Episode 11: No Safe Harbor, Part 2

Before We Were White

The eastern half of the continental USA is dotted with places often described as "tri-racial isolate communities".

One of the largest such population groups can be found spread over Eastern Kentucky, the western parts of Virginia, East Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Widely known as "Melungeons", few Americans have been the subject of such intense scrutiny and curiosity.

Who are these people? Where did they come from?

In this episode, we continue our exploration of an Appalachian enigma - asking why so many of these mountain people always claimed Portuguese ancestry, even while outsiders dismissed such folk memory.

Is this a story about weirdly exotic or isolated people - or is it a story about the lies and myths at the heart of American identity itself?