Remember when Georgia sold land that reshaped America?

The big picture: Named after the Yazoo River in a massive territory that Georgia admitted was too large and distant to govern, the scheme soured relations between the young state and the recently formed federal government.

Catch up quick: In 1795, Georgia sold more than 30 million acres that today make up much of Alabama and Mississippi at the bargain-basement price of $500,000 to four separate companies.

• Bribes to lawmakers, state officials and newspaper editors and arm-twisting by powerful politicians like Georgia U.S. Sen. James Gunn, one of the Yazooists' leaders, greased the deal.

Zoom in: The scam sparked fierce public outcry. Georgia U.S. Sen. James Jackson resigned his seat in Washington, D.C. to lead the effort back home to rescind the deal.

• The following year, a new legislature and governor did so. Newly elected state lawmakers symbolically burned copies of the law authorizing the sale.

Zoom out: Political power plays and courtroom fights between the companies and the state kept the deal in limbo until 1802, when Georgia ceded the land to the federal government.

• In 1810, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state violated the companies' contracts. Four years later, Congress approved a deal awarding roughly $5 million to claimants from the sale of land.

The intrigue: The corrupt chapter in Georgia history could have played a role in fomenting the states' rights movement, according to historian George Lamplugh.

• The removal of Native American populations from the area proved difficult for the federal government after taking ownership.
• The slow process angered people and farmers craving westward expansion, plus state governments like Georgia's, and arguably laid the groundwork for the Trail of Tears.