[1] Probably born into slavery in Hanover County, Virginia, Toler became a carpenter and preacher before the American Civil War.
The Freedmen's Bureau considered him a leader acting on behalf of the African American community during Congressional Reconstruction, noting that he had the respect and confidence of all classes of citizens.
[5] The following year, 1868, voters in Hanover and Henrico counties elected Toler as their at-large delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868 over Josiah B. Crenshaw, a Quaker who the following year would become a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from the city of Richmond and Henrico County.
[6][7] Although disparaged by Conservatives and (at least informally by Major General John Schofield) as illiterate and Radical, Rev.
He voted to approve the drafted constitution as well as a provision opposed by Gen. Schofield and later rejected by voters which would have disenfranchised former Confederates.