Series of Letters Relating to The Melungeons of Newman's Ridge
------------------------------------------------------------------------Commonwealth of Virginia
Bureau of Vital Statistics
State Department of HealthRichmond, VA
December 26, 1929William T. Adcock
Amherst Virginia.
Dear William:I received your letter of October 30th 1929 in which you say that "We have decided to lose the last drop of blood we have in us before we will be classed as colored".
In order to know upon what grounds you considered yourself white, I wrote to you twice asking you to tell us who was your mother and who was her mother. You did not reply to either letter as we certainly expected you to do if you are attempting to maintain that they are white. I did not however ask you that because we did not know but simply to see what you would say.
The old birth records which we have, made by the Commissioners of the Revenue as they visited the homes of the people to assess them for taxes gives your family history clearly. The Commissioners of the Revenue knew every family perfectly well, just what they were, and where they came from.
These records show that your father Elisha Willis was a colored man. The old tax records also gave him as colored. Your mother Margaret Adcock was the daughter of Belinda (sometlmes called Malinda) Branham, recorded as a mulatto, and Wiliam Adcock. Belinda your mother was a daughter of Creasy Branham.
We have in our office a copy of Woodson's list of "free negroes" of the 1830 U. S. Census which gives Creasy Branham of Amherst County as a free negro.
Responsible people of Amherst County, now living, make the same statement. She was generally known as "a little brown skinned negro who lived to be nearly one hundred years old".
In 1899 you took out a license to marry Mary (or Polly) Branham. This license gives both of you as colored. The record of the birth of your wife Polly Branham December 25, 1875 gives her as colored and the daughter of Marshall and Arnetta Branham.
With the evidence as given above I am compelled under the 1924 Act to list you and your children and all other descendants of Creasy Branham or Elisha Willis or their blood relatives as colored.
I want to warn you that the Racial Integrity Law of 1924 makes it a penitentiary offense for anyone with a trace of negro to marry a white person or to register in the Bureau of Vital Statistics as white. All midwives or heads of families who attempt to register "free issues" or colored births or deaths as white, are liable to be indicted on a felony charge.
Yours very truly,W.A. PleckerState Registrar
------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 5, 1930
-----------------Mr. J. P. Kelly
Trustee of Schools
Pennington Gap
Lee County, Virginia
------------------
Dear Sir:
Our office has had a great deal of trouble in reference to the persistence of a group of people living in that region known as "Melungeons", whose families came from Newman's Ridge, Tennessee. They are evidently of negro origin and are so recognized in Tennessee but when they have come over into Virginia they have been trying to pass as white. In a few instances we learn that they have married a low type of white people which increases the problem.
We understand that some of these negroes attempted to send their children to the Pennington Gap white school and that they were turned out by the School Board. Will you please give us a statement as to the names of the children that were thus refused admittance into the white schools and the names and addresses of their parents. If possible, we desire the full name of the father and the maiden name of the mother.
As these families originated out of Virginia, our old birth, death, and marraige records covering the period, 1853 through 1896, do not have them listed by color as are those whose families have lived in Virginia for a number of generations. They are demanding of us that we register them as white, which we persistently refuse to do. If we can get a statement that the School Board has refused them admittance into the white schools, we can use that as one of the grounds upon which we would refuse to classify them as white. That, of course, is a matter of history and does not involve any individual but the whole School Board, the responsibility thus being divided up while few individuals who write to us as to their negro characteristics are willing to have their names used or to appear in court should it become necessary. This makes it very difficult for us to secure necessary information to properly classify them in our office. If the School trustees will co-operate with our office and will refuse them admittance into the white schools and give us information when such refusals are made, we can withough great difficulty hold them in their place, but this co-operation is very essential.
I do not know who is the Clerk of the School Board or who would be the proper one to apply to but your name has been given to me.
Yours very truly,
(signature)
W.A. Plecker
State Registrar
------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 5, 1942Secretary of State,Nashville, Tennessee.
Dear Sir:
Our bureau is the only one in any State making an intensive study of the population of its citizens by race.
We have in some of the counties of southwestern Virginia a number of so-called Melungeons who came into that section from Newmans Ridge, Hancock County, Tennessee, and who are classified by us as of negro origin though they make various claims, such as Portugese, Indians, etc.
The law of Virginia says that any one with any ascertainable degree of negro is to be classified as colored and we are endeavoring to so classify those who apply for birth, death and marriage registrations.
We have a list of the free negroes, by counties, of the 1830 U. S. Census in which we find the racial origin of most of these Melungeons classified as mulattoes. In that period, 1830, we do not find the name of Hancock County, but presume that it was made up from portions of other counties, possible Grainger and Hawkins, where we find considerable numbers of these Melungeon families listed.
Will you please advise as to that point and particularly which of these original counties Newmans Ridge was in.
Thanking you in advance and with kindest regards, I am
Very truly yours,
W. A. Plecker, M. D.State Registrar.
WAP/mhdencl.------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 12, 1942
Mr. W. A. Plecker,State Registrar
Bureau of Vital StatisticsRichmond, Virginia
My dear Sir:
The Secretary of State has sent your letter to my desk for reply.
You have asked us a hard question.
The origin of the Melungeons has been a disputed question in Tennessee ever since we can remember. Hancock County was established by an Act of the General Assembly passed January 7th, 1844 and was formed from parts of Claiborne and Hawkins counties.
Newman's Ridge, which runs through Hancock county north of Sneedville, is parallel with Clinch River and just south of Powell Mountain. The only map on which we find it located is edited by H. C. Amick and S. J. Folmsbee of the University of Tennessee in 1941 published by Denoyer-Geppert Co., 5235 Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, listed as [TN 7S]* TENNESSEE. On this map is shown Newman's Ridge as I have sketched it on this little scrap of paper, inclosed. But we do not have the early surveys showing which county it as originally in. It appears that it may have been in Claiborne according to the Morris Gazetteer of Tennessee 1834 which includes this statement: "Newman's Ridge, one of the spurs of Cumberland Mountain, in East Tennessee, lying in the north east angle of Claiborne County, west of Clinch River, and east of Powell's Mountain. It took its name from a Mr. Newman who discovered it in 1761."
Early historians of East Tennessee who lived in that section and knew the older members of this race refer to Newman's Ridge as "quite a high mountain, extending through the entire length of Hancock County, and into Claiborne County on the west. It is between Powell Mountain on the north and Clinch River on the south." Capt. L. M. Jarvis, an old citizen of Sneedville wrote in his 82nd year:"I have lived here at the base of Newman's Ridge, Blackwater, being on the opposite side, for the last 71 years and well know the history of these people on Newman's Ridge and Blackwater enquired about as Melungeons. These people were friendly to the Cherokees who came west with the white imigration from New River and Cumberland, Virginia, about the year 1790...The name Melungeon was given them on account of their color. I have seen the oldest and first settlers of this tribe who first occupied Newman's Ridge and Blackwater and I have owned much of the lands on which they settled.. They obtained their land grants from North Carolina. I personally knew Vardy Collins, Solomon D. Collins, Shepard Gibson, Paul Bunch and Benjamin Bunch and many of the Goodmans, Moores, Williams and Sullivans, all of the very first settlers and noted men of these friendly Indians. They took their names from white people of that name with whom they came here. They were reliable, truthful and faithful to anything they promised. In the Civil War most of the Melungeons went into the Union army and made good soldiers. Their Indian blood has about run out. They are growing white... They have been misrepresented by many writers. In former writings I have given their stations and stops on their way as they emigrated to this country with white people, one of which places was at the mouth of Stony Creek on Clinch river in Scott County, Virginia, where they built fort and called it Ft. Blackamore after Col. Blackamore who was with them... When Daniel Boone was here hunting 1763-1767, these Melungeons were not here."
The late Judge Lewis Shepherd, prominent jurist of Chattanooga, went further in his statements in his "Personal Memoirs", and contended that this mysterious racial group descended from the Phoenicians of Ancient Carthage. This was his judgment after investigations he made in trying a case featuring the complaint that they were of mixed negro blood, which attempt failed, and which brought out the facts that many of their ancestors had settled early in South Carolina when they migrated from Portugal to America about the time of the Revolutionary war, and later moved into Tennessee. At the time of this trial covered by Judge Shepherd "charges that Negro blood contaminated the Melungeons and barred their intermarriage with Caucasians created much indignation among families of Phoenician descent in this section."
But I imagine if the United States Census listed them as mulattoes their listing will remain. But it is a terrible claim to place on people if they do not have negro blood. I often have wondered just how deeply the census takers went into an intelligent study of it at that early period.
I have gone into some detail in this reply to explain the mooted question and why it is not possible for me to give you a definite answer. I hope this may assist you to some extent.
Sincerely,
Mrs. John Trotwood Moore
State Librarian and Archivist------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 20, 1942
Mrs. John Trotwood MooreState Librarian and Archivist
State Department of EducationNashville, Tennessee
Dear Mrs. Moore:
We thank you very much for your informative letter of August 12 in reply to our inquiry, addressed to the Secretary of State, as to the original counties from which Hancock County, Tennessee, was formed. We are particularly interested in tracing back, as far as possible, to their ultimate origin the melungeons of the Newmans Ridge section, especially as enumerated in the free negro list by counties of the states in the U. S. 1830 census. This group appears to be in many respects of the same type as a number of groups in Virginia, some of which are known as "free issues," or descendants of slaves freed by their masters before the War Between the States. In one case in particular which we have traced back to its origin, and which we believe to be typical of the others, a slave woman was freed with her two mulatto sons and colonized in Amherst County in connection with a group of similar freed negroes. These sons were presumably the children of the woman's owner, and this seemed to be the most satisfactory way of disposing of them. One of those sons became the head of one of the larger families of that group. All of these groups have the same desire, which Captain L. M. Jarvis says the melungeons have, to become friends of Indians and to be classed as Indians. He referred to the effort which the melungeon group made to be accepted by the Cherokees, apparently without great success. It is interesting also to know the opinion expressed by Captain Jarvis that these freed negroes migrated into that section with the white people. That is perfectly natural as they have always endeavored to tie themselves up as closely as possible either with the whites or Indians and are striving to break away from the true negro type.
We have a book, compiled by Carter G. Woodson, a negro, entitled "Free Negro Heads of Families in the United States in 1830," listing all of the free negroes of the 1830 census by counties. Of the names that Captain Jarvis gave, we find included in that list in Hawkins County, Solomon Collins, Vardy Collins, and Sherod (probably Shepard) Gibson. We find also Zachariah Minor, probably the head of the family in which we are especially interested at this time. We find also the names of James Moore (two families by this name) and Jordan and Edmund Goodman. In the list for Grainger County we find at least twelve Collins and Collens heads of families. This shows that they were evidently considered locally as free negroes by the enumerators of the 1830 census.
One of the most interesting parts of your letter is that relating to the opinion of the Judge mentioned, in his "Personal Memoirs," who
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Mrs. John Trotwood Moore, con'tAugust 20, 1942
seemed to have accepted as satisfactory certain evidence which was presented to him that these people are of Phoenician descent from ancient Carthage, which was totally destroyed by Rome. We have in Virginia white people, descendants of Pocahontas, who married John Rolfe about 1616. About twelve generations have passed since then, and we figured out that there was about 1/4000th of 1% of Pocahontas blood now in their veins, though they seem to be quite proud of that. If you go back to the destruction of Carthage in 146 B. C., or to the destruction of Tyre by Pompey in 64 B. C., when all characteristic features of national life became extinct and with it racial identity, you will see that the fraction of 1% of Phoenician blood would reach astronomical proportions and be totally lost in the various mixtures of North Africans, with which the Carthaginians afterwards mixed. The Judge also speaks of the inclusion of Portuguese blood with this imaginary Phoenician blood. It is a historical fact, well known to those who have investigated, that at one time there were many African slaves in Portugal. Today there are no true negroes there but their blood shows in the color and racial characteristics of a large part of the Portuguese population of the present day. That mixture, even if it could be shown, would be far from constituting these people white. We are very much afraid that the Judge followed the same course pursued by one of our Virginia judges in hearing a similar case, when he accepted the hearsay evidence of people who testified that they had always understood that the claimants were of Indian origin, regardless of the documentary evidence reaching back in some cases to or near to the Revolutionary War, showing them to be descendants of freed negroes.
We will require other evidence than that of Captain Jarvis and His Honor before classifying members of the group who are now causing trouble in Virginia by their claims of Indian descent, with the privilege of inter-marrying into the white race, permissible when a person can show his racial composition to be one-sixteenth or less Indian, the remainder white with no negro intermixture. We have found after very laborious and painstaking study of records of various sorts that none of our Virginia people now claiming to be Indian are free from negro admixture, and they are, therefore, according to our law classified as colored. In that class we include the melungeons of Tennessee.
We again thank you for your care in passing on this information and would be delighted if you ever visit in Virginia and in Richmond if you will come into our office. Miss Kelley and I would be greatly pleased to talk with you on this and kindred subjects and to show you the work which Miss Kelley is doing in properly classifying the population of Virginia by racial origin. She is doing work which, so far as I know, has never before been attempted.
Very sincerely yours,
W. A. Plecker, M. D.State Registrar
_______________________________________________________________________________
September 10, 1942
W. A. Plecker, M. D. RegistrarBureau of Vital Statistics
Department of HealthRichmond, Virginia
My dear Dr. Pleckner:
You were most kind to reply so fully to my letter, and you have given me so much information on this vitally interesting subject that I am really grateful.
My husband was so interested in it and had studied it with a view to writing on the subject but never got around to it. I recall that he was interested in an article on the Melungeons that appeared perhaps two years before his death (May 10, 1929) in the Dearborn Independent. I do not have the article but I think it was written by a North Carolina writer. I am sorry I cant be more definite but if there is a file in the State or Public Library it might interest you.
We have Carter G. Woodson's "Free Negro Heads of Families in the United States in 1830", but I have never made a study of it.
Virginia is fortunate to have you and Miss Kelly doing such an important piece of research. I wish Tennessee could borrow you. Anyhow, what you are doing will be, in effect, for all the Southern States and there was never a time when it was more needed.
If I am in Richmond at any time I shall certainly be pleased to stop by your office and talk with you and Miss Kelley. If your work is to be published we shall want to secure a copy for this library.
Thank you for the circulars inclosed and I wish you full success with your undertaking.
Sincerely,
Mrs. John Trotwood MooreState Librarian and Archivist
MRS JTM:VAR
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Local Registrars, Physicians, HealthOffices, Nurses, School Superintendents,and Clerks of the Courts
Dear Co-workers:
Our December 1942 letter to local registrars, also mailed to the clerks, set forth the determined effort to escape from the negro race of groups of "free issues," or descendents of the "free mulattoes" of early days, so listed prior to 1865 in the United States census and various types of State records, as distinguished from slave negroes.
Now that these people are playing up the advantages gained by being permitted to give "Indian" as the race of the child's parents on birth certificates, so we see the great mistake made in not stopping earlier the organized propagation of this racial falsehood. They have been using the advantage thus gained as an aid to intermarriage into the white race and to attend white schools, and now for some time they have been refusing to register with war draft boards as negroes, as required by the boards which are faithfully performing their duties. Three fo these negroes from Caroline County were sentenced to prison on January 12 in the United States Court at Richmond for refusing to obey the draft law unless permitted to classify themselves as "Indians."
Some of these mongrels, finding that they have been able to sneak in their birth certificates unchallenged as Indians are now making a rush to register as white. Upon investigation we find that a few local registars have been permitting such certificates to pass through their hands unquestioned and without warning our office of the fraud. Those attempting this fraud should be warned that they are liable to a penalty of one year in the penitentiary (Section 5099a of the Code). Several clerks have likewise been actually granting them licenses to marry whites, or at least to marry amongst themselves as Indian or white. The danger of this error always confronts the clerk who does not inquire carefully as to the residence of the woman when he does not have positive information. The law is explicit that the license be issued by the clerk of the county or city in which the woman resides.
To aid all of you in determining just which are the mixed families, we have made a list of their surnames by counties and cities, as complete as possible at this time. This list should be preserved by all, even by those in counties and cities not included, as these people are moving around over the State and changing race at the new place. A family has just been investigated which was always recorded as negro around Glade Springs, Washington County, but which changed to white and married as such in Roanoke County. This is going on constantly and can be prevented only by care on the part of local registrars, clerks, doctors, health workers, and school authorities.
Please report all known or suspicious cases to the Bureau of Vital Statistics, giving names, ages, parents, and as much other information as possible. All certificates of these people showing "Indian" or "white" are now being rejected and returned to the physician or midwife, but local registrars hereafter must not permit them to pass their hands uncorrected or unchallenged and without a note of warning to us. One hundred and fifty thousand other mulattoes in Virginia are watching eagerly the attempt of their pseudo-Indian brethren, ready to follow in a rush when the first have made a break in the dike.
Very truly yours,
W.A. Plecker, M.D.State Registrar of Vital Statistics
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