It is the fifth-largest parish in the state in terms of land area, and it has been a center of Cajun culture since the 18th century.

The early French settlers named the parish for the fertility of its soils: terre bonne means "good earth."

Prior to this, the county seat had been set at Williamsburg (now Bayou Cane), approximately four miles northwest of present-day downtown Houma.

Government officials believed that the site of Houma, at the convergence of six bayous, would provide better access for commerce and development in Terrebonne Parish, as most transportation and shipping was by water.

Other settlers in the area in 1760 were French colonists from Acadia (modern Nova Scotia), who had been expelled by the British in 1755 during the Seven Years' War.

They chose this area because of its isolated geographic location, a minimum of government control, fertile land, and an abundance of fish and wildlife.

By this time, industry in the Houma area consisted largely of plantations for sugar cane, dependent on the labor of enslaved African-Americans.

Settlers had canals dug between the bayous to decrease travel time within the parish and make trade more efficient.

During World War II, Houma was selected for the establishment of a Lighter Than Air Blimp Naval Station, which operated from May 1943 to September 1944.

Terrebonne has depended on natural resources: oysters, shrimp, crabs and fish contribute their share of wealth to the parish.

In the great stretches of marshland surrounding Terrebonne parish, trapping of Louisiana muskrat, mink, otter, raccoon, and nutria pelts are another form of local commerce.

In 1961, the Houma Navigational Canal was completed to provide a 30-mile link to Terrebonne Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

When the bottom fell out of the oil industry in the early 1980s because of cheaper foreign product and dwindling local resources, Houma declined.

The draw of authentic Acadian culture, diverse environment and wildlife, plantation homes, excellent food, and close proximity to New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette attracts visitors to Houma and its central location.

In 2014, Assistant District Attorney Juan Pickett was elected as the first black judge in the parish's history.

[29] Earlier in 2014 the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, in cooperation with local plaintiffs, filed a lawsuit against the state of Louisiana for its system of at-large voting for the five judicial positions in Terrebonne Parish.

)[29] In August 2017 the federal district court in Baton Rouge ruled that the parish's at-large voting was unconstitutional and discriminatory.

US District Court Judge James Brady found that “no black candidate who has faced opposition in Terrebonne has been elected to an at-large position and black candidates have received incredibly minimal support from white voters, a pattern which has been consistent over the course of more than 20 years.” The parties would be working on a remedy; a minority sub-district has been proposed among five single-member districts to elect these judges.

[30] The office is organized into a number of divisions including: Administration, criminal, civil, communications, corrections, and water Patrol.

As a result, a search warrant issued by a parish judge was executed by deputies at the home of the couple, whose computer equipment was seized.

D Company 2-156th Infantry Battalion of the 256 IBCT resides in Thibodaux, Louisiana Since the 20th century, white voters in the parish have become majority Republican.

The Southern Democrats, exclusively white, constituted a powerful block in Congress during the first part of the 20th century.

Most African Americans have voted for Democratic candidates since Congress passed civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s.

[36] Since the white majority in the parish shifted to the Republican Party, since 1968 the only Democratic presidential candidate to carry Terrebonne was Bill Clinton, a native son of Arkansas, in 1996.