The still largely rural county is the major producer in the state of gas and oil, located in the southeast, and of timber, cattle, and poultry.

While some African Americans left the county in the early 20th century during the Great Migration out of the rural South to northern cities, in 2010 Jasper County had a population that was 52.6 percent African American, reflecting its history of cotton development and of people's ties to generations in this land.

In the late nineteenth century, when local people declined to invest in railroad construction at Paulding, developers shifted the route to the west, stimulating growth at Bay Springs, where a sawmill had been built in 1880.

It was not until 1935–1936, during the Great Depression under a WPA project, that the first east–west road was built across the county, connecting the city of Bay Springs in the west with Rose Hill, north of the community of Paulding, in the east.

In the 21st century, the county is still largely rural, leading the state in timber, cattle, and poultry production.

The subject of the book is American Civil War veteran Ransom Lightsey and Company F ("Jasper Grays"), 16th Mississippi Infantry Regiment.