[4] Taliaferro County was formed by an act of the Georgia Legislature meeting in Milledgeville on December 24, 1825.

The county is most famous for containing the birthplace and home of Alexander H. Stephens, who served as a U.S. congressman from Georgia in the antebellum South, as vice president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, and as governor of Georgia after the war (dying in office).

Paris Trout (1991), starring Dennis Hopper and based on the novel by the same name by Pete Dexter, was primarily filmed in the county.

Sweet Home Alabama (2002), starring Reese Witherspoon, was filmed in the county seat of Crawfordville.

It has supported the Democratic candidate in every presidential election by wide margins except in 1972, when Richard Nixon won by a landslide.