Breaks of Sandy Melungeon Tales 2017

                            In search of the Lost Tribe in Ohio...

                           They lived near the Great Serpent Mound

                            In search of the Lost Tribe in Ohio

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2) Capt'n Tobias Thorne -the only ever mythical melungeon sea captain

The word "Melungeon" itself is a derogatory, inflammatory term. It has been used through the years to create anger, dissension, and discrimination, indicating a lower type of human being. In fact Melungeons are American Indians who graciously have accepted others into their families.

                                    

                             O them melungeons, they'll get you too

The Hellboy cartoon below illustrates how Melungeons have been portrayed in popular culture.The defamation lives on.

This is a US Government Document, clearly states the 'Melungeans" were a branch of the Croatan/Lumbee Indians.

Indians of North Carolina. Letter from the Secretary of the Interior transmitting, in response to a Senate resolution of June 30, 1914, a report on the condition and tribal rights of the Indians of Robeson and adjoining counties of North Carolina. January 5, 1915. -- Referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs and ordered to be printed. January 13, 1915. -- Accompanying illustrations ordered printed.

             Melungeans were a branch of the Croatan-Lumbee Indians--govt doc

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San Miguel de Gualdape Slave Rebellion of 1526

San Miguel de Gualdape was the first European settlement in

what is now the continental United States, founded by Spaniard

Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in 1526. It was to last only

three months of winter before being abandoned in early 1527.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

History

Records show that in 1521, Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón

a wealthy sugar planter of Santo Domingo, had sent

Francisco Gordillo northward to explore the continent. 
Upon reaching the Bahamas, he ran into his cousin,

slave trader Pedro de Quexos (Pedro de Quejo), and the two of

them set out together. They landed at the “River of St. John the

Baptist”, possibly the Pee Dee River, where they kidnapped 70

natives to sell in Hispaniola, including one, given the name

Francisco de Chicora, who provided some ethnological

information about his province, Chicora, and the neighboring

provinces. Chicora was evidently one of several Carolina Siouan

territories subject to their king, Datha of Duahe (Duarhe).

The Siouan captives were described as white, dressed in skins,

and larger than the average Spaniard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake:

1577-1580

By Samuel Bawlf

"So, on October 7, 1568, Hawkins ordered ashore those of his

men "such as were willing to land" and sailed for England with

those who "were moft desirous to goe homewardes." Aiming to

reach the French Huguenot colony in Florida, about thirty of

those left behind banded together and set off on the 1,500-mile

walk around the Gulf of Mexico. Five months later they

reached Florida but were unable to find the French colonists

because they had been massacred by the Spaniards three years

earlier.

The sailors turned north, following Indian trails from one tribal

territory to another, invariably being greeted hospitably.

As more of them elected to remain with their native hosts,

the party steadily diminished. Those who chose not to stay in

New Spain dispersed themselves in many directions.

Many were never heard from again.

Those who chose to follow the lead of David Ingram, Richard

Brown and Richard Twide, marched northward hoping to

find passage home on English or French fishing vessels that

frequented the coast of New England and New Brunswick.

For the next 11 months of 1568-69, Ingram, Brown and Twide

stayed together and walked more than 3,000 miles up the

east coast of America, passing through Maine, to their eventual

destination in St. John, New Brunswick. Once in St. John,

Ingram persuaded a French fishing boat captain, Captain

Champlaine, to give him passage to France aboard the ship

Gargarine. Sailing from St. John, the Gargarine made France

in only twenty days, and Ingram found himself back in England

near the end of September in 1569."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Douglas Summers Brown

The Catawba Indians:

The People of the River

p46-47

No one knows what became of the men and the fortifications

along Pardo's thousand-mile trail. Henry Savage says ,

"Some men were killed, some drifted back down the trail

when the captain failed to return."

Others, including a fifer with his wife and children, stayed

and threw in their lot with their Indian hosts. Boyana himself

returned to Santa Elena only to be tomahawked by an

Edisto Indian.

In the Holston Valley of southwestern Virginia and of eastern

Tennessee, just across the mountains from the region of Old Fort and

Marion, North Carolina, is an ethnic group whose origins have

aroused much speculation but who stoutly insist that they are

Portuguese. They are called "Melungeons," (also

Melungeans, Malungeons,") a term whose meaning is

unknown.

Local historians believe they are the descendants of mixed

marriages between Indian women and the Spaniards who

had a post near Old Fort, North Carolina. (19) .

(19) - Information came from my father, historian *Lewis

Preston Summers (See below). This group has been

described, though somewhat inaccurately, by W.L. Worden,

"Sons of the Legend," The Saturday Evening Post,

Oct. 18, 1947; also, in "The Melungeons, the Mystery People

of Tennessee,"

The Tennessee Conservationist, August, 1959.

These articles were called to my attention by W. P. Grohse of

Sneedville, Tenn., a student of the Melungeons' origin. A

connection between these people and the "Turks" near

Sumter, S.C. who may or may not have Catawba blood, has

been suggested. The Melungeons are said by some to have

stopped over in South Carolina enroute to Tennessee.

*Lewis Preston Summers b.1868 d.1943 m. in 1897 Annie

Katherine Barbee. Lewis was the author of "Summers

History of Southwest Virginia." Lewis was the Abingdon Post

Master from 1890-1894. He began his legal practice in 1895.

He was appointed U.S. district attorney by President

Harding in 1922. He was a member of the Virginia State Bar

Association and the Presbyterian Church. Summers was

also chairman of the Walnut Grove Cemetery Association,

Washington Co., VA. The land for this cemetery was

originally owned by Robert Preston, Sr., whose wife

Margaret Rhea Preston, and mother, Eleanor Fairman

Preston, established the cemetery. Lewis and Annie had

7 children.
                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Will Allen Dromgoole wrote in 1890:

"Old Jim Mullins, the father of the branch, was an

Englishman, a trader, it is supposed, with Indians. He was

of a roving, daring disposition, and rather fond of the free

abandon which characterized the Indian. He was much

given to sports, and was always "cheek to fowl" with the

Cherokees and other Indian tribes he like to mingle. What

brought him to Newman's Ridge must have been, as it is

said, his love for freedom and sport, and that careless

existence known only to the Indians.

He stumbled upon the Ridge settlement, fell in with the

Ridgemanites, and never left them. He took for a wife

one of their women, a descendant of old Sol Collins, and

reared a family known as the MULLINS tribe. This is

said to be the first white blood that mingled with the blood of

the dusky Ridgemanites."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Callaway Collins is an Indian~~"

 reprinted from the Knoxville Register September 6, 1848 quoting from the Louisville Examiner~~ The legend of their history, which they carefully preserve, is this. 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, that they might be freed from the restraints and drawbacks imposed on them by any form of government. These people made themselves friendly with the Indians and freed, as they were from every kind of social government, they uprooted all conventional forms of society and lived in a delightful Utopia of their own creation, trampling on the marriage relation, despising all forms of religion, and subsisting upon corn (the only possible product of the soil) and wild game of the woods.

These intermixed with the Indians, and subsequently their descendants~~~

 They are privileged voters in the state in which they live and thus, you will perceive, are accredited citizens of the commonwealth. They are brave, but quarrelsome; and are hospitable and generous to strangers. They have no preachers among them and are almost without any knowledge of a Supreme Being. They are married by the established forms, but husband and wife separate at pleasure, without meeting any reproach or disgrace from their friends. They are remarkably unchaste, and want of chastity on the part of females is no bar to their marrying. They have but little association with their neighbors, carefully preserving their race, or class, or whatever you may call it: and are in every respect, save they are under the state government, a separate and distinct people. Now this is no traveller's story.

They are really what I tell you, without abating or setting down in aught in malice. They are behind their neighbors in the arts. They use oxen instead of horses in their agricultural attempts, and their implements of husbandry are chiefly made by themselves of wood. They are, without exception, poor and ignorant, but apparently happy. Having thus given you a correct geographical and scientific history of the people, I will proceed with my own adventures.

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Court deposition - 3/9/1887, Rockhouse, Letcher Co Ky

“He also stated there was a large family of Collins on Colly, generally illiterate and weak minded and contrary to the theory of {Cotton}Mathers? they hold undisputed sway in the Valley of Colley. They are below their surrounding neighbors in social standing and hence, there is but little commingling in a social way.”

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The Malungeons According to Joanne

The Malungeons were in fact Portuguese Adventurers

who intermixed with the local Indians in the Carolinas.

These families were reported along the Pee Dee River

as early as 1725, they may have joined Christian Priber's

'Paradice', his Utiopa in the Cherokee Indian Town. They

were likely ejected after his arrest in 1743 when Chief

Attacullaculla signed an agreement in Charleston to

trade only with the British, return runaway slaves and

expel Non-English whites from their territory. In return

they received guns, ammunition, and red paint.

From court records found in North Carolina, Arkansas,Tennessee,

Indiana, Missouri, Illinois:

These families from the Pee Dee declared they were

Portuguese and in most cases they succeeded. The Ivey,

Halls, Chavis, Shoemake, Bolton, Perkins, Goins, Collins,

Nickens, Dungee, and others have all been identified as

Portuguese in courts, county histories, etc.

In 1848 a journalist from Louisville, Kentucky visited

Newman's Ridge where he stayed at the Vardy Inn

and wrote the 'legend of their history' -- and it would

appear that Vardy Collins and/or his wife 'Spanish Peggy

Gibson' were possibly the source. Most researchers

assume Vardy was giving the history of his Collins family

but it is likely his ancestors were merely Indians as were

many of the other early settlers on Newman's Ridge. The

little Portuguese community on the border of the Carolinas

appears to have started breaking up around 1800 and many

had moved west after the War of 1812.

The Lowery of the Lumbee families according to history have

Portuguese ancestors and Tobias Gibson, son of Jordan is

also said to have had Portuguese ancestry. It seems

fairly clear to me that the Portuguese settlers who

intermixed with one tribe, most likely the Cheraw or

Saura, became the 'Lumbee' while just across the line

those same families who intermixed with the other tribes, possibly

the Catawba, Pee Dee, etc., became known as Redbones. As

they moved intoTennessee and intermixed with the

Saponi-Occaneechi families of Gibsons, Collins, etc., they became what was

described in 1848 as the 'present race of Melungens.'

No Author

1754

Volume 05, Pages 161-163

[From MSS. Records in Office of Secretary of State.]

Abstracts of returns from the several counties in

response to circular from Governor Dobbs. [See ante,

page 144.—Editor.]

~~~ Drowning Creek on the head of Little Pedee, 50

families a mixt Crew, a lawless People, possess the

Lands without patent or paying quit rents; shot a

Surveyor for coming to view vacant lands being inclosed in

great swamps, Quakers to attend musters or pay as in

the Northern Counties; fines not high enough to oblige

the Militia to attend musters

When this mixed race was first observed by the early

settlers of the upper Cape Fear [2] about 1735, it is said

that they spoke English, cultivated land, lived in

substantial houses, and otherwise practised the arts of

civilized life, being in these respects different from any

Indians tribe. [3]

A 1725 map by John Herbert shows the Cheraw/Sarah

tribe on the Pedee River not far from Drowning Creek

where these settlers were recorded ten years later. Also

in the South Carolina Gazette October 3, 1771 it was

reported that one Winsler Drigger had been captured

“near Drowning Creek in the Charraw settlement.’‘

The above records show that there were people living in

this area as early as 1725 and as late as 1771 identified

as Cheraw/Saura Indians yet in 1754 they were called a

‘mixed crew’ and not marked down as Indians?

Did the Portuguese arrive in the twenty years between

1725 and 1754, mixing with this tribe and living as white

people and speaking English?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robert K Thomas

Around 1750, several tribes further east --- the Nansemond,

Yeopin, and Poroskite --- lost their lands and began to

fragment into individual family groups. These Indian families

began to migrate to the frontier and settle near the Saponi.

In 1760, Eaton died and The Saponi lost their land base.the frontier had changed thenThe Saponi also began to

fragment into individual families, and move west. In 1760’s,

I can pick up the Collins in Orange County, on the frontier,

west of Hendersonville, N.C.

                  1755 Edition of the Fry-Jefferson map shows the location of  Occaneechi

By 1790, many of these Indian families, including the Collinses, had “bunched up”

 in the counties of extreme northeastern North Carolina. Then in the 1790’s, they spread all over Northeastern Tennessee, Southwestern Virginia, and over into 

what is now Letcher and Knott Counties, Kentucky. Many of them , like the 

Bollings of Wise Wise County, became prominent families in their areas.

Then, in the 1830s, Virginia became one of the more

consciously racist and deliberately elitist states in the Union.

First, most poor whites were disenfranchised by a property

value requirement; most Virginians west of the Blue Ridge,

as well as the poor further east, could not legally vote in

Virginia. Further, a new legal category included citizen

Indians, free blacks, and all non-whites. These “free colored”

could not vote, bear arms, travel freely, etc. In southwest

Virginia and neighboring parts of Tennessee, the more

established Indian families “weathered the storm”.

The Bollings in Wise County redefined their status as being

descendants of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, thus escaping

the free colored category. Other families who were less

wealthy, darker, and concentrated in one area, got caught

in the free colored category; and, thus the Melungeons of

southern Wise County came into existence.

By 1840, the situation became intolerable for some Indians

in Southwest Virginia, and they began to head for Kentucky,

a less repressive social and legal atmosphere. In the 1840s,

three Collins families moved into into Perry (became)

Letcher County, Kentucky.

In the 1850s, two Collins families moved to Johnson County,

just south of Paintsville (Grandpap William Collins and

brother). {Frankie’s Blackburn note here: This is where my

2nd great grandparents Griffin and Rachael Collins went

also, and were listed as Mulatto on Johnson County census

records}

These Collinses were very Indian looking and dark.

They must have been almost full-blood Indians.

Not all the Collinses headed west in 1760 after Colonel

Eaton died. Some few went south to what is now Robeson

County, North Carolina, and became part of the modern

Lumbee Indians in that region. The history of the Collins

family is both remarkable and fascinating. They are almost

an “ethnic group” all by themselves. There are Seneca

Cayuga Collinses in New York [Again we need to find these

Collins families], White and Melungeon Collinses in east

Tennessee and Southeast Virginia, part-Indian Collinses all

down the Big Sandy and into Southern Ohio, Lumbee Indian

Collinses in North Carolina --- all, at least distantly, related, and 

all descended from two or three households of Saponi Indians in 1740.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Martha Simmerman story: Her family was Portuguese

and English and Native American. The Supreme Court ruled

in HER FAVOR; so did the state court. The Bolton' DNA

haplogroups are not African, they are the same haplogroups

found in Spain and Portugal. The courts stated she never

lied.

Excerpt From:
Pioneer Families

Bolton Was A Melungeon Who Farmed Moccasin Bend Land 
Byline: John Wilson
2/10/1998

Solomon Bolton was a Melungeon, a people who were a mixture of Indian, black and white ancestry, and was a soldier in the War of 1812. His lovely daughter, Jemima, had a tragic story. Another Bolton pioneer in Hamilton County was Robert Bolton, whose father was among the state's earliest settlers.  Solomon Bolton was born in North Carolina just before 1800 and was living in South Carolina when he enlisted for the War of 1812. His wife, Rachel, was from South Carolina.  They moved to Tennessee at Blount County, then at Marion County prior to moving to Hamilton County in the 1840s. Solomon Bolton was a tenant on the large farm of the Simmermans at Moccasin Bend. 

 The Bolton children included Elizabeth, Sarah, Hiram, Solomon Jr., Eliza and Martha, in addition to Jemima. The latter daughter "was famed for her beauty, her grace of manner and modesty. She was a dark brunette. She had a suit of black hair, which was coveted by all the girls who knew her. Her form was petite, and yet, withal was so plump and so well developed as to make her an irresistibly charming young woman. 

She was most beautiful of face, and had a rich black eye, in whose depths the sunbeams seemed to gather. When she loosed her locks, they fell almost reaching the ground, and shone in the sunlight, or quivered like the glamour which the full moon throws on the placid water. She was the essence of grace and loveliness."  One of the young Simmermans, Jerome C., fell in love with Jemima. His Bivans step-mother and step-sisters opposed the marriage, fearing to lose a share of the large Simmerman estate.  With the aid of Ab Carroll and John Cummings, Jerome and Jemima made their way across the river and eloped to Trenton, Ga. That marriage occurred June 14, 1856. 

 The couple had a son, who died as an infant. Then a daughter, Martha, was born in the latter part of 1858. Eight days later, Jemima Bolton Simmerman died. That event "was such an overpowering shock to the father that he went violently insane, and had to be taken into custody and kept under guard for a long time." 

 The Bivans family later filed suit seeking the inheritance. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Bolton secreted young Martha Simmerman away for her safekeeping. The suit claimed the marriage was void because a Tennessee law prohibited the marriage of a white person with a person of Negro blood to the sixth degree.  

The Jerome Simmerman side finally won the suit after it was proven the Boltons were Melungeons. It was pointed out that Solomon Bolton could not have served in the War of 1812 had he been a Negro or mulatto. He proved his service because he was still able to recall the roll of his company from the captain down to the last private on the list.  The exact date of the marriage was also proven during the trial. Joel Cross said he could remember it because also that day a Baptist preacher leading a revival in Dade County got drunk, some horses broke loose and tore up several acres of his corn, and he had a baby girl born.  When Elizabeth Bolton died at the age of 78 in 1908, she was living in North Chattanooga with her niece, Martha, who had married James M. Carter. 

http://www.historical-melungeons.com/bolton.html

Love without borders:

The Martha Simmerman story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCDgeV9mlc4

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Avoiding Pitfalls in Melungeon Research

by Pat Spurlock Part 2

As you research, you may have to settle for the fact that

perhaps your family really isn't Melungeon. I like to tell

folks that if anyone ever wanted to be a Melungeon I do,

but I have never found a direct ancestor who qualifies.

My maiden name is Spurlock. My father's paternal

ancestry is traditionally French and Indian, and

specifically Algonquin and Cherokee. I can trace the

Spurlock family back to New Kent County, Virginia--

which was the wrong side of the tracks in the 1600s.

In addition, their land there adjoined the Saponi Indians.

My greatest pleasure is in knowing my maiden name made 

W.A.Plecker's "Mongrel" list. Unfortunately, all this doesn't 

make me a Melungeon although I wish it did. I just can't prove my

connection and to my knowledge, my family was never

considered Melungeon. The key is that something made

certain families uniquely Melungeon while others were

not. It's our job to discover those differences.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``

Collins from Reed Island

Joanne Pezzullo

Herald and Tribune (Jonesborough, Tennessee)

27 Jan 1876, Thu Page 2

HANCOCK COUNTY, Tennessee

Sneedville is situated not far from Clinch River, in a beautiful valley at the foot of Newmans Ridge. It contains a population of about one hundred and fifty souls, one log church, one Academy, a Court House and Jail. The original name of the place was "Greasy Rock," so called because on a certain hedge of flat rocks near the town, the Indians are said to have skinned their bears. Hancock county was organized from a part of Hawkins County in 1848. It contains some very good farming lands, though most of the county is very rough and mountainous. It is by nature well adapted to the growing of the grasses, and could be made one of the best counties for raising sheep and cattle in the State. But the people grow mostly corn, oats and wheat and boat their surplus down the Clinch River to Chattanooga in flat-boats. The county has a varied population-- a great many of the people are industrious, enterprising and intelligent, while some are groveling, vicious and indigent. A race of people mostly by the name of Collins and Mullins live on the top, and along the spurs of Newmans Ridge, and some of them in a fertile valley called "Blackwater," "history tells not of their origin," but as far as I can learn from the oldest ones among them, their ancestors came there from "Reed Island"about the beginning of the present century. They claim to be of Welsh extraction some of them are quite dark in complexion others of a deep copper color. They all have straight hair, generally dark eyes, sharp noses, thin lips, and some of them very peculiar physiognomies. They have none of the peculiar marks of the African about them, and I have no idea that they have any African blood in them. The lands cleared out and cultivated by them on Newman's Ridge are said to be rich and productive. These people were all loyal to the Unites States Government in the late war and many of them served in the Union army and made good soldiers. ..................

"VIATOR."

Rogersville, Tenn. January 1876

Fincastle County 1773 Delinquent Tax Lists:

David Collens, Elisha Collens, Ambrus Collens, Samuel Collens, John Collens, Lewis Collens, John Collens Junr., George Collens, Charles Collens. On James McGavock's List of Delinquents. At a Court held for Fincastle Decr 6 1774 "This List of delinquents on New River & Reed Creek was received by the Court containing 213 Tithables and is that ought to be Received by the Vestry of the Parish of Botetourt. W. Ingles"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

October 27, 1993 the federal government recognizes the Collins, Austins, and Gibsons who moved to the Catawba reservation as Native Americans: The following is the final base membership roll of the Catawba Indian Nation of South Carolina and is final for purposes of the distribution of funds from the Per Capita Trust Fund established under Section 11(h) of the Act of October 27, 1993 (Pub. L. 103116; 107 Stat. 1124).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Blackwater Valley lies between Mulberry and Newman’s Ridges, and is from half a mile to mile wide. Twenty years ago it was still a wilderness, but is now under good cultivation, and divided into small farms upon which are rather poor dwellings and outbuildings. In this valley and along Newman’s Ridge, reaching into Lee County, Virginia, are settled the people called Melungeons. Some have gone into Kentucky, chiefly into Pike County, others are scattered in adjacent territory.The first settlers here were the great grand parents, Varday Collins, Shephard Gibson, and Charley Williams, who came from Virginia it is said, though other say from North Carolina. They have marked Indians resemblances in color, feature, hair, carriage, and disposition. 
A Visit To The Melungeons 1897

             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

James H. Nickens Reconsidered:

The Indian Ancestry of Melungeons

The ethnic identity and origins of the Melungeon people have perplexed investigators of every stripe for more than a century. Imaginative theories have suggested Phoenician, Carthaginian, Portuguese, Turkish, and early Welsh origins. Others believed the Melungeons were a lost tribe of Israel or survivors of the Roanoke Colony. Speculation grew that Melungeons were descended from Spanish explorers, shipwrecked Portuguese sailors, or Turkish Pirates.

Court cases established Melungeon as a distinct yet problematic racial identity - that of a relatively darker people classified as white, then Free People of Color but later reclassified as white or “Portuguese”. By the end of the 19th century the entire population of the Bell’s Bend people had “White” stricken in the census and “Portuguese” inserted. Melungeons thus became the stuff of legend.

JUST REGULAR FOLKS

Many and varied physical descriptions have been recorded of the Melungeons. Among those recorded descriptions are “Indian “, “not as dark as the Indian “, “a race of light skinned Indians”, and an “Indian-like people”.

Nevertheless, the recurrent theme in Malungeon Town lore has been that of Indian ancestry. It is this aspect of the Melungeons which commands the attention of the Virginia Indian Heritage Association.

The uninformed assumption was made that these populations were some ill-defined mixture of the three perceived races, presumably Indian, white and Negro.The conclusions of the Tri-Racial Isolate theorists are marred in four critical areas:

1. Lack of sufficient knowledge of Indian

history

2. Lack of familiarity with Indian genealogy

3. Failure to identify Indian people outside of a

historical tribal context

4. A paradigm driven by a pathological

fascination with perceived racial constructs

rather than ethnicity.

In short – Insufficient Research layered upon a misguided and erroneous foundation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walter Ashby Plecker:

the first registrar of Virginia’s Bureau of Vital Statistics, starting in 1912, forced Indians to classify themselves as black. The tribes, he said, had become a “mongrel” mixture.

"I thought Plecker was a devil," she says. "Still do."

Walter Ashby Plecker was the first registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital Statistics, which records births, marriages and deaths. He accepted the job in 1912. For the next 34 years, he led the effort to purify the white race in Virginia by forcing Indians and other nonwhites to classify themselves as blacks. It amounted to bureaucratic genocide.

He worked with a vengeance.

Plecker was a white supremacist and a zealous advocate of eugenics - a now discredited movement to preserve the integrity of white blood by preventing interracial breeding. "Unless this can be done," he once wrote, "we have little to hope for, but may expect in the future decline or complete destruction of our civilization."

Plecker's icy efficiency as racial gatekeeper drew international attention, including that of Nazi Germany. In 1943, he boasted: "Hitler's genealogical study of the Jews is not more complete."

Plecker retired in 1946 at the age of 85 and died the following year. The damage lives on.~~ Plecker was a devout Presbyterian. He helped establish churches around the state and supported fundamentalist missionaries. Plecker belonged to a conservative Southern branch of the church that believed the Bible was infallible and condone d segregation. Members of Plecker's branch maintained that God flooded the earth and destroyed Sodom to express his anger at racial interbreeding.

"Let us turn a deaf ear to those who would interpret Christian brotherhood as racial equality," Plecker wrote in a 1925 essay.~~

The term "eugenics" was coined in 1883 by English scientist Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, a year after Darwin's death. Galton defined it as the science of "race improvement." It was viewed as a practical application of Darwin's theories of evolution and natural selection.

The early aim of Galton and his followers was to promote selective marriages to eliminate hereditary disorders. It wasn't long, however, before they focused on perpetuating a superior class of humans.

As the science swept across the Atlantic, it picked up more ominous tones. Eugenicists began espousing mandatory sterilization of "wicked" and mentally retarded people to eliminate their bloodlines.

All the major colleges, including the University of Virginia, taught the science. It was embraced by such great minds as Alexander Graham Bell, George Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells. Margaret Sanger won support for legalizing contraception by arguing it would lower the birth rate of undesirables. Winston Churchill unsuccessfully proposed sterilization laws for Great Britain in 1910. As governor of New Jersey, Woodrow Wilson signed that state's first sterilization law in 1911. The next year, he was elected president.

Virginia's gentry embraced the fad. Eugenics was the perfect way to deal with race and the underclass.

The Racial Integrity Act essentially narrowed race classifications on birth and marriage certificates to two choices: "white person" or "colored." The law defined a white as one with no trace of black blood. A white person could have no more than a

1/16th trace of Indian blood - an exception, much to Plecker's regret, legislators made to appease the descendants of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, who were considered among Virginia's first families.

The act forbade interracial marriage and lying about race on registration forms. Violators faced felony convictions and a year in prison.

Plecker strongly supported sterilization laws, arguing that feeble-minded whites were prone to mate with Indians and blacks

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"While DNA can prove direct ancestry or lineage,

it can’t prove race or ethnicity.

The reason for this is that human beings are so much

alike, and have had genetic mixtures for so long even

the most defining racial or ethnic traits are found in

almost every human family. Skin color, facial structure,

hair and eye color, all things that are used to define race

or ethnicity lose definition when traced as part of a

DNA analysis. There is no gene that can accurately

define an American Indian for instance, many of the

so-called defining characteristics are genetically

identical to many Asians and African Americans."

---Written by Charles Grimmett - © 2002 Pagewise

http://www.essortment.com/all/humangenomepro_rcaf.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``

Deborah A. Bolnick PhD is a Geneticist of the University of Texas at Austin

“The Legitimacy of Genetic Ancestry Tests”

TONY FRUDAKIS

Bolnick et al. also allege that genomic ancestry panels

present a biased picture of nonneutral mutations, which is

not the case (2, 3). They then imply that genomic ancestry

methods rely on imperfect—i.e., insufficiently large—

databases and thus produce misleading results. However,

the onus on the database developer is not to build a perfect

database, but rather to quantify how imperfect the

database is.

“Generalizing about individuals on group membership in this

way is the intellectual equivalent of bigotry. Bolnick et al.

believe that anyone who says they belong to a group should

belong to that group—regardless of whether or not their

deep ancestors (as reported by DNA tests) were part of the

parental population associated with that group. The irony is

that we do not disagree. In some cases, genetic testing is

simply not relevant—not because it is flawed, but because it

reports only one aspect of “race” or “ethnicity.” Genomic

ancestry tests demonstrate that admixture is the rule rather

than the exception and hence support that idea that human-

derived notions of “race” are based on the subjective and

ever-changing concepts of social and political identity.”

http://hum.utah.edu/~bbenham/2510%20Spring%2009/race%20

and%20population%20genetics/Frudakis-LegitAncestryTests_

Science2008.pdf

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Cherokee Grandsons of Valentine Collins 

Indian roll Application
Benjamin---Fieldon Collins brother cert of Benjamin Collins
Eastern Cherokee App.
Sons of John Collins- Louisa Cole,

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compiled by
D.S.Collins