The Yazoo lands were the central and western regions of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, when its western border stretched back to the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

. The Yazoo lands were named for the Yazoo nation, that lived on the lower course of the Yazoo, in what is now

. The Yazoo lands would later become large portions of the present-day states of

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

and Mississippi, with the exclusion of

Spanish West Florida Spanish West Florida (Spanish: ''Florida Occidental'') was a province of the Spanish Empire from 1783 until 1821, when both it and East Florida were ceded to the United States. The region of West Florida initially had the same borders as the ers ...

, which became the lower third of each state, and a narrow northern strip of land claimed by

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

in the

Treaty of Beaufort The Treaty of Beaufort, also called the Beaufort Convention, is the treaty that originally set the all-river boundary between the U.S. states of Georgia and South Carolina. It was named for Beaufort, South Carolina, where it was signed in 1787. ...

that also stretched westward to the river, which became the two states' border counties with

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. In the 1790s, the Yazoo lands were the subject of a major political

scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...

in the state of Georgia, called the

Yazoo land scandal The Yazoo land scandal, Yazoo fraud, Yazoo land fraud, or Yazoo land controversy was a massive real-estate fraud perpetrated, in the mid-1790s, by Georgia governor George Mathews and the Georgia General Assembly. Georgia politicians sold large ...

. It led to Georgia's cession of the land to the U.S. government in the

Compact of 1802 The Compact of 1802, formally ''Articles of Agreement and Cession'', was a compact between the United States of America and the state of Georgia entered into on April 24, 1802. In it, the United States paid Georgia 1.25 million U.S. dollars for its ...

References

Former regions and territories of the United States Pre-statehood history of Alabama History of Georgia (U.S. state) Pre-statehood history of Mississippi Cultural regions {{Mississippi-stub

See also

References