> So, the fact that those places in southern Virginia have so few blacks has got more to do with the lingering legacy of the Confederacy.
I don't think that's it. In Virginia at least, didn't a place's hilliness have a direct inverse correlation to it's inhabitants' enthusiasm for the Confederacy? That had something to do with your state's origin, I believe...
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."