Editing Brooks County, Georgia (section)

===Civil War===
During the Civil War, the county was the main producer of food for the Confederacy; it became known as the "Smokehouse of the Confederacy."<ref>''History of Brooks County Georgia 1858-1948''</ref>

Some Confederate Army regiments were raised from the men of Brooks County. Plantation owners, county officials, and slave patrol members were exempt from military conscription, which caused some contention between the different economic classes in Brooks County.
[[File:Civil War Slave Conspiracy Historical Marker.jpg|thumb|Georgia Historical Marker for the Civil War Slave Conspiracy]]
In August 1864, a local white man named John Vickery began plotting a [[slave rebellion]]. His plan called for killing the slave owners, stealing what weapons they could find, setting fire to [[Quitman, Georgia|Quitman]], going to [[Madison, Florida]], burning the town, getting help from Union troops from the Gulf Coast, and then returning to Quitman. On the evening before the rebellion, a slave was arrested for theft and interrogated. Vickery was soon arrested as well. Vickery and four slave suspects were given a military trial by the local militia. Two Confederate deserters from Florida were also believed to have been involved, but were not caught by the time of the trial.<ref name="williams"/>

On August 23, 1864, at 6:00&nbsp;p.m., Vickery, and slaves Sam, Nelson, and George were publicly hanged in Quitman. The court could not reach a decision on the guilt of Warren, a slave held by Buford Elliot.<ref name="williams">{{cite book |last1= Williams|first1= David|last2= Williams|first2= Teresa Crisp|last3= Carlson|first3= David|date= 2002|title= Plain Folk in a Rich Man's War: Class and Dissent in Confederate Georgia |location= Gainesville, Florida|publisher= University of Florida Press|pages= 144–150|isbn= 978-0813028361}}</ref>