Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1993. / Six maps included in back pocket. Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-116). Also available via the Internet.

The Melungeons are a group of indeterminable origin living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southeastern Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia. This thesis describes characteristics of these tri-racial isolates and gives theories as to their mysterious origins. Being darker skinned, the Melungeons were pushed into more mountainous regions by European colonists in the early 1700’s. While multiple hypotheses exist as to the origin of the Melungeon people, there is no single theory that is accepted by all scholars. Dr. Brent Kennedy’s The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People, served as a catalyst for my Melungeon research. Kennedy is my cousin, and his book provided facts behind the family stories I recalled from childhood. It also linked me to other famous Melungeons such as Brandy Jack Mullins and Mahala Mullins. Although there are an abundance of stories and facts about my Melungeon heritage, there is also much history that has been lost. This thesis traces my Melungeon roots, following the family stories of N.B. Kennedy, Brandy Jack Mullins, Mahala Mullins, and Kenneth Kennedy. In order to fully understand these people and their stories, I not only researched their history, but I also visited the areas where they lived and died. In this manner, I was able to gain a better understanding my own family as well as the history of the Melungeons. A person’s past is pieced together through oral history, written records, fading pictures, and personal artifacts. Along with these methods, we as writers and researchers add a bit of our own thought and imagination to fill in the gaps of a person’s life. In this manner, personal mythology is created. This thesis ends with an example of one fictionalized story from my family surrounding the death of my uncle, Kenneth Kennedy.

The Late Precambrian cover sequence in the Blue Ridge of central Virginia includes rocks of the Moneta Formation and the overlying Lynchburg Group. The Moneta Formation comprises arnphibolites, felsites and biotite gneisses that unconformably overlie the Grenville basement. The Lynchburg Group in central Virginia is divided into three formations. Lynchburg I is made up of massive to thick bedded coarse-grained feldspathic arenites and conglomerates, which are interpreted as slope-apron deposits. Lynchburg IT contains mainly medium to fine grained feldspathic arenites and graphitic schist (black shales) with subordinate conglomeratic rocks. These are believed to be channelized submarine fan turbidites formed in an anoxic environment. Lynchburg ill consists of fine to medium grained feldspathic quartz arenites and a minor amount of conglomeratic rocks, which are considered to be channelized submarine turbidites with a more open marine environment and wider shelf. Three metamorphic facies and two deformation events are recognized in the cover sequence of the study area. The current tectonic models tend to view most of the mafic-ultramafic rocks and the host sedimentary rocks of the Lynchburg as ophiolitic melange, thus creating a suture, of Precambrian to Ordovician age. Detailed field mapping shows that the Lynchburg Group does not have the characteristics of melange and the mafic-ultramafic rocks in it do not resemble ophiolite. Rather, the cover sequence is related to the Late Precambrian Iapetan rifting event. Some tectonomagmatic discriminant diagrams have been used to support the current tectonic model and they are considered one of the most important arguments for ophiolites. These diagrams were tested by plotting samples from Jurassic rift basalts-diabases of eastern North America (ENA). The ENA samples, as well as the post Grenville mafic rocks in the Blue Ridge, tend to plot outside the within-plate field. It is clear that geochemical data alone may give a wrong tectonic classification, and that a knowledge of field relations is of paramount importance for interpretation. / Ph. D.

The eastern Blue Ridge near Warrenton is composed of low grade metamorphosed and very little deformed clastic sedimentary rocks, which unconfomably overlie Middle and Late Proterozoic gneisses and granites. A thick succession of Late Proterozoic metavo1canics (Catoctin Formation) lies above the metasediments. The metasediments in the Warrenton area are the Lynchburg and Fauquier Groups, the latter of which is raised herein from a formation to a group. The lowest unit, the Bunker Hill Formation, is dominated by coarse- to very coarse-grained feldspathic sandstone, typically trough and planar cross-bedded, with minor fine-grained sandstone and siltstone or granule conglomerate. The overlying Monumental Mills Formation is dominated by thin bedded fine sandstone and siltstone, with minor laminated mudstone towards the top. The next overlying unit, Ball Mountain Formation, is composed of thick beds of medium to coarse sandstone and rare conglomerate, interbedded in black schists and dark laminated mudstones. The facies observed and correlation with previous work farther south suggests that these three formations record a continuous transgressive alluvial to deep water rift sequence. The Ball Mountain passes northwards to the lower Swains Mountain Formation, which is dominated by massive sandstone, and farther north to the upper Swains Mountain and Carter Run Formation, a continuous fining upwards succession from medium sandstone to laminated mudstone. From south to north the clastic sequence shows an overall thinning, and at the time of eruption of the Catoctin volcanics probably was shoaling as well. The overlying Catoctin shows a basal volcanic breccia unit covered by a thick succession of lavas. Medium grained, parallel bedded feldspathic sandstone occurs as lenses along a regionally continuous belt in the upper part of the formation. Numerous metamorphosed mafic intrusives were observed within the clastic sequence, and evidence for Late Proterozoic faulting was documented. The whole assemblage of lithofacies is interpreted to represent a continuous rift sequence, and the presently exposed section was probably oblique to the trend of the original rift. The rift stratigraphy can be traced in all the Warrenton area. The whole sequence is characterized by one low grade progressive metamorphism. Deformation is minimal and took place in two stages: Development of pervasive foliation (S 1) in varying degrees throughout the sequence (event: Dl). Subsequent folding and faulting and development of a localized discrete cleavage (S2) (event: D2). The observed structural features can be correlated with features described by other workers in adjacent areas. The map-scale structure is dominated by a change in attitude of the strata from east-dipping next to the basement, to open folded and gently dipping farther east. Considering that the whole Blue Ridge is an allochthonus thrust sheet, this change probably corresponds to the eastern subsurface edge of the basement block, on which the rift sediments were deposited, above a gently dipping decolement. Some workers have proposed tectonic models of the central Appalachians in which accreted terrane boundaries, are present along the eastern Blue Ridge. The continuous rift stratigraphy and the tectonic evolution proposed herein do not support such models. / Master of Science

X-ray diffraction studies of 29 Virginia Blue Ridge and Piedmont soil profiles and petrographic examinations of the parent rocks reveal that even after prolonged chemical weathering, physical and mineralogical differences exist between soil types which are due largely to changes in the parent rock, and to a lesser extent changes in the topography. Soils developed from different source rocks can be distinguished on the basis of color, texture, degree of contrast between horizons, and depth to fresh rock. The clay minerals of such soils differ in their distribution, amount and kind. The role of parent material in soil and clay mineral formation is a complex function of several variables: (1) chemical composition (2) mineralogical composition (3) rock texture and (4) rock structure. Soils developed from calcium-aluminum rich rocks or from basic rocks which have structures or textures not conducive to good drainage are characterized by kaolin and montmorillonite clay minerals and by dense plastic, poorly drained, clayey subsoils. In all other soils and in the surface horizon of these soils, the major clay minerals are kaolin and vermiculite. Topography affects the degree of profile development, color, and soil texture and controls the rate of clay mineral accumulation and weathering. The climates of the Blue Ridge and Piedmont are most favorable to the formation of kaolin minerals. However, greater amounts of kaolinite appear to be formed in the warmer Piedmont climate and more vermiculite in the cooler Blue Ridge climate. The most important mechanism for clay mineral formation is probably by direct alteration of the primarily silicate minerals. The distribution of these clays in the profile is determined by the weathering stability of the primary silicate. All ferromagnesium silicates weather to 14 A clay minerals. An intermediate 14 A chlorite phase was not observed. The most common product is vermiculite. The formation of montmorillonite is controlled by the four parent material factors listed above. Hornblende and augite are the chief source materials of montmorillonite. Biotite possibly weathers to montmorillonite if the internal drainage is strongly retarded. Montmorillonite weathers to vermiculite in the surface horizons. Kaolinite forms early in the profile during the weathering of feldspar. Medium- to coarse-grained muscovite is also a source of kaolinite. There was no evidence found to indicate that kaolinite is a weathering product of the 12 A clay minerals. Illite occurs in minor amounts in a few micaceous profiles but appears to be the result of mechanical break-down of larger mica particles. / Master of Science

The research hypothesis of this study states that a systematic and operational method for evaluating rural, cultural, historic landscapes, particularly at the regional level, simply does not exist. The purpose of this study was two-fold: first, to prove, through an informal survey of landscape architecture firms involved in historic preservation and preservation organizations, that the hypothesis was true, and secondly, to develop a method for evaluating a specific kind of rural, cultural, historic landscape -- nineteenth century farms in the Blue Ridge Belt. The overriding objective in developing the method for evaluating nineteenth century Blue Ridge farms was to make the evaluation criteria as operational as possible, and, therefore, create a method which would be accessible to the non-professional. The criteria used to evaluate the farms was based on studies done of farms documented in the archives of the Shenandoah National Park in Luray, Virginia, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and the Historic Landsmarks Commission in Richmond, Virginia. The method was designed so that every farm evaluated by means of the checksheet can be scored based on the degree to which it represents a typical nineteenth century Blue Ridge farm. / M.L. Arch.

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