page_title: Black Belt in the American South
hierarchical_section_title: Black Belt in the American South
caption_attribution_description: Southern US counties that were at least 40% Black or African American in the 2000 Census.
context_page_description: The Black Belt in the American South refers to the social history, especially concerning slavery and black workers, of the geological region known as the Black Belt. The geology emphasizes the highly fertile black soil. Historically, the black belt economy was based on cotton plantations – along with some tobacco plantation areas along the Virginia-North Carolina border. The valuable land was largely controlled by rich whites, and worked by very poor, primarily black labor who in many counties constituted a majority of the population. Generally the term is applied to a larger region than that defined by its geology.
  After 1945, a large fraction of the laborers were replaced by machinery, and they joined the Great Migration to cities of the Midwest and West. Political analysts and historians continue to use the term Black Belt to designate some 200 counties in the South that have a history of majority African-American population and cotton production.
context_section_description: The Black Belt in the American South refers to the social history, especially concerning slavery and black workers, of the geological region known as the Black Belt. The geology emphasizes the highly fertile black soil. Historically, the black belt economy was based on cotton plantations – along with some tobacco plantation areas along the Virginia-North Carolina border. The valuable land was largely controlled by rich whites, and worked by very poor, primarily black labor who in many counties constituted a majority of the population. Generally the term is applied to a larger region than that defined by its geology.
  After 1945, a large fraction of the laborers were replaced by machinery, and they joined the Great Migration to cities of the Midwest and West. Political analysts and historians continue to use the term Black Belt to designate some 200 counties in the South that have a history of majority African-American population and cotton production.
caption: Southern counties with at least 40% African-American population in 2000.
exif: {}