yazoo fraud

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• (U. S. Hist.) The grant by the State of Georgia, by Act of Jan. 7, 1795, of 35,000,000 acres of her western territory, for $500,000, to four companies known as the Yazoo Companies from the region granted ; -- commonly so called, the act being known as the Yazoo Frauds Act, because of alleged corruption of the legislature, every member but one being a shareholder in one or more of the companies. The act granting the land was repealed in 1796 by a new legislature, and the repealing provision was incorporated in the State constitution in 1798. In 1802 the territory was ceded to the United States. The claims of the purchasers, whom Georgia had refused to compensate, were sustained by the United States Supreme Court, which (1810) declared the repealing act of 1796 unconstitutional. Congress in 1814 ordered the lands sold and appropriated $5,000,000 to pay the claims.