The Canebrake is a historical region of west-central Alabama in the United States, which was once dominated by thickets of Arundinaria, a type of bamboo, or cane, native to North America.
[1] It was centered on the junction of the Tombigbee and Black Warrior rivers, near Demopolis, and extended eastward to include large parts of Hale, Marengo, and Perry counties.
[1][3] Cane thickets once covered hundreds of thousands of acres in Alabama, but this area, lying within the Black Belt, had the most extensive stands.
In addition, depending on enslaved labor, the new settlers had workers clear the area of cane in order to cultivate the important commodity crop of cotton.
But, as late as 1845, Scottish geologist Charles Lyell noted the height and density of cane along the Black Warrior River.