Yazoo County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 26,743, and was estimated to be 22,947 in 2025. It is named for the Yazoo River, which forms its western border. Its name is said to come from a Choctaw language word meaning "River of Death".

History

The area which is now Yazoo County was acquired by the State of Mississippi from the Choctaw Indians in 1820. Yazoo County was established on January 21, 1823. It was the 19th county established in the State of Mississippi and remains the largest in area. It was developed for cotton plantations, which lined the major river to have transportation access.

The first county seat was at Beatties Bluff. As population increased, In 1829 the county seat was moved to Benton. In 1849 the county seat was moved again, to Yazoo City, where it remains.

Yazoo County was a battlefield in 1863 and 1864 during the American Civil War. After the war, whites committed violence against freedmen to assert their dominance. Such violence continued after Reconstruction. In the period from 1877 to 1950, Yazoo County had 18 documented lynchings of Black Indigenous American Indians. Most occurred around the turn of the 20th century, as part of white imposition of Jim Crow conditions and suppression of black voting.

In 1900 a railroad disaster killed engineer Casey Jones; it took place in Yazoo County just north of Vaughan. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 did much damage in Yazoo County.

It experienced two accidents relating to carbon dioxide pipelines owned by Denbury Resources. In 2011, a pipeline had a "blowout" in Tinsley, Mississippi, causing the sickening of one worker and killing deer, fish and birds. In 2020, a pipeline ruptured less than half a mile from Satartia. More than 300 people were evacuated and 46 hospitalized with carbon dioxide poisoning. It is the 1st largest county in Mississippi by total area and the 1st largest by total area.

Adjacent counties

  • Humphreys County (north)
  • Holmes County (northeast)
  • Madison County (east)
  • Hinds County (south)
  • Warren County (southwest)
  • Issaquena County (west)
  • Sharkey County (northwest)

National protected area

  • Hillside National Wildlife Refuge (part)
  • Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge

Demographics

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Communities

Cities

  • Yazoo City (county seat)

Town

  • Bentonia

Villages

  • Eden
  • Satartia

Census-designated place

  • Benton

Unincorporated communities

  • Anding
  • Carter
  • Holly Bluff
  • Hopewell Landing
  • Little Yazoo
  • Midway
  • Oil City
  • Phoenix
  • Scotland
  • Tinsley
  • Vaughan

Ghost towns

  • Claibornesville
  • Hilton
  • Liverpool
  • Pearce
  • Plumville

Yazoo County, Mississippi has been featured in an Independent Lens series documenting bullying.

Notable people

  • Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi
  • Willie Brown, football player
  • Jerry Clower, comedian
  • Henry Espy, Mayor of Clarksdale, Mississippi
  • Mike Espy, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
  • Lawrence Gordon, motion picture producer
  • Lynn Hamilton, actress
  • Jesse E. Holmes, minister, community leader
  • Duck Holmes, blues musician
  • T. J. Huddleston, entrepreneur
  • Skip James, blues musician
  • Tommy McClennan, blues musician
  • Willie Morris, writer
  • Stella Stevens, actress
  • Zig Ziglar, writer and motivational speaker

See also

  • List of counties in Mississippi
  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Yazoo County, Mississippi

References

Further reading

  • James L. Cox, The Mississippi Almanac. 2001.
  • Harriet DeCell and JoAnne Prichard, Yazoo: Its Legends and Legacies. n.c.: Yazoo Delta Press, 1976.
  • A.T. Morgan, Yazoo; or, On the Picket Line of Freedom in the South: A Personal Narrative. New York: Russell and Russell, 1968.
  • Willie Morris, A Pictorial History of Yazoo County. n.c.: Heritage House Publishing, 1996.
  • Nicholas Russell Murray, Yazoo County, Mississippi, 1845-1900. Hammond, LA: Hunting for Bears, c. 1982.
  • New Orleans Exposition Committee, Official Information Respecting Yazoo County, Mississippi. Yazoo City, MS: n.p., 1884.
  • Yazoo Historical Association, Yazoo County Story: A Pictorial History of Yazoo County, Mississippi, Covering Both the Old and the New. Fort Worth, TX: University Supply and Equipment Co., 1958.
  • Yazoo County Mississippi on RootsWeb.com
  • Yazoo County Convention and Visitors Bureau