[1][3] Its name is in honor of John Randolph, a member of the United States Senate from Virginia.

Randolph County was established by the Alabama Legislature on December 18, 1832,[1] following Indian Removal of the Creek people.

[1] The first white settlers said the county had an abundance of the "purest and coldest freestone water in the world."

[4] The first county seat for Randolph County was established in 1833 at Hedgeman Triplett's Ferry on the west bank of the Big Tallapoosa River, about 10 miles (16 km) west of Wedowee, Alabama.

This city lies in the center of Randolph County, on a fork of the Little Tallapoosa River.

Wedowee was named after a Creek tribal chief "Wah-wah-nee" (or "Wah-dow-wee") of a village here.

[1] The county was developed for agriculture, specifically cotton plantations, which were worked by African-American slaves brought by migrants to the region or transported from the Upper South during the domestic slave trade.

It was adjacent to what became known as the Black Belt of Alabama, an area of plantation development in the uplands, where short-staple cotton was cultivated.

Many African Americans stayed in the area as sharecroppers and tenant farmers after the Civil War, but left for other opportunities during the first half of the 20th century.

In 2010 some 20 percent of the population was African American, reflecting this history of cotton agriculture.

Randolph County is home to Lake Wedowee, a section of the Tallapoosa River.