Field notes and plats of the original land survey of Sumter County, Alabama (1832), are used to reconstruct the vegetation of the 278,093 acres of Black Belt in the county. Calculation from map sampling at all the 424 section corners shows that 65,074 acres (23.4%) supported no trees or less than 10 trees per acre and thus can be considered open land. When section corners are located on a modern soil map, a strong correlation exists between the 99 points which had low tree density (10 trees or less per acre) and the 167 points which have alkaline clay soils: 70.7% of these open—land points lay on what is now alkaline clay. By contrast, 72.5% of the dense forest of 1832 represented by 62 points of high tree density–120 trees or more per acre) is associated with the 257 acid—soil points (mostly loams, some clays). The association of open land (prairie)in Sumter County which alkaline clay soils made for a distinctive, and probably natural, Black Belt vegetation. Tree densities in this part of the county unmistakably represented dense forest (120 or more trees 2 inches dbh or greater, per acre) at only 14.5% of the sampling points. The commonest trees were oaks (Quercus) and hickories (Carya); pine (Pinus) made up less than 5% of the trees sampled and red cedars (Juniperus) made up less than 0.3%.