Cornbread is a generic name for any number of quick breads containing cornmeal and leavened by baking powder.Native Americans were using ground corn (maize) for food thousands of years before European explorers arrived in the New World. European settlers, especially those who resided in the southern English colonies, learned from natives -- "Indians" such as Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek -- the original recipes and processes for corn dishes, and soon they devised recipes for using cornmeal in breads similar to those made of grains available in Europe.