 Carmel, Ohio, namesake of the Carmelites | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Highland County, Ohio, particularilyCarmel, andMagoffin County, Kentucky, eastern United States | |
| Languages | |
| English | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity,Holiness movement[1] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Melungeons,Lumbee,Beaver Creek Indians,Redbones,Free people of color,Wesorts,Chestnut Ridge people,Brass Ankles,Free Blacks |
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TheCarmel Melungeons, also known asCarmelites orCarmel Indians (pronouncedCar'-mul) are a group ofMelungeons who lived inMagoffin County, Kentucky and moved toHighland County, Ohio. Some visit Kentucky to meet relatives.[1] Dr. Edward Price observed that the most common surnames among the families were Gibson, Nichols and Perkins. His research found that the ancestors of the group were listed asfree people of color on census records.[1]
According to interviews, the Nichols family descends from Black servants brought from Virginia toCarmel, Ohio in 1858, after which they married into the Gibson and Perkins families who had emigrated from eastern Kentucky. According to genealogical records, they were from Melungeon communities.[2]
Paternal line descendants of Bryson Gibson and Valentine Collins who participated in theMelungeon DNA Project belong toHaplogroup E-M2.[3] The group were listed as free Black andMulatto in Kentucky prior to theAmerican Civil War.[4][5] Author Tim Hashaw notes they share these free Black origins in common withBrass Ankles,Redbones, and theLumbee.[6]
As researcher Paul Heinegg has documented, the ancestry of the majority of theFree Negro population can be traced to free African Americans inVirginia before theAmerican Revolution. He posited that most of these free African Americans weremixed-race children of early unions during the colonial period between white women, eitherindentured servants or free, and African men who were either indentured servants, free, or enslaved. This was before the racial caste had hardened and, on small farms, white and black workers lived near each other and associated. According to the law, children were born into the social status of their mothers, by the principle ofpartus sequitur ventrem, adopted in the 17th-century Virginia colony. Since the mothers were white and free, their children were free born.[7] Heinegg states that the Carmel Melungeons are descendants of these free Black people from Virginia.[8]
Carmelites maintain cultural traits from rural Kentucky, notably in language, evidenced by words such as "hit" for it, "lamp oil" for kerosene, the hanging of "shuck beans", and the boiling of laundry in an "outdoor kettle".[1] A documented practice of the group was the digging up ofyellowroot and ginseng to sell to local stores. Carmelites sometimes migrated for work, and would return during the offseason. They would often live in the shacks of neighbors if they lacked one of their own upon their return. Census records in the 1900s reflect a trend of majority in-marriage.[1]
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