They lived in Phillips County, Arkansas, St Francis Township. As I had said, but to clarify it, the name in 1870 was:

Edward Rabb
Louvina Rab

Edward Rabb Jr
Charles Rabb
John Rabb

Then in 1880 the name was

Ned Thomas
Luvinia Thomas
Ned Thomas Jr
Charles Thomas
John Thomas
Ben Rose

In all the censuses afterward he and his son are listed as Ned.
In 1870 he lived near Harriett Rabb the white slave owner who had married John Rabb in Ms. Information I found on her states she was from Louisiana. There is a long time talk of the Thomas being "Creole".
I never could figure out where that came from because I never could figure out a La connection until I found the name change. Maybe Edward/Ned came from Harriett instead of John and he was part of a dowry or something. However it does say that he was born in Va. Interesting....
Also when I searched her slave schedules all I found was the sex and age of them, no names. She had 74 slaves. I realize that I have to also allow that the exslaves left their exowners and moved to other plantations. This is true for my Pillow ancestors. Most of them left Arkansas and went to Tennessee where Gideon and Jerome actually lived. In 1880 there were lots of black Pillows but only one black Rabb family and in 1880 no black Rabbs.
This is exciting!