Wikipedia

Essentially I identified multiple cornbread variants such as hoecakes, hushpuppies, corn pone, and hot water cornbread. Also noted how cornbread itself varies both regionally and by class. People who were of the lower class tended to have cornbread that used less ingredients (usually cornmeal and water). Yankees usually make their cornbread like cake and put a lot of sugar and baking powder. There's also Mexican cornbread with pimentos, jalapeños, and cheese. Southern cornbread varies but usually has none or a teaspoon of sugar to offset the flavor of the shit cornmeal which is usually the only thing you can find in stores nowadays. Cornbread pone is more popular in the southern Appalachian mountains and directly came from the native Americans.