000			01563nam a2200181 4500
010			_a2004014593
020			_a9780865548619
024			_a55738108
050			_aE184.M44
082			_a975.0040509
100	1		_aElizabeth Hirschman
245	1		_aMelungeons
260			_bMercer University Press
300			_a186 pages
520			_aMost of us probably think of America as being settled by British Protestant colonists who fought the Indians tamed the wilderness, and brought democracy--or at least a representative republic--to North America. To the contrary, Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman's research indicates the earliest settlers were of Mediterranean extraction, and of a Jewish or Muslim religious persuasion. Sometimes called Melungeons, these early settlers were among the earliest nonnative Americans to live in the Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia. For fear of discrimination-since Muslims, Jews, Indians, and other persons of color were often disenfranchised and abused--the Melungeons were reticent regarding their heritage. In fact over time, many of the Melungeons themselves forgot where they came from. Hence, today the Melungeons remain the last lost tribe in America, eyen to themselves. Yet, Hirschman, supported by DNA testing, genealogies; and a variety of historical documents, suggests that the Melungeons included such notable early Americans as Daniel Boone, John Sevier, Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and Andrew Jackson. Once lost, but now forgotteno more.
650			_aHistory - U.S.
999			_c4060 _d4060