In 1789, about how many acres were traded in the Yazoo land sale before the deal was torpedoed?

• A. 25 million acres
• B. 10 million acres
• C. 50 million acres
• D. 5 million acres

Answer: (A)

The key idea here is the scale of the Yazoo land deals and why they caused such a backlash. Georgia attempted to dispose of vast western lands (the Yazoo lands, in what would become Alabama and Mississippi) to private buyers, and the transactions totaled about 25 million acres. The deals were revealed as corrupt, with bribery and manipulation, and were soon voided—the sale was effectively torpedoed. Because historians commonly cite around 25 million acres as the size of those Yazoo transfers, that figure is the best choice among the options. The other amounts don’t match the widely reported magnitude of the Yazoo transactions.