[3][4] Located in the Arkansas Delta, Desha County's rivers and fertile soils proved to be prosperous for planters under the cotton-based slave society of plantation agriculture in the antebellum years.

After the Civil War, cotton continued as the primary commodity crop into the early 20th century, and planters did well.

[citation needed] But following widespread farm mechanization, laborers were thrown off the land, and Desha County had a demographic and economic transformation.

Thousands of African-American farm workers left the area and went north or west in the Great Migration, and there was a decline in population.

In the 21st century, the county is seeking to reverse population and economic losses through better education for its workforce, and developing tourism based on its cultural, historical and outdoor recreation amenities.

[3] During World War II, the federal government established the Rohwer War Relocation Center, an internment camp for Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans it forced out of the coastal area of California, the U.S. Pacific Northwest, and Alaska.

The camp operated from late 1942 into 1945 and the end of the war, holding up to nearly 8500 ethnic Japanese, many American-born citizens.

However, the United States census does list Arkansas population based on townships (sometimes referred to as "county subdivisions" or "minor civil divisions").

Each town or city is within one or more townships in an Arkansas county based on census maps and publications.