The Yazoo lands were the sparsely populated central and western areas of the U.S.state of Georgia, when its western border stretched back to the Mississippi River. These lands later became the states of Alabama and Mississippi. The far western panhandle of Spanish territory Florida became the panhandles of the two states, and a small strip of South Carolina, also going west to the river, became their border counties with Tennessee (itself a former part of North Carolina).
In the 1790s, the Yazoo lands were the subject of a major political scandal in the state of Georgia, called the Yazoo Land Fraud. It led to Georgia's cession of the land to the U.S. government in 1802.
Yazoo Land Fraud (http://www.ourgeorgiahistory.com/chronpop/3129)
The Pine Barrens Speculation and Yazoo Land Fraud (http://ngeorgia.com/history/land.html)
Further reading
Pickett’s History of Alabama: And Incidentially of Georgia and Mississippi from the Earliest Period. By Albert James Pickett. River City Press, 2003. ISBN 1880216701
The Yazooland fraud was one of the most significant events in the post-Revolutionary history of Georgia.
To prevent those claiming lands under the Yazoo purchase from receiving a sympathetic hearing in a Congress dominated by Federalists, Jackson and his lieutenants blocked any cession of the western territory until the Republicans were in control.
In a sense, Yazoo led to the "Trail of Tears" in 1838.
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