Jengod/McMillan | |
|---|---|
 Deaths in Memphis, May 1857 | |
| Born | July 26, 1806 |
| Died | May 24, 1857 (aged 50) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Slave jailor, slave trader, tavern keeper |
James McMillin (July 26, 1806 – May 24, 1857) was an American tavern keeper and slave trader of Kentucky. He was implicated in more than one case of attempted kidnapping into slavery: the abduction of a free family of color with intent to sell them as chattel in a slave state. In 1857 McMillin was shot several times by Memphis slave trader Isaac Bolton and died several hours later in the home of Memphis slave trader Bedford Forrest, later of the Confederate States Army.
McMillin was a resident of Maysville, Kentucky.[1] In 1903, his hometown newspaper summarized his biography thusly: "Jim McMillin, as he was familiarly known, was, in the parlance of that period, a 'Nigger Trader.' At the time of which we write, he lived in a house in the 'brick row' in West Second street, using the cellar for a "pen," the windows and doors being secured by iron bars, bolts and locks."[2] His widow once testified that McMillin "kept his slaves in the basement of his kitchen."[3] McMillin worked a number of interstate slave traders—including Lewis Robards as early as 1850,[4] Bedford Forrest beginning in 1853, and Bolton, Dickens & Co.,[4] circa 1855 to 1857—as an agent who visited plantations and small towns buying slaves for resale in larger, more profitable markets.[3] Forrest and McMillin had a profit sharing agreement in which McMillin received 25 percent of revenue above expenses on enslaved people that were purchased for resale at Forrest's negro marts in Memphis, Tennessee, and Vicksburg, Mississippi.[5]
In 1850, Louisville slave trader Lewis Robards paid McMillin US$600 (equivalent to $21,974 in 2023) to kidnap a free woman from Mason County, Kentucky, named Arian Belle, and her four-year-old child Martha, in the middle of the night.[4] As Arian and Martha were being shipped down the river on the steamship Sea Gull, her friends discovered what had happened to her and sued for her return.[4] In 1853, a man named Isaac Hensley of Sardinia, Ohio and his four children were taken from their beds in the middle of the night, tied up, rowed south across the Ohio River to Kentucky in a skiff, and deposited in James McMillen's private slave jail.[6] According to the Maysville Eagle by way of the Louisville Daily Courier:[6]
McMillen was notified of the fact that Hensley was inquired for. Accordingly, early on Saturday morning, Mr. McMillen called on Mr. Wadsworth and apprised him of the fact that Hensley and his children had been brought to him the night before, and were then in his possession. He promised to keep them safely, even from the persons who delivered them to him, until the affair could be investigated. Mr. Baird was notified by letter and by telegraph, and on Sunday arrived in the city with some of Hensley's friends, who brought with them his certificate of freedom under the hand and seal of the Clerk of the Montgomery County Court of Kentucky. It appears that Hens ley was enfranchised by Joseph Hensley in 1832, by last will and testament duly proven and recorded in the aforesaid County Court. The descripiion of Hensley in the certificate of freedom was so individual and precise, that Mr. McMillen at once delivered Hensley and his children over to his friends, who returned with them to Ohio.[6]
Around 1855, notorious Lexington, Kentucky, trader Lewis C. Robards lost his slave jail when investor John H. Morgan, later of the Confederate States Army, sued over an unpaid financial obligation; the premises were purchased by Bolton, Dickens & Co., whose local representative was one of the principals of the firm, Washington Bolton.[4] According to J. Winston Coleman's Slavery Times in Kentucky, in July 1855, Bolton sent McMillin US$11,460 (equivalent to $374,742 in 2023) to "lay out in Negroes."[4] According to records from a lawsuit, in autumn 1855 Wash Bolton wrote James McMillen that he was trying to fill out a shipping lot to send south for the already-underway selling season: "We must have negroes if possible. Can't you buy the man and wife in jail? Buy every good negro you can and have them here by Friday. If you believe we can make $150 a head profit on the Peed negroes, buy them; if not, let them runaway, but don't let any of your negroes get away."[4]
In 1856 a woman named Ann Goddard sued over being wrongfully imprisoned in McMillan's slave jail.[7] According to the Louisville Daily Courier, "She brought suit for her freedom, alleging that she had been forcibly arrested by the officers and lodged in the negro jail of the late James McMillan, under the claim of the defendant, Mary Goddard, that she was her slave, when in truth she was a free white woman...An attempt was then made by the defendant to prove her the daughter of a mulatto named Matilda, by whom the plaintiff had been reared from infancy, but in this they did not succeed, as no witness was introduced who was present at the birth of the child."[7]
In Slave-Trading in the Old South, Frederic Bancroft describes McMillin as "a well-known trader, who for years had ranged over Kentucky searching for slaves for Lexington and Memphis dealers. The apprentice was promptly sent to Memphis and sold as a slave. This was a crime against the apprentice and a fraud on the purchaser. By some rare, good fortune the negro obtained the aid of a lawyer of integrity and by suit recovered his freedom; and the Boltons were compelled to refund the money they had received for him."[3] McMillin claimed that Lexington-based Wash Bolton (brother of Memphis-based Isaac Bolton) knew all about the legal circumstances of the laborer, and determined to take the risk.[1] After enticing McMillin to Memphis with a business proposal, Isaac Bolton called McMillin a rascal and shot him at least three times; McMillin died shortly thereafter from his wounds. Bolton's legal fees (and alleged bribe money for judge and jurors) cost a fortune, which in turn triggered a violent conflict over the expense between Bolton and his erstwhile business partner Thomas Dickins, which continued, with many casualties, until 1874.[3][8] McMillan's heirs successfully petitioned to have the trial moved out of Shelby County.[9] A clergyman testified at the Bolton trial that although he was a slave trader and a tavern owner, McMillan was considered to be respectable and of good character.[3] Two businessmen from Memphis testified "character for peace and good citizenship, for he was the most amiable of men."[2]
McMillin was 52 years old when he was killed.[10] His body was moved from Memphis to Marysville by the steamship Northerner.[7] McMillin was buried in Maysville Cemetery.[11] [12] His headstone reads, My Husband James McMillin, b. July 26, 1806, was murdered In the City of Memphis by Isaac L. Bolton, May 23, 1857, age 50 years.[12]
See also==
References==
- ^ a b Hurst, Jack (2008). Men of Fire: Grant, Forrest, and the Campaign That Decided the Civil War. Basic Books. pp. 185–188. ISBN 978-0-465-00847-6.
- ^ a b Humanities, National Endowment for the (March 23, 1903). "Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, March 23, 1903, Image 3". ISSN 2157-3484. Retrieved 2023-09-20.
- ^ a b c d e Bancroft, Frederic (2023) [1931, 1996]. Slave Trading in the Old South (Original publisher: J. H. Fürst Co., Baltimore). Southern Classics Series. Introduction by Michael Tadman (Reprint ed.). Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press. pp. 253–256, 258, 371. ISBN 978-1-64336-427-8. LCCN 95020493. OCLC 1153619151.
- ^ a b c d e f g Coleman, J. Winston (1940). "Chapter VI: 'Niggah Tradahs' & Chapter VII: Down the River & Chapter VIII: 'Nigger Stealers'". Slavery times in Kentucky. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 157–163, 170, 210–211.
- ^ "Slavery in Tennessee, by Chase C. Mooney". HathiTrust. p. 49. Retrieved 2023-09-20.
- ^ a b c "Kidnapping—Great Outrage". The Louisville Daily Courier. September 22, 1853. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-09-20.
- ^ a b c "Interesting Legal Proceedings—Ann Goddard v. Mary Goddard". The Louisville Daily Courier. August 21, 1858. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-09-20.
- ^ Collins, Lewis (1882). History of Kentucky. Collins & Company. p. 1870.
- ^ "James McMillan's Heirs v. Isaac L. Bolton". Republican Banner. November 18, 1857. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-09-20.
- ^ "Tennessee, Shelby County, Memphis, Board of Health Death Records, 1848-1913", database, FamilySearch https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:W14X-663Z Entry for James McMillan, 24 May 1857.
- ^ "The body of James McMillin..." The Courier-Journal. June 12, 1857. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-09-20.
- ^ a b Kentucky pioneers and their descendants IDENTIFIER 38787 CREATOR Fowler, Ila Earle Daughters of Colonial Wars Kentucky pioneers and their descendants compiled by Ila Earle Fowler for the Daughters of Colonial Wars, Kentucky Fowler, Ila Earle (Main Author) Daughters of Colonial Wars (Kentucky) (Added Author) Frankfort, [Kentucky] : s.n., 1951?] Tombstones in Old Maysville Cemetery pages 264