Post by slick on Dec 30, 2004 19:21:53 GMT -5
The Brass Ankles of South Carolina are a large and well-known group. Nothing is known of their origin, except they are in an area where the Indians were all enslaved and kept with African slaves and Irish indentured servants. They are considered by local legend to be the descendants of white slaves (supposedly forced to wear leg chains, hence the name) with only small amounts of Indian and African ancestry, but their status is very low, perhaps even lower than the local black population. Their type names, such as Chavis and Goins, tie them to the Lumbees and many other Mestee groups of the Carolinas. Note that the new president of the NAACP is named Chavis, which is a name thought to have originated among the South Carolina Mestees as a modification of Shavers, with Shavis and Chavers as other forms. The Cajans of Alabama were founded by a Jamaican man married to an American mulatto woman, but have been joined by many Mestees from South Carolina, and can be considered part of this group. Although the Cajans and Creoles of Alabama have rarely claimed not to have black ancestry, during segregation southwestern Alabama had separate school systems for whites, blacks, Indians and Mestees (Creoles and Cajans). There has been some mixing between these two groups and between the Redbones and 'colored' Creoles of Louisiana, so French names are now found in the Cajans and the Redbones. The Dead Lake People of Florida came from South Carolina, as did most of the founders of the Louisiana Redbones. The Smilings of South Carolina recently moved to Robeson County, North Carolina and tried to join the Lumbees. They have not been welcomed, as the Lumbees fear adding a less Indian group would erode their efforts to be accepted as Indian.
The Turks of Sumter County, South Carolina, have been accepted as entitled to the rights of white people longer than any other Mestee group. This does not stem from their physical appearance, as they are less white than Brass Ankles or Melungeons, but from the connivance of one influential white man. General Sumter hired some of the Turks who had served under him in the Revolutionary War to work on his plantation and apparently found them more productive than slaves. Fearful of losing them as they were unhappy with their treatment by neighboring whites, he took action to have their status as whites recognized. He presented an affidavit to the authorities that they were indeed Turks which he had personally imported from the Ottoman Empire as contract labor. Never mind that Turks were the ruling people of that Empire and not likely to contract out as hired hands, or that the Turks of South Carolina knew no Turkish and were not Muslim.
One of the founders of the Turks was a Lumbee named Oxendine. This and Benenhaley, a specifically Turk name, are the two most common names.
The Florida Melungeons or Dead Lake People are attested by several authors, but apparently no longer exist as an identifiable group. Checking the telephone book for Bay and Calhoun Counties (Telephone Directory: St. Joseph Telephone and Telegragh Company) seems to confirm Brewton Berry's assertion that they were connected to the South Carolina groups such as the Brass Ankles and not to the Melungeons of Tennessee. The original form of the main type name for the Brass Ankles, Shavers, is found in Wewahitchka on the west side of Dead Lake. No Shavers are found in the other towns around the area, though the more common modern form Chavis is found in Panama City and Tallahassee. Checking Wewahitchka and Blountstown, the other town in the Dead Lake area, against the neighboring cities shows little evidence of any Melungeon, Lumbee or Alabama Creole and Cajan presence, so the Brass Ankle connection would appear to be the only one demonstrated (Melungeon names have nearly twice the expected frequency in Wewahitchka, but in a sample this small, that is far from significant). The Mr Shavers I spoke with in Wewahitchka confirmed having relatives in the Carolinas, though he thought the name came to Florida from Alabama.
Source:
Mestees, Brass Ankles, and Turks[/http://www.multiracial.com/readers/nassau.html]
The Turks of Sumter County, South Carolina, have been accepted as entitled to the rights of white people longer than any other Mestee group. This does not stem from their physical appearance, as they are less white than Brass Ankles or Melungeons, but from the connivance of one influential white man. General Sumter hired some of the Turks who had served under him in the Revolutionary War to work on his plantation and apparently found them more productive than slaves. Fearful of losing them as they were unhappy with their treatment by neighboring whites, he took action to have their status as whites recognized. He presented an affidavit to the authorities that they were indeed Turks which he had personally imported from the Ottoman Empire as contract labor. Never mind that Turks were the ruling people of that Empire and not likely to contract out as hired hands, or that the Turks of South Carolina knew no Turkish and were not Muslim.
One of the founders of the Turks was a Lumbee named Oxendine. This and Benenhaley, a specifically Turk name, are the two most common names.
The Florida Melungeons or Dead Lake People are attested by several authors, but apparently no longer exist as an identifiable group. Checking the telephone book for Bay and Calhoun Counties (Telephone Directory: St. Joseph Telephone and Telegragh Company) seems to confirm Brewton Berry's assertion that they were connected to the South Carolina groups such as the Brass Ankles and not to the Melungeons of Tennessee. The original form of the main type name for the Brass Ankles, Shavers, is found in Wewahitchka on the west side of Dead Lake. No Shavers are found in the other towns around the area, though the more common modern form Chavis is found in Panama City and Tallahassee. Checking Wewahitchka and Blountstown, the other town in the Dead Lake area, against the neighboring cities shows little evidence of any Melungeon, Lumbee or Alabama Creole and Cajan presence, so the Brass Ankle connection would appear to be the only one demonstrated (Melungeon names have nearly twice the expected frequency in Wewahitchka, but in a sample this small, that is far from significant). The Mr Shavers I spoke with in Wewahitchka confirmed having relatives in the Carolinas, though he thought the name came to Florida from Alabama.
Source:
Mestees, Brass Ankles, and Turks[/http://www.multiracial.com/readers/nassau.html]