an exchange about similarities of "redbone" or "melungeons",
My cousin, Lester Knough Cummings, shared with his sister, Lucy Suder, this exchange between Larry Keels, owner of Melungeons or Redbones or Renegades Yahoo Group, and Elaine Metcalf, President of the Starks Historical Society.Lucy passed it on to me and I thought others might also find it interesting.
Lawrence Knough
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After sharing the portion of an article by L V Hayes shown below fromhttp://laredbones.blogspot.com/http://laredbones.blogspot.com/ , Larry Keels declared: "I find very interesting the King Alexander comment to L V Hayes' response to Jim Serra of the KPLC-TV station in Lake Charles, LA."
Who and What are the Redbones.
Here is where the views of Marler and the RHF differ significantly from those of this writer and most other Redbones. Marler (ROL:211) has offered the following definition:
"A Redbone is a person whose biological heritage is some combination of at least two of the following: Caucasian, American Indian or Negro and who is a member of a group that identifies itself as a Redbone group or Redbone community, holding certain values, beliefs, and worldviews."
This definition is so broad that any mixed-race person in the entire country (plus Canada and all of Latin America!) could qualify as a Redbone (not counting those with oriental ancestry, of course). Even Marler realized that that was overdoing it, so he devised the constraint that one also had to belong to a group that identified itself as a Redbone group or community and had certain common views and values. This idea is a farce because no group or community has ever identified itself as Redbone. Even today, after a decade and more of trying to make the term more acceptable, the only groups called Redbone are the RHF and the online discussion groups and a community called redbone has yet to appear. Moreover, Redbone views
and values have never differed significantly from those of their neighbors as far as we can tell from the available historical evidence. Thus, Marler's overly inclusive definition can now be seen as far too imprecise.
In my own research, I have tried to develop a more exclusive Redbone definition based on the following four points, which were first publicized on 13 Sep 2006 in the Bearhead Creek Redbones Group:
First, a "redbone" is a member or descendant of a limited number of families which migrated from the eastern seaboard states to Louisiana during a limited period of time in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Most of these families appear to have come out of the same
part of the state of South Carolina, namely the old Cheraws and Marion Districts on the border with North Carolina. Many of them also appear to have been already related by blood and/or marriage or at least to have known one another in their original homeland. It seems likely that a good many of them made the trip to Louisiana together.
Second, these "redbone" families are distinguished by the fact that they were classified in the category of "all other free persons except indians not taxed" on the 1810 and "free colored" on the 1820 and later federal censuses. We do not really know what exactly this classification meant at the time, but it is our only indication that
the families so identified had the mixed race origin we believe them to have had. We further do not know what that mixture was, but we assume that it was primarily caucasian and amerindian with possibly the admixture of african in a few cases.
Third, these families had anglo-american surnames, which reflects their origin in the eastern part of the United States and excludes any families of French or Spanish origin.
Fourth, genealogical continuity can be shown to exist between these families and modern populations who are called "redbone" either by themselves or outsiders in their area of residence.
The fourth point is particularly important. All of the mixed-race families identifiable as Redbones by this writer's identification cited above are related by blood or marriage, and this fact can be demonstrated in the genealogical database I've compiled over the past
11 years. That fact is not true of just any mixed-race family in Louisiana, Texas, or elsewhere as Marler and the RHF would have it.Since their arrival in Louisiana, the people we call here Redbones (and their cousins in Texas and elsewhere) have amalgamated to become a unique group which stands apart from all of the other mixed-race
peoples of this country.
As far as we know, the people to whom the term Redbone is applied have never had any other distinct ethnonym. If asked, they would most likely say that they're Americans of european and amerindian origin (Southern Americans to be sure). Beyond that, there has been for some time speculation as to what that origin was, with tales of indian tribal, Portuguese, and melungeon descent told amongst the Redbones, but historical fact does not corroborate or confirm the tales of Portuguese and melungeon ancestry and the tribal identity of the
indians involved can be verified in only one or possibly two cases.The Redbone Bass family has been shown to descend from an English/Nansemond marriage in early 1600s Virginia. The other case is the claim that Joseph Willis was the son of a Cherokee slave and a "white" North Carolina plantation owner; some consider this tribal
identification unproven.
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L V Hayes wrote:First, a "redbone" is a member or descendant of a limited number of families which migrated from the eastern seaboard states to Louisiana during a limited period of time in the late 18th and early 19th
centuries. Most of these families appear to have come out of the same part of the state of South Carolina, namely the old Cheraws and Marion Districts on the border with North Carolina. Many of them also appear to have been already related by blood and/or marriage or at least to have known one another in their original homeland. It seems
likely that a good many of them made the trip to Louisiana together.
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Do any of you with whom L V continues to communicate know if he has ever provided specifics which confirm this declaration ... or is this simply more speculation based on fancy?
Larry
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In response Elaine Metcalf wrote: Hi Larry ! I haven't been able to post or be involved very much with any of the groups but I am a member of the redboneresearch group (L.V. group). I can't say for sure but I would imagine L.V. is basing his information on the vast amount of research, census records, etc. that he has. You have done a lot of research and I know that you know, these people known as Redbones, all came from the mentionedareas .. originally.Some may disagree with me.... and I stand to be corrected..... but.....I still believe there is a connection between the Melungeons and Redbones. Hope you have been doing well. It's HOT here in Starks but we finally got a small amount of rain last night.
To which, Larry Keels responded:Good to hear from you, Elaine. The heat has also been oppressive here until this afternoon. Severe thunderstorms have finallyn provided a break but have also taken out our cable television reception.
Like you, I also have absolutely no doubt within my own calculations that the people referenced by either of the exonyms, "redbone" or "melungeons", are descended from similar circumstances. Just the complexion related complications associated with the Goins and Gibson
surnames among almost all fpc enclaves indicates commonality extending back at least to the end of the 18th century Indian wars where documentation becomes unavailable.
The confirmation I'm yet unaware of is that which encourages L V to use the exonym "redbone" as though it was an ethnonym. He mentions genealogy hobbyists who were gathering research in the sixties on these surnames but does not provide assurance they referenced these ancestries as self identifying as "redbone" as L V now identifies them. Other than Don Marler's decades of effort to substaniate his childhood memories of fabled "redbones" by convincing people the term legitimately referenced their ancestors, I've found little to justify use of the term as anything other than a slur.
If L V should provide convincing data to the contrary, I'll be very interested to know of it.
Larry