Henry County was established on December 13, 1819, a day before Alabama officially became a state. It was named in honor of Patrick Henry, a prominent figure in the American Revolution and a powerful orator. Interestingly, Henry County was initially much larger than it is today. It encompassed a vast area that included present-day Covington, Dale, Coffee, Geneva, Houston, and parts of Pike, Crenshaw, Bullock, and Barbour counties.

The land that became Henry County was originally inhabited by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. European-American settlement began after the Creek ceded the land to the United States in 1814 through the Treaty of Fort Jackson. The first European-American settlement in the area was Franklin, a riverport that served Abbeville on the Chattahoochee River.