The Melungens
Christian Priber
&
Utopia
Is it possible the first mixed blood community was born at the
Cherokee Capital, Tellico, in 1736 ---- Christian Priber's 'Utopia - Kingdom of Paradise'?
It is to my knowledge the earliest documented 'tri racial'
community. Established in 1736 by Christian Priber it was a
refugee town of not only Cherokee but remnant tribes, fugitive slaves,
both African and Indian, 'disaffected' Germans, French and English,
this community existed some seven or eight years before Priber was
captured. Most histories describe Priber as a French 'Jesuit' but
there is no doubt he was from Germany and that he was not a 'Jesuit.'
In
1743 he was arrested and jailed at Frederica -- it is said he married
to a daughter of 'the Emporer' Moytoy and left at least one
daughter who married to Doublehead. While this is entirely
possible there is no document, no evidence at all, to suggest that
Priber left any children in America.
Shortly after his arrest in 1743 a treaty was signed at Charleston with
Chief Attacullaculla. The Cherokee agreed to trade only with the
British, return runaway slaves and expel Non-English whites from their
territory, the Cherokee would receive substantial amounts of guns,
ammunition, and red paint.
Nine
years later the militia of North Carolina would report that while there
were 'no Indians' in Bladen County there was living on Drowning Creek
'fifty mixt families' --
The Melungens - The legend of their history which they carefully
preserve; ".........that they might be freed from the restraints and
drawbacks imposed on them by any form of government. These people made
themselves friendly with the Indians and freed, as they were from every
kind of social government, they uprooted all
conventional forms of society and lived in a delightful 'Utopia'
of their own creation.
"The
Melungens 1848 - Knoxville Register"
Christian Priber's Kingdom of Paradise - Tellico - the first
tri-racial community?
Notes On Priber
1735 -
<>Christian Priber - James Adair 1775
Christian
Priber
- William Bacon
Stevens - 1847