From 1797 to 1832, Sumter County was part of the Choctaw Nation, which was made up of four main villages.

In 1830, with the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the Choctaw Indians ceded the land that is now Sumter County to the government.

Sumter County is part of the so-called Black Belt region of central Alabama.

The region has suffered significant economic depression in recent years, but in April 2008, United States Steel announced plans to build at $150 million alloy plant near the community of Epes about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The state of Alabama offered $28 million in incentives to get the plant located in Sumter County.

[16] In November 2008, U.S. Steel spokesman D. John Armstrong announced that plans to build the Epes facility had been placed on hold.

“We’ve delayed construction, but we have not cancelled it.“[17] To date, the Epes facility has not been built.

[20] Until 2017, all schools in Sumter County were in practice entirely racially segregated, as white parents sent their children to Sumter Academy, a private segregation academy set up in 1970 in the wake of a federal court ruling ordering the school district to desegregate.

[21] Sumter has long been solidly Democratic, having voted in presidential elections for a Republican only once this past century.

The historic Alamuchee-Bellamy Covered Bridge is also located on the University of West Alabama campus.