2. The Cretaceous
Period
• 80 million years ago, the Western
Interior Seaway was dividing
America into two continents,
Laramidia (left, west) and
Appalachia (right, east)
• The coastline was several
hundred miles inland compared
to where it is now in the
American southeast.
3. The Cretaceous
Period
• Through the late Cretaceous, the
Western Interior Seaway slowly
disappeared as the rocky
mountains were forming in
Laramidia, causing a drop in sea
levels.
• The seaway was mostly dried up
65 million years ago, leaving
behind traces of coastlines that
are very rich in limestone and
other sediments good for
farming.
4. 19th Century
• When white settlers came to North
America looking for new lives and
profits, they looked to the south,
where conditions were perfect to
grow cotton.
• “The Black Belt” as they called it,
was a strip of very dark and fertile
Blackland prairie dirt that was
exactly what they needed to farm
cotton.
• The curve of the Cretaceous
coastline can be seen through
Mississippi and Alabama on this map
of Blackland prairie dirt.
5. 19th Century
• Due to this area being very fertile,
slave owners flocked to the area to
stake their claim on the black belt.
• The slave population in the black
belt far surpassed the white
population
• This map shows the density of slaves
per county in the South, the same
distinct curve of the Black Belt can
be seen through Mississippi and
Alabama through the Carolinas.
6. Modern Day
• After the slaves were emancipated,
many of them stayed in the same areas
where they were originally enslaved.
• Therefore, the “black belt” is now known
for the large African American
population rather than the Blackland
prairie dirt that it was once named for.
• This map from 2000 shows counties in
the south that have a majority African
American Population. It, once again,
follows the same curved outline where
the Cretaceous coastline of Appalachia
once was.
7. Modern Day
• People of color vote overwhelmingly
democrat in modern political
America. When looking at county-by-
county voting maps for any election,
the pattern of blue follows the same
curved route as the Blackland dirt,
slave population, and ancient
coastline of Appalachia.
• This is how an ancient Cretaceous
coastline has affected modern voting
patterns in the American South.
