Editing Robert Toombs (section)

==Slaveholdings==

Toombs and his brother Gabriel owned large plantations and operated them using enslaved African Americans. Toombs increased his personal slave holdings as his wealth increased. Toombs owned six slaves in 1840.<ref>{{cite census | title = 1840 United States Census| year = 1840| location = District 164, Wilkes, Georgia| access-date = August 22, 2018}}</ref> By 1850, he owned 17 slaves.<ref>{{cite census | title = 1850 United States Census, Slave Schedule| year = 1850| location = Subdivision 94, Wilkes, Georgia| access-date = February 21, 2016}}</ref> In 1860, he owned 16 slaves at his Wilkes County plantation,<ref>{{cite census | title = 1860 United States Census, Slave Schedule| year = 1860| location = Wilkes, Georgia| page = 85| access-date = August 22, 2018}}</ref> and an additional 32 slaves at his 3,800-acre plantation in [[Stewart County, Georgia]] on the [[Chattahoochee River]].<ref>{{cite census | title = 1860 United States Census, Slave Schedule| year = 1860| location = District 22, Stewart, Georgia| page = 8-9| access-date = February 21, 2016}}</ref>

By 1860, Toombs and his wife lived without any other family members in [[Wilkes County, Georgia|Wilkes County]]; in the census that year, Toombs owned $200,000 in real estate; the value of his personal property, primarily made up of slaves, totaled $250,000.<ref>1860 U.S. Federal Census for Wilkes County, Georgia, family 547</ref> One of his slaves, [[Garland H. White]], escaped just before the Civil War. He became a soldier and chaplain in the Union Army in 1862. Other slaves were freed by the Union Army as it occupied areas of Georgia. [[William Gaines (minister and community leader)|William Gaines]] and [[Wesley John Gaines]] (1840–1912), also former slaves of Toombs, both became church leaders.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.news-reporter.com/news/2017-09-21/Front_Page/Jackson_Chapel_to_celebrate_150_years_in_special_s.html|title=Jackson Chapel to celebrate 150 years in special service with Bishop Jackson – www.news-reporter.com – News-Reporter|access-date=February 10, 2018|archive-date=February 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210062203/http://www.news-reporter.com/news/2017-09-21/Front_Page/Jackson_Chapel_to_celebrate_150_years_in_special_s.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>