Just a point of information. The "Black Belt" is also a geological 
term and is how the area of the northwest of the US state of 
Mississippi is characterized, the only prairie east of the Mississippi 
River, though a tiny survival on Long Island, NY is also so 
classified. It's noted for cow ranching as I recall working and 
visiting various places in MS back on the archaeology of the Tenn-
Tom Barge Canal in 1979. The ranch system is said to have 
started on Long Island, NY a book of brands stretch back from the 
1960s to the 1600s, stored in the NY State Museum in Albany, NY.

I recall the largest single landowner in that state of MS, the Queen 
of England. In the research conducted in the Bicentennial it was 
reported that Aaron Burr was in nearby Tishomingo after the duel 
with Alexander Hamilton in NYC, the Shelby County, TN historian I 
think told me. Some archaeologists have wondered if the origin of 
maize agriculture might have been there rather than as shown in 
the Valley of Mexico.