Cornbread is rather universal in many camps at living history events, and may come in all sorts of variations. I am experimenting with some "de-engineering" of the dish, to see exactly what a person on the frontier might have produced. Reason being, historic sources don't necessarily give you what "the poor" were making to eat. A lot of folks on a subsistence living style might also not be able to read, or perhaps were not able to spend money for a book that told them to use ingredients that they could not afford, or more properly may not have been available to due distance, time of the year, etc.
(The Following is SWAG Conjecture)...
The first thing that I did was removed the wheat flour. Wheat is labor intensive, and could be expensive in the days when folks crossed the Appalachian Mountains looking to homestead. I also removed the milk, as although some folks might have had an English Red-Cow for milk, that may have been a luxury. That left me with corn products, water, salt, and eggs. It would be a lot easier to take two to three laying hens West, than to take them and a cow, and the eggs would be a good source of protein.
Now they would have wood ash because they would have campfires and after the cabin was built, a hearth and fireplace. So they could've made hominy. If they were grinding dent corn or flint corn, then they could also grind the hominy. When one gets the hominy ground to a fine flour, you have Masa flour. Well known in Mexico and farther South, but I wondered IF it was known by another name on the early American frontier. SO ... I used Masa flour and eggs. I also added a bit of vinegar, because that would be easy to carry along too.
(I also know full well that I may discover that the earliest was cornpone or spoon bread, but this experimental archaeology doesn't take up too much of my time)
Here's the recipe
MASA CORN BREAD
First Recipe 03/04/2024
2 Cups Masa Corn Flour
2 whole eggs
½ tablespoon of baking powder
2½ - 3 cups water
½ teaspoon salt.
1 Nine-inch pie tin, buttered
Oven preheated to 400°F
Wooden spoon
Mix dry ingredients. Add the eggs and mix, and finally add the water, two cups first, then as you stir the mixture, add water until the dough become more like a batter. Pour into buttered pie tin, and then place the filled pie tin into the oven. I used a buttered aluminum tin, but you could use lard or sweet oil and a cast iron skillet or a Dutch Oven...
Bake for 30 minutes, perhaps longer. Remove and allow to cool before cutting.
RESULTS:
Crumb was present but loaf was still a little dough-like, and bottom had only started to brown. Be sure your oven temp is correct, and a good pre-heat is an excellent idea. Taste was very much the same as a corn tortilla or pupusa, which was to be expected. Adding salted butted improved the taste.
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So the next experiment is to see what happens without the baking powder, a 19th century product. I will do one without anything, and then one using ash from the fire, and see if any leavening happens. NOW I could use Soda Ash aka Sodium Carbonate (not Sodium BIcarbonate) but that wasn't a patented item until 1791, so a little "late" for wide use in baking in the 18th century,....,
I could try Ammonium Carbonate, aka hartshorn, but..., it's historically accurate for cookies (biscuits for you British folks) but thin cookies, not quick breads, because in a thicker mass a strong ammonia smell gets trapped, which is cooked off when baking cookies.
I also found that Sodium Bicarbonate is a 19th century thing....
And Again...., I may find that cornpone, spoonbread, or perhaps corn fritters were the simplest forms of bread, and not really documented because the folks resorting to those on a daily basis had more important things to do than keep a detailed journal, etc.
LD
..., the dregs of society or the savages making something tasty? 
EGAD!
