The county area was long territory of the historic Creek Indian peoples of the Southeast, particularly along the Chattahoochee River.

Beginning in the early nineteenth century, European-American settlers began to encroach on this territory, pushing the Muscogee out during Indian Removal in the 1830s.

One of the last wooden flagpoles from the American Civil War era is located at the historic courthouse in downtown Blakely.

This was still a largely agricultural area, and some disputes arose from confrontations between black sharecroppers or tenant farmers and white landowners, particularly at times to settle accounts.

[6] Black men were frequently identified as suspects in such cases and lynched before any trial took place; further investigations have sometimes revealed consensual sex or other persons having committed the crime.

As recently as 2012, the county voted Democratic for president, backing Barack Obama over Mitt Romney.