re: Map of the US showing ancestry by county

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American county

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If you look at "American country" two things spring to mind. 1. Folks here have been here for ages and 'conveniently' forgot their roots. 2. Much of that is because there was melungeon (triracial groups) as well as multiracial groups in the Appalachians. E. TN, in particular was a "maroon zone" where people ran away to and those people were Indian, Black and white indentures along with some Spanish and others classed as People of color.

The Lumbee of VA were the same way but unlike the melungeons of TN who could vote and were declared 'white' despite some who had dark skin, the Lumbee were treated like crap, especially when Plecker came to power in VA. He was a believer in eugenics and instituted the one drop rule in VA and generally an evil SOB who oppressed anyone he even thought was a one-dropper.

Plecker wrote to the state of TN demanding melungeon surnames but was refused. We'd already had an older court case that declared them white and at the time they were pretty darn dark skinned.

At any rate a lot of folks in this area have mixed heritage which to me makes them all-American BUT I get the feeling that the reason we say "American" is due to both time spent here as well as forgetting where we came from in terms of the multiple strands.

More on Plecker: LINK