It is considered by some to mark the southern boundary of what is called the Mississippi Delta, a broad floodplain that was cultivated for cotton plantations before the American Civil War.

Natural levees which flank the Mississippi prevent the Yazoo from joining it before Vicksburg.

[2] The French (and later the Anglo-American settlers) historically called the surrounding area of Mississippi and Alabama the Yazoo lands, after the river.

The Confederates used the first electrically detonated underwater mine in the river in 1862 near Vicksburg to sink the Union ironclad USS Cairo.

The steamer Dew Drop was reportedly sunk near Roebuck Lake as an obstruction to the United States Navy, but Union sources claim the vessel was captured and burned.