The governorate united the territories of New Serbia, Slavo-Serbia, and the Slobidskyi regiment (today in Kirovohrad Oblast) which were the northern regions of Buhohard Palatinate (Zaporizhian Sich).

The first capital of the governorate was the city of Kremenchug (1765) with the fortress of Saint Elizabeth (today Kropyvnytskyi) serving that administrative function previously (1764).

[2] In June 1775 the Russian Imperial Army razed the capital of the Zaporizhian Sich, after which all its lands were annexed to the Novorossiysk Governorate.

List of provinces (circuluses): In December 1796, Paul I reestablished the Novorossiya Governorate, mostly with land from the former Yekaterinoslav Viceroyalty.

A Decree of 12 December 1796 set up a serf system on the territory of South Ukraine and Caucasus by attaching peasants to the land.

It consisted of the Kherson, Yekaterinoslav and Tauride provinces, as well as the Odessa, Taganrog, Feodosiya and Kerch-Yenikalsky city administrations.