By Swan M. Burnett, M. D., Washington  October 1889  <<Legends of the Melungeons I first heard at my father's knee as a child in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee...* Read before the Society at its regular meeting, February 5, 1889.>> (Full text of the above follows these notes)

An interesting aside and a note on Swan Burnett is that he was the husband of the children's writer Frances Hodgson Burnett who later divorced him. See: http://www.writepage.com/others/burnettf.htm
Frances was really quite famous, more so than her husband, for such stories as Little Lord Flauntleroy, The Secret Garden and The Little Princess which I read and loved as a child.

Swan Burnett's work is not easily found today and mentions of him on the internet are largely associatied with the Melungeons and/or his suggestion that the Melungeons might be Gypsy. I found one mention of his work by Charles James McDonald Furman (1863-1904.) Furman mentions Burnett in his papers. I can find nothing else in Furman except this mention of Burnett's name and I would be interested in any connections that might be found. See:
http://www.sc.edu/library/socar/uscs/1997/furman97.html
Furman himself was interested in blacks, Indians and the Redbones of South Carolina among other interests.

Evelyn McKinley Orr was the earliest Melungeon researcher that I have found who examines Burnett's writings and his 'melange' theory in particular. Evelyn has been an early member of the Gowen Foundation and a great friend of N. Brent Kennedy as well and is an excellent researcher.

From the Gowen Electronic Newletter http://www.llano.net/gowen/electronic_newsletter/el200009.htm
written by Evelyn M. Orr,

I find the following paragraph: <<The first known reference to the French word melange was mentioned by Dr. Swan Burnett. He read his, "Notes On The Melungeons," before theSociety of American Anthropologists, Feb. 5, 1889, and published in, Oct.1889, Vol. 11, pp 347-349, "American Anthropologist Magazine." Burnett grew up hearing about the Hawkins (later Hancock) Co., Tennessee, Melungeons. He became a medical doctor with a side interest in anthropology. " He was assisted in this limited study by Dr. J. M. Pierce of Hawkins Co.,Tennessee and Dr. Gurley of the Smithsonian Institute. These doctor's observations were the first scientific notes I know of to be penned by any professionals.>> Burnett was indeed a doctor, but not of anthropology. Who was Dr. Pierce and what position did Gurley hold with the Smithsonian? Why were their names not on this peice?

The GOWEN site follows with this statement: <<Some of Burnett's speculations, and factual statements, would be taken somewhat out of context by some later scholars to gradually become accepted 'fact.'  >> I have to AGREE.  We are seeing this even today as Swan Burnett's peice is being used to PROVE something that it cannot prove.

The Gowen Newsletter noted above also states that James Mooney was the next scholar to write about the Melungeons and others. It says: <<James Mooney's entry in the Smithsonian's Hand Book describes the Melungeons under the Negro and Indian title,( page 52 Vol II)."Melungeons of Hancock Co, Tennessee, formerly of North Carolina are said to be "a mixture of white, Indian and Negro."

His noted source "AmAnthrop,"  p 347, 1889, is from Burnett's Notes. Mooney adds, "The Redbones of South Carolina and Croatans of North Carolina seem to be the same mixture." Under the Croatan Indian title, p 365, Vol I, of The Handbook, Mooney's entry suggests, "the Croatan, Redbones, Delaware Moors, Melungeons are of similar origin." And, says, "the name  Melungeon is (probably from melange-mixed) or Portuguese." This is also taken from Burnett's Notes.  >>

So we can see here a building of Melungeon 'facts' based upon questionable data that became 'facts' over a period of time.  Does anyone know what Burnett's source for the possibility of 'melange' was? Was he himself fluent in French? Did he have any expertise in linguistics? This Gowen newsletter is fantastic and should be read in its entirety.

Brent Kennedy has noted about Swan Burnette's Melungeon writings in the Anthropologist that: <<BK: To begin, Burnett above clearly and honestly says that he has few notes and he is hopeful that some one with better opportunity may be induced to pursue the matter further. It seems a major leap from this statement to the position of authority that sometimes has been claimed for Burnett.>>

Again, I have to agree with Brent's statement as well. Starting with the sentence I copied above including 'LEGENDS,' Burnett's work is a review or memoir perhaps, which is interesting, gives a few insights, but is not a totally reliable source as most memoirs are not. He, himself, notes that these include 'legends.' There are few specific statements, and only a little data that can be corroborated. This Burnett article cannot be said to be authoritative by any means.

I have found some notes, an on-line review, of Burnett's article. I do NOT know who these people are nor when the review was written. Does anyone? This first peice was sent by reviewer: JENNIFER GROVES University of Alberta (Heather Young Leslie) to The American Anthropologist's Journal, and is found at: http://www.publicanthropology.org/Archive/AA1889.htm

It seems as though JG doesn't really understand what Burnett is saying but she says:

<<This article is a brief discussion of Burnett's initial and later views of the Portuguese, based on his childhood recollections, and then brief 'fieldwork' among Portuguese in America as well as a visit to Portugal. His intention was to pique interest in the Portuguese as worthy of ethnographic research. Burnett noted a mystery as to Portuguese origins, and refers to an earlier name used for them, 'Melungeon' (from the French, melangee or
mixed). He also discussed issues such as social and economic positions within the Portuguese community. In America he notes, the Portuguese did not hold a very high social or economic position, but he did not provide any intricate details on how these people functioned in their everyday lives. How their lives compares to life in Portugal is also unclear. Burnett did not actually conduct real fieldwork. Burnett presents his information in a highly personal narrative format. While the author's work was structured differently from most papers in The American Anthropologist, he did provide a unique look into
the lives of a people who intrigued him. >>

I am intrigued by Groves remark "Burnett did not actually conduct real fieldwork." I think this is likely very telling of what the Anthropological community thinks of this work. I would love to find more data on this area. I also know that some of my own  "childhood recollections' are very inadequate and incorrect. I suspect the same holds true with Swan Burnette's.

Another writer, Mark C. House University of Florida (Dr. John Moore) on the same site has this to say about the Burnett peice. His post is more scathing:
<<This is a short memo on the observations and initial ideas about the Melungeons. The author begins by recalling stories from his youth about a mysterious race of people identified as the Melungeons. Then he meanders through several different thoughts on the origin of these people. Throughout his writing Burnett makes references to the idea that these people were either a separate race from the whites, blacks, or natives or that they were a mixture of these three ethnic groups. The particular people being described in his essay reside in East Tennessee and supposedly emigrated from North Carolina more than 80 years before Burnett's essay was written. Burnett notes
that there is evidence that these people might be of Portuguese decent. The evidence he cites for this includes the fact that the Melungeons refer to themselves as Portuguese and a few physical characteristics that Burnett considers important. There is also a theory that they might be gypsies or may have originally been from either of these groups but have intermarried since
their arrival in the Americas. The most fantastic of the theories under his consideration is that these people may be descendents of Sir Walter Raleigh's lost colony. Unfortunately this article is more of a call for information on the subject than a real argument for the origins of a set of people. The evidence that is presented is shaky at best as indicated by Burnett's reference to the flatness of their feet, the waviness found in their hair and
the height of their cheekbones. However, this paper may be useful for the insight it gives into the mind of the nineteenth century amateur anthropologist, which Boaz thankfully expunged from serious academic consideration.>>

I find this part of the review interesting "The evidence that is presented is shaky at best.." and the expunging part of the final statement. This piece by Burnett does not merit SERIOUS ACADEMIC consideration at least by House and according to House, Dr. Boaz, who conducted field research on The Snanaimuq, a coastal British Columbia tribe in the winter of 1886-87 as well as other research and who is quoted frequently in this journal, expunged this type of amateur anthropology from the journal.

I find both of these interviews interesting in light of the discussion of the reliability of the Burnett peice. If anyone has further information on this I would enjoy reading it. It seems to me that Burnett was a curious man. He wrote what he could remember of his neighbors from his childhood recollections which are notoriously unreliable and this peice was never meant to be a professional study. We are left to interpret what Burnett meant and that has led to some differences in opinion that a thorough review of the work could help eliminate.

Here follows the total of the Swan Burnette peice of 1889:Burnett, Swan M. A Note on the Melungeons. American Anthropologist,
October 1889 Vol.2 (21): 347-349

A NOTE ON THE MELUNGEONS * By Swan M. Burnett, M. D., Washington October 1889 Legends of the Melungeons

I first heard at my father's knee as a child in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee, and the name had such a ponderous and inhuman sound as to associate them in my mind with the giants and ogres of the wonder tales I listened to in the winter evenings before the crackling logs in the wide-mouth fireplace. And when I chanced to waken in the night and the fire had died down on the hearth, and the wind swept with a demoniac shriek and terrifying roar around and through the house, rattling the windows and the loose clapboards on the roof, I shrank under the bedclothes trembling with a fear that was almost an expectation that one of these huge creatures would come down the chimney with a rush, seize me with his dragon-like arms, and carry me off to his cave in the mountains, there to devour me piecemeal. In the course of time, however, I came to learn that these creatures with the awe-inspiring name were people somewhat like ourselves, but with a difference.

I learned, too, that they were not only different from us, the white, but also from the Negroes-slave or free-and from the Indian. They were something set apart from anything I had seen or heard of. Neither was the exact nature of this difference manifest even in more mature years, when a childish curiosity had given way to an interest more scientific in its character. There was evidently a caste distinction as there was between the white and Negro, and there was also a difference between them and the free Negroes. No one seemed to know positively that they or their ancestors had ever been in slavery, and they did not themselves claim to belong to any tribe of Indians in that part of the country.

They resented the appellation Melungeon, given to them by common consent by the whites, and proudly called themselves Portuguese. The current belief was that they were a mixture of white, Indian, and Negro. On what data that opinion was based I have never been able to determine, but the very word Melungeon would seem to indicate the idea of a mixed people in the minds of those who first gave them the name. I have never seen the word written, nor do I know the precise way of spelling it, but the first thought that would come to one on hearing it would be that it was a corruption of the French word melangee-mixed.

It was not, however, until I had left East Tennessee and become interested in anthropology-chiefly through my membership in this Society-that the peculiarities of this people came to have any real significance for me, and I was then too far away to investigate the matter personally to the extent I desire. I have, however, for several years past pursued my inquiries as best I could through various parties living in the country and visiting it, but with no very pronounced success. I have thought it well, however, to put on record in the archives of the Society the few notes I have been able to obtain, trusting that some one with better opportunity may be induced to pursue the matter further.

It appears that the Melungeons originally came into east Tennessee from North Carolina, and the larger number settled in what was at that time Hawkins County, but which is now Hancock. I have not been able to hear of them in any of the lower counties of east Tennessee, and those I have seen myself were in Cocke county, bordering on North Carolina. At what time this emigration took place in not known, but it was certainly as long ago as seventy-five or eighty years.

One man, "Old Sol. Collins," in Hancock County, claims that his father fought in the revolution. They are known generally by their family names, as the "Collinses," &c., and on account of the caste restriction, which has always been rigorously maintained, they do not intermarry with the Negroes or Indians. As stated before, they are held by the whites to be a mixed race with at least a modicum of Negroes blood, and there is at least one instance on record in which the matter was brought before the courts. It was before the war-during the time of slavery-that the right of a number of these people to vote was called in question.

The matter was finally carried before a jury and the question decided by an examination of the feet. One, I believe, was found to be sufficiently flat-footed to deprive him of aright of suffrage. The others, four or five in number, were considered as having sufficient white blood to allow them a vote. Co. John Netherland, a lawyer of considerable local prominence defended them. It should be stated, however, that there is a disposition on the part of the more thoughtful of those among whom these people live to give some credence to their claim of being a distinct race, a few inclining to the Portuguese theory, some thinking that they may possibly be gypsies, while yet others think that they may have entered the country as Portuguese or gypsies and afterward some families may have intermingled with negroes or Indians or with both.

So far as I have been able to learn, however, there was not at any time a settlement of Portuguese in or near North Carolina of which these people could have been an offshoot. Those that I have seen had physical peculiarities which would lend plausibility to any one of the foregoing theories. They are dark, but of a different hue to the ordinary mulatto, with either straight or wavy hair, and some have cheek bones almost as high as the Indians. The men are usually straight, large, and find looking, while one old woman I saw was sufficiently hag-like to have sat for the original Meg Merriles. As a rule, they do not stand very high in the community, and their reputation for honesty and truthfulness is not to be envied. In this, however, there are said to be individual exceptions.

It is perhaps characteristic of them that, since a revenue tax has been placed by the Government on the manufacture of spirituous liquors, these people have been engages largely in illicit distilling; but, whatever may have been their origin, it is still a fact of interest that there has existed in East Tennessee for nearly a hundred years a class of people held both by them selves and by the people among whom they live as distinct from the three other races by whom they are surrounded, and I trust that these few imperfect notes may cause a study of them to be made by some one more competent than myself.

For assistance in getting information I am particularly indebted to Dr. J. M. Peirce, of Hawkins county, Tennessee, and to Dr. Gurley, of the Smithsonian Institution. Since the above communications was read before the Society I have received from several sources valuable information in regard to the Melungeons; but the most important contribution bearing on the subject, as I believe, is the little pamphlet published by Hamilton Mc Millan, A. M., on "Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony" (Wilson, N.C., 188). Mc Millan claims that the Croatan Indians are the direct descendant of this colony. What connection I consider to exist between the Melungeons and the Croatan Indians, as well as other material I have accumulated in regard to the Melungeons, will be made the subject of another communication which is now in preparation.
* Read before the Society at its regular meeting, February 5, 1889.

Does anyone have access to the latter peice mentioned in Burnett's writing?