The county seat of Pickens County was named for Sergeant William Jasper, an American soldier of Revolutionary War fame, who died on Georgia soil. Before the town was incorporated in 1857, it was a small Long Swamp Valley community of pioneers. Early businesses included a lumber mill, marble plant, harness and shoe shop.

Geographically, the county was unsuited for large plantations of the type that made slave labor essential, and in 1860, this area contained almost no negroes. Thus, at the outbreak of the Civil War, a good many citizens of the County were opposed to Secession, and the Union flag was allowed to float from the courthouse at Jasper for some time after Georgia seceded."

...from the History of Pickens County by Luke E. Tate -- 1935