K. Paul Johnson’s Blog

Another DNA testing company, Decodeme.com, offered free reports for 23andme customers who provided their data.  With the half-million markers, Decodeme came up with an autosomal percentage report closer to DNAPrint’s based on 175 than to 23andme’s: 93% European, 4% East Asian, 3% African.  This company does not pretend to distinguish between East Asian and Native American unlike DNAPrint.

So for the first time I have a report that identifies “triracial” ancestry rather than just one kind of admixture.  This feels right intuitively based on historical evidence, although the percentages seem high.

http://boingboing.net/2009/10/01/esoteric-classics-a.html

Family traditions of “Indian” blood, devoid of any tribal identification, juxtaposed with Bertie County colonial tax records showing four lines of my ancestry to be “Free Mulatto” in the 18th century, led to my taking a series of DNA tests.  Those from DNAPrint, which is now out of business, were reported in Pell Mellers; they made Native American ancestry seem more likely than African.  Last summer I took the DNATribes test which reported highest matches mostly in Italy and other Mediterranean countries, and showed neither subsaharan African nor Native American results.  But only now with 23andme.com have I gotten results that finally answer the non-European admixture question, “were my ancestors partly African, partly Native American, or both?”  With more than half a million snps versus fewer than 200 for DNAPrint, the result is clearly positive for African, negative for Native American ancestry.  The 1% African result is shown in terms of stretches along specific chromosomes, so this part of the question is settled.  The possibility of Roma or East Indian ancestry seems remote but not out of the question.  The one result that is continuous throughout all the tests is that my deep ancestry is about half Northern European, half Southern European.

Books citing K. Paul Johnson, 1994-2009

1994:

Bertin, Francis, Prophetisme et politique.  Politica Hermetica #8.  Paris: l’Age d’Homme.

Godwin, Joscelyn, The Theosophical Enlightenment.  Albany: SUNY Press.

Greenfield, Allen H., Secret Cipher of the UFOnauts.  Lilburn, GA: Illuminet.

1995:

Fideler, David, ed., Alexandria: The Journal of the Western Cosmological Traditions.  Grand Rapids: Phanes.

Godwin, Joscelyn, Christian Chanel, and John P. Deveney, The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor.  York Beach, ME: Weiser.

Kuschel, Karl-Josef.  Abraham: A Sign of Hope for Jews, Christians, and Muslims.  New York: Continuum.

Lemkow, Anna, The Wholeness Principle.  Wheaton: Quest.

1996:

Academic American Encyclopedia.  New York: Grolier

Caldwell, Daniel H., K. Paul Johnson’s House of Cards?  Tucson: the Author.

 

Gilchrist, Cherry, Theosophy.  San Francisco: Harper.

 

Prothero, Stephen, The White Buddhist.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

 

Stein, Gordon, Encyclopedia of the Paranormal.  Amherst, NY: Prometheus.

 

Tollenaire, Herman A.O., The Politics of Divine Wisdom.  Nijmegen: Uitgerij Katholieke.

 

1997:

Conser, Walter H., Jr., and Sumner B. Twiss, eds, Religious Diversity and American Religious History.  Athens: University of Georgia Press.

Deveney, John P., Paschal Beverly Randolph.  Albany: SUNY Press.

Finneran, Richard J., Yeats: An Annual Collection of Critical and Textual Studies, Vol. XIII (1995).  Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

McKay, Alex, Tibet and the British Raj.  Richmond, Surrey: Curzon.

O’Brien, Geoffrey, ed., The Reader’s Catalog.  New York: Reader’s Catalog.

 

Rawlinson, Andrew, The Book of Enlightened Masters.  Chicago: Open Court.

 

Schneider, Carl J. and Dorothy, In Their Own Right.  New York: Crossroad.

 

Tompkins, Peter, The Secret Life of Nature.  San Francisco: Harper.

 

Van Den Broeck, R., and Wouter J. Hanegraff, eds., Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times.  Albany: SUNY Press.

 

Verhoeven, Martin J., Americanising the Buddha: The World’s Parliament of Religions, Paul Carus, and the Making of Modern Buddhism.  Madison:: University of Wisconsin Press.

1998:

Adamson, Linda, Notable Women in World History: a Guide to Recommended Biographies.  Westport: Greenwood.  

Banner, Lois W., Finding Fran.  New York: Columbia University Press.

Brown, Mick, The Spiritual Tourist.  New York: Bloomsbury.

Crowley, Aleister, Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers.  York Beach, ME: Weiser.

 

Dann, Kevin T., Bright Colors Falsely Seen.  New Haven: Yale University Press.

 

Encyclopedia of Religion and Society.  William H. Swatos, Jr., ed.  Lanham, MD:

 

Western Esotericism and the Science of Religion.  Leuven, Belgium: Peeters.

 

Lopez, Donald S., Prisoners of Shangri-La.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

 

Melnyk, Julie, ed., Women’s Theology in Nineteenth-Century Britain.  New York: Garland.

 

Pouvoir du symbole.  Paris: L’Age d’Homme.

1999:

Cayce, Edgar, The Lost Memoirs of Edgar Cayce.  Compiled and edited by Robert A. Smith.  New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Lazzerini, Edward J., Supplement to the Modern Encyclopedia of Russian, Soviet, and Eurasian History.  Gulf Breeze, FL: Academic International Press.

Ludmer, Josefina, El Cuerpo del Delito.  Buenos Aires: Perfil Libros.

Meyer, Karl E. and Shareen Blair Brysac, Tournament of Shadows.  Washington: Counterpoint.

 

Ramiro, Rafael, Jubilo en la Tierra, Jubilo en el Cielo.  Madrid: Caritas Espanola.

 

Reigle, David and Nancy, Blavatsky’s Secret Books.  San Diego: Wizard’s Bookshelf.

 

Smoley, Richard and Jay Kinney, Hidden Wisdom.  New York: Arkana.

 

Taves, Ann, Fits, Trances & Visions.  Princeton: Princeton University Press.

 

Taylor, Eugene, Shadow Culture.  Washington: Counterpoint.

 

Trahair, Richard S., Utopia and Utopians.  Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

2000:

Copley, Antony, ed., Gurus and Their Followers.  New Delhi and New York: Oxford.

Jenkins, Philip, Mystics and Messiahs.  New York: Oxford.

 

Kirkpatrick, Sidney, Edgar Cayce: An American Prophet.  New York: Riverhead.

 

Krassa, Peter, Father Ernetti’s Chronovisor.  Boca Raton, FL: New Paradigm.

 

Pierce, Lori Anne, Constructing American Buddhisms.  Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

 

Sanat, Aryel, The Inner Life of Krishnamurti.  Wheaton: Quest Books.

 

Sutfliffe, Steven and Marion Bowman, Beyond New Age.  Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

 

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, according to Lama Kazi Dawa Samdup’s English rendering; compiled and edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, 4^th ed.  Oxford: Oxford.

 

Vernon, Roland, Star in the East.  London, Constable.

2001:

Brown, Mick, El turista espiritual.  Barcelona: Oasis.

Caldwell, Daniel H., compiler, The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky.  Wheaton: Quest Books.

Chryssides, George D., Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements.  Metuchen: Scarecrow.

Clore, Dan, The Unspeakable and Others.  Holicong, PA: Wildside Press. 

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6^th ed.  New York: Columbia University Press.

 

Dixon, Joy, Divine Feminine.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

 

Dodin, Thierry and Heinz Rather, eds.  Imagining Tibet.  Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications.

 

Godwin, Joscelyn, Il mito polare.  Roma: Edizioni Mediterranee.

 

Goonatilake, Susantha, Anthropologizing Sri Lanka.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

 

Kirkpatrick, Sidney, Edgar Cayce: An American Prophet.  New York: Riverhead.

 

Lawton, Ian and Chris Ogilvie-Herald, Giza.  Montpelier, VT: Invisible Cities.

 

Lewis, James, ed.  Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions, 2^nd ed.  Amherst, NY: Prometheus.

 

Nation und Religion in der Deutschen Geschicte.  Frankfurt: Campus.

 

Regardie, Israel, The Tree of Life.  St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn.

2002:

Auffarth, Christoph, Jutta Bernard, and Hubert Mohr, Metzler Lexicon Religion, Vol. 4.  Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler.

Cayce, Edgar, La mia vita di veggente.  Rome: Edizioni Mediterranee 

Decker, Ronald and Michael Dummett, A History of the Occult Tarot 1870-1970.  London: Duckworth.

Fiorenza, Elizabeth Schussler, Bread Not Stone.  Boston: Beacon.

Hemmila, Olavi, En Yogi kmor till Stan.  Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell International.

 

Hower, Edward, Shadows and Elephants.  Wellfleet, MA: Leapfrog Press.

 

Indologica Taurinensia, v. 28.  International Institute of Sanskrit Studies, Istituto Indologica.  Torino: Edizioni Jollygrafica.

 

Kargupta, Sanatal, Mystical Buddhism.  Kolkata: Asiatic Society.

 

Maillard, Christine, Sciences, Sciences Occultes et Litterature, 1890-1935.  Strasbourg: Universite Marc Bloch.

 

Pearson, Joanne, ed.  Belief Beyond Boundaries.  London: Ashgate.

 

Theologische Realenzyklopadie.  Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

 

2003:

 

Coward, Harold, ed., Indian Critiques of Gandhi.  Albany: SUNY Press.

Dawson, Lorne N., Cults and New Religious Movements.  Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Gilman, Susan, Blood Talk.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

 

Hale, Christopher, Himmler’s Crusade.  New York: Wiley.

 

Greer, John Michael, New Encyclopedia of the Occult.  St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn.

 

Kranenborg, Reender and Mikael Rothstein, eds., New Religions in a Postmodern World.  Aarhus, Denmark: University of Aarhus Press.

 

Lawton, Ian, Genesis Unveiled.  London: Virgin.

 

Lopez, Donald S., Fascination Tibetaine.  Paris: Autrement.

 

Metzger, Richard, Book of Lies.  New York: Disinformation.

 

Propp, Steven H., Beyond Heaven and Earth.  Iuniverse.

 

Sisson, Marina Cesar, A esfinge, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.  Brasilia: Editora MCS.

 

Virtue, Doreen, Archangels and Ascended Masters.  Carlsbad, CA: Hay House.

 

Wellbeloved, Sophia, Gurdjieff: the Key Concepts.  London: Routledge.

 

Zeitschrift fur Genozidforschung, Vol. 4, Issue 2.  Institut fur Diaspora und Genozidforschung, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum. Leverkusen: Leske & Budrick.

2004:

Blavatsky, Helena, Helena Blavatsky, edited and introduced by Nicholas Goodricke-Clark.  Berkeley: North Atlantic.

Buescher, John B., The Other Side of Salvation.  Boston: Skinner House.

 

Cayce, Edgar, The Essential Edgar Cayce, edited and introduced by Mark Thurston.  New York: Tarcher/Penguin.

 

Free, Wynn, The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce.  Berkeley: Frog.

 

Gallagher, Eugene V., The New Religious Movements Experience in America.  Westport, CT: Greenwood.

 

Gulbekian, Sevak, In the Belly of the Beast.  Charlottesville: Hampton Roads.

 

Hammer, Olav, Claiming Knowledge.  Leiden: Brill.

 

Henry, Jane, ed., Parapsychology.  Boston: Routledge.

 

Ludmer, Josefina, Glen S. Close, Corpus Delicti.  Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

 

Morris, James Mathew, and Andrea l. Kross, Historical Dictionary of Utopianism.  Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow.

 

Ramaswamy, Sumathi, The Lost Land of Lemuria.  Berkeley: University of California Press.

 

Ravagli, Lorenzo, Unter Hammer und Hakenkreutz.  Stuttgart: Verlag Freies Geistesleben.

 

Sedgwick, Mark, Against the Modern World.  New York: Oxford.

 

Stuckrad, Kuchu von, Was ist Esoterik?  Munchen: Verlag C. H. Beck.

 

Treitel, Corinna, A Science for the Soul.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

2005:

Abdill, Edward, The Secret Gateway.  Wheaton: Quest Books.

Farnell, Kim, Mystical Vampire: The Life and Work of Mabel Collins.  Oxford: Mandrake.

Garlington, William, The Baha’i Faith in America.  Westport, CT: Praeger.

 

Hamm, Berndt and Russell Smandyck, eds., Cultural Imperialism.  Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press.

 

Hanegraaff, Wouter, et al, eds., Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism.  Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.

 

Jenkins, Philip, Dream Catchers.  New York: Oxford.

 

Joshi, S.T. and Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Supernatural Literature of the World, an Encyclopedia.  Westport: Greenwood.

 

Katz, David S., The Occult Tradition: From the Renaissance to the Present Day.  London: Jonathan Cape.

 

Penn, Lee, False Dawn.  Hillsdale, NY: Sophia Perennis

 

Perspectives on Complementary and Alternative Medicine.  Boston: Routledge.

 

Smith, Robert A., No Soul Left Behind.  New York: Citadel.

 

2006:

Abd-Allah, Umar F., A Muslim in Victorian America.  New York: Oxford.

Aravamudan, Srinivas.  Guru English.  Princeton: Princeton University Press.

 

Auffarth, Christoph, and Hans G. Kippenburg, Worterbuch der Religionen. Stuttgart: Alfred Kroner.

 

Bradford, Roderick, D.M. Bennett, the Truth Seeker.  Amherst, NY: Prometheus.

 

Cambridge Companion to W.B. Yeats.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Crews, Frederick, Follies of the Wise.  Emeryville, CA: Shoemaker and Hoard.

 

Goonatilake, Susantha, Re-colonization.  London: Sage.

 

Greenfield, Allen, Roots of Modern Magic.  Lulu.com

 

Greer, John Michael, Element Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Hidden History.  New York: Barnes and Noble.

 

Tyson, Joseph Howard, Madame Blavatsky Revisited.  Iuniverse.

 

Warburg, Marget, Citizens of the World.  Leiden: Brill.

 

Webb, Mohammed Alexander Russell, Yankee Muslim.  Rockville, Md.: Wildside Press.

2007:

Austin, June, The Genesis of Man.  Tadsworth, Surrey: Pigsty Press.

Gilman, Susan Kay and Alys Eve Weinbaum, eds.  Next to the Color Line.  Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

 

Godwin, Joscelyn, The Golden Thread.  Wheaton: Quest Books.

 

Greer, John Michael, Atlantis.  St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn.

 

Lierl, Hg. Karl and Florian Rode, Anthroposophie wird Kunst.  Munich: Anthroposophie in Munchen.

 

Livingstone, David, Terrorism and the Illuminati.  Charleston, SC: BookSurge.

 

Melton, J. Gordon, The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena.  Canton, MI: Visible Ink.

 

Morrison, Mark S., Modern Alchemy.  New York: Oxford.

 

Nigosian, Solomon A., World Religions: a Historical Approach.  New York:Macmillan.

 

Smoley, Richard, Forbidden Faith.  New York: Harperone.

 

Smoley, Richard and Jay Kinney, Hidden Wisdom, New Edition.  Wheaton: Quest Books.

 

Vera-Barros, Tomas, El sueno occulto del espacio en la obra de Leopoldo Lugones.  Buenos Aires: Lerner, Editora SRL.

 

Zander, Helmut, Anthroposophie in Deutschland.  Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.

 

2008:

 

Cayce, Edgar, Toate suflete trec dinculo.  Bucharest: Libraria Asmicart.

 

Diem-Lane, Andrea.  The Guru in America.  Walnut, CA: MSAC Philosophy Group.

 

Fitzgerald, John, The Necronomicon: Everything You Never Wanted to Know.  Creatspace.

 

Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas, The Western Esoteric Traditions.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Kinney, Jay, ed., Esoterismo E Magia No Mundo Ocidental.  Sao Paolo: Editora Pensamento.

 

Lachman, Gary, Politics and the Occult.  Wheaton: Quest.

 

Lane, David Christopher, Believer/Skeptic.  Walnut, CA: MSAC Philosophy Group. 

 

Levenda, Peter, Stairway to Heaven: Chinese Alchemists, Jewish Kabbalists, and the Art of Spiritual Transformation.  New York: Continuum.

 

Lopez, Donald S., Buddhism and Science.  University of Chicago Press.

 

Monteith, Ken, Yeats and Theosophy.  Boston: Routledge.

 

2009:

 

Conway, D. J., Guides, Guardians, and Angels.  St. Paul: Llewellyn.

 

Initiates: Webster’s Quotations, Facts, and Phrases.  San Diego: Icon International Group.

 

Morris, James, The A to Z of Utopianism.  Metuchen: Scarecrow Press

 

Nance, Susan, How the Arabian Nights Inspired the American Dream, 1790-1935.  Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

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The oldest text online I found referring to Scottish Gypsies in Virginia is dated 1894.  More recent books refer to ongoing deportations of Gypsies from Scotland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  A 2001 book describing large numbers of English Gypsies in Virginia in 1695 is only one of many references to this date.  A new social science book refers to the fate of early Virginia Gypsies as unknown.  An overview of Roma slavery is found in this encyclopedia.  In addition to Romany slaves, Virginia and its neighbors also had slaves and indentured servants of East Indian origin, according to this article outnumbering Native Americans in colonial records after 1710.

My blog post about this year’s Union at Chief Logan Conference Center is now on the MHA homepage at:

http://www.melungeon.org/

Pell Mellers was published in early 2008, and last week I concluded a year of book promotion with four days at the Melungeon Heritage Association booth at the NGS conference in Raleigh.   We sold four copies of Pell Mellers, which seemed typical of individual titles for sale at our booth.  But traffic and sales were steady before and after the high point of the conference for us, a standing-room-only crowd of at least 200 for Julie Williams Dixon’s documentary Melungeon Voices.  Reception of the film was nothing less than rapturous, and we sold 22 copies as people left the showing and another 15 during the rest of the week.  The film generated great interest in Melungeons.  The first question asked after the film concerned Melungeons’ reluctance to embrace the label “tri-racial isolates.”  I have written a statement to address that issue, raised by genealogist Carolyn Billingsley, Ph.D. who gave an informative and entertaining account of mixed ancestry groups earlier the same day the film was shown:

“Multi-ethnic more accurately describes Melungeon heritage; division of humans into separate races has no scientific basis and has caused great suffering in the past.  21st century descendants of so-called mixed-race Americans are not isolated as some of our ancestors were by racial categories.  MHA’s motto “One People, All Colors” refers to the Melungeon community, as well as to society and humanity as a whole.  There is only one race, the human race. The heritage of Melungeons and related groups has been shaped by racial definitions of the past, but cannot be adequately explained by them now.  MHA encourages study of Melungeon roots in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, without endorsing any origin theory.” 

 NGS in Raleigh was an ideal venue to meet people interested in mixed ancestry groups of the Southeast, and we had a steady stream of visitors to the booth.  Many were motivated primarily by historical curiosity, but the majority had some personal ancestral connection to Melungeons and related groups.  Sometimes I would see someone approaching the booth from a hundred feet away and recognize that his or her ancestry probably included European, African, and Native American elements.  Inevitably, anyone with visibly mixed ancestry would stop and talk with us for a while.  My impression was that conferees who appeared purely European or African tended to walk on by, while the mixed-appearing individuals headed straight for our booth.  We experienced ample evidence of a great need for an organization like MHA to help people understand their mixed ancestry.  Although Pell Mellers is addressed only to a small niche audience focused on eastern North Carolina, MHA as an organization reaches out across the nation to many thousands of individuals who can trace ancestry to multiple so-called “races.”  In 2011, NGS will hold its annual gathering in Charleston, South Carolina.  In light of the significance of the South Carolina coast to Melungeon origins, I look forward to participating again with MHA in two years.  Nothing could be more encouraging to our organization that the realization that thousands of individuals have similiarly mixed heritage but no organizations to turn to where such heritage is embraced and celebrated.  NGS brought that message home for all of us.  MHA President S.J. Arthur and Vice President Toney Kirk were joined by Dr. Terry Mullins of Concord College, Elizabeth Williams of Chief Logan State Park, and me at the booth, and all five of us were kept busy with all the inquiries and book sales.

Next week I will see several of my MHA colleagues at the National Genealogical Society conference in Raleigh, and afterwards I’ll write a substantive blog post about what we learned there.  But before heading south I just found this story online, with a picture of several MHA authors included, and thought it worth sharing.

On Saturday April 4 I led an outing at Mayo Park in Person County, beginning with a paddling trip on Mayo Lake and then proceeding to a picnic and hike.  Last month completed my second term as a board member, for the last three years Outings Chair, of the organization established in late 2001 that has grown to be a major presence in the region.  The outings have been source of pleasure, but also learning as the incentive to come up with new destinations has involved many scouting trips.  The DRBA website has trip reports of many past outings, as well as much other information about the region.

Last night I attended the first meeting of the new board, as a former member, and received a standing ovation for the first time I can recall in my life, when given an award for my service on the board.  I received a beautiful hand decorated walking stick of Mountain Laurel, and a framed poem about time spent in nature.  Here is the proclamation that was read:

Paul is a founding member of DRBA who has served on the Board of Directors, as Vice President, as our first newsletter editor, and for the past three years as outings chair extraordinaire.  Paul is not only a creative planner, but has also served as coordinator of countless floats and hikes and has written many outing reports for our newsletter.  If you want to see, hear and touch the natural beauty of our basin, then First Saturdays are for you!  Paul has taken us hiking and paddling across the width and breadth of the basin.  The outings are well staffed with volunteers, timely in length, and varied to take full advantage of the changing seasons.  His leadership has brought us to sections of streams we had not yet paddled and to trails we had not yet hiked.  The outings have introduced new people to DRBA and many of the new acquaintances have joined our organization.  Paul has shown all of us the variety and the beauty of the natural resources surrounding us that we are blessed to call home.  Thank you, Paul, for opening our eyes and our hearts to the basin.  We look forward to seeing you on the trails and on the water.

In thanking DRBA, I commented that there could be no more ideal combination of pleasure and duty than serving as the outings chair.  In May I will resume updating the blog on topics related to Pell Mellers, as the Melungeon Heritage Association will participate with many other organizations in the annual conference of the National Genealogical Society. 

On February 6 I attended the first of two performances of “The Winton Triangle,” a historical lecture by Marvin T. Jones enhanced by a series of dramatic and musical performances. Never having seen such a format, I didn’t know what to expect, but found the experience well worth the four hour drive to Ahoskie, just a few miles north of the Pell Mell Pocosin where my father’s ancestors lived.  The evening was a celebration of the 250th anniversary of Hertford County, which was separated from Bertie in 1759.  The charming old theatre’s 400 seats were almost all filled, with an audience that seemed like a representative sample of the county’s population: black, white, Indian, and mixed.   The event was a celebration for the entire community, but the focus was specific to the triracial mixed people who have inhabited the central portion since before the county’s creation 250 years ago.  I write this on Saturday afternoon hoping there is another capacity crowd tonight, and thinking word of mouth in the community can only be extremely favorable today.

Marvin T. Jones was ably assisted by his sister Laverne Jones in the research and the narration, both of them blessed with voices pleasing to the ear and the talent to bring history to life with their narratives and voiceovers.   During my years of Bertie County research I grew to love the accents of the local people I met, because they so reminded me of my grandmother and her family.  After three decades of living in Washington, Marvin still speaks with the rich, rounded tones of the Albemarle Sound country, as does Laverne after decades as a lawyer in New York.  The photographic resources upon which the program relied were tremendous,  thanks to their years of collecting historical photographs of the area.

As an educational program, The Winton Triangle was a complete success, giving a sweeping overview of four centuries along the Chowan with enough detail to satisfy the older history buffs but enough forward momentum to keep the interest of the children in the audience.   After the program, Marvin was so thronged with admirers that I barely got the chance to congratulate him, but I did get to speak to Earl Ijames of the North Carolina Museum of History, formerly of the Archives Deparment, and express appreciation for his help on my many Archives visits.   And as I left, I got the chance to meet Laverne and tell her what a wonderful evening it had been-as I’m sure a hundred before me had just said.

The evening could have succeeded as celebration and education if it had been entirely the work of the Joneses, but the addition of dramatic skits and church choir performances brought it to the level of inspiration.  The history highlighted in the program ranged from frightening (ancestors being obliged to carry identification papers after the Nat Turner insurrection to protect them from potential lynch mobs) to tragic (funeral orations about a promising young community member who lost his life in World War II) to hilarious (a 50s juke joint comes to life with a dance featuring Marvin and his wife, to the uproarious approval of the audience.)  The sequence and pacing of the informational and entertainment segments was just right, and much credit is due to Ralph Hewitt and his local talent for making the atmosphere downright joyous.  The choir selections were well chosen and performed.  And the opening segment of Meherrin Indian drummers was a potent reminder of the region’s history before the first settlement by Europeans and Africans.

The story of the Winton Triangle is inspirational for people far beyond Hertford County or North Carolina.  The photographs we saw of the “free colored” of  Pleasant Plains, Archertown, and vicinity showed a full range of phenotypes.  Some members of the community would immediately be assumed to be white by outsiders, others would be taken to be black, and most would be considered to look biracial.  But many looked more Native American than anything else, and the East Indian roots of the Weavers still seemed very much in evidence in their photographs.  In the midst of a segregated society governed by the One Drop Rule, the mixed race people of Hertford County created a microcosm where people of every skin color and diverse ethnic heritage lived in harmony as a single people.  The Winton Triangle is also inspirational in that the Joneses make the story one of pride and joy, rather than oppression and victimization.  Despite the threatening nature of the society surrounding them, the community celebrated in this production thrived and prospered.  They made Winton an educational Mecca attracting students from all over the state, built a resort in Chowan Beach that drew people of color from other states, and continue to play leading roles in the life of Hertford County.  Looking at the people in the audience, I was inspired by the continuity of their presence since 1740; the families there as free people of color in colonial times remain a dominant influence in all the areas they historically inhabited.

At the end Marvin challenged the audience to bring their own family stories forward to add to the Chowan Discovery Group’s ongoing project to document the multilayered multiracial history of their fascinating community.