Yazoo Fraud

Yazoo Fraud, 1795 scandal in which the Georgia state legislature was bribed to sell 35 million acres (14.2 million hectares) of land along the Yazoo River to 4 land companies. In 1796 a new legislature rescinded the act. In a historic 1810 decision the U.S. Supreme Court declared the rescinding unconstitutional and awarded compensation to investors who had suffered.