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).

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] 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.

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.

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.

[8]Around 1855, Robards lost his slave jail when investor John H. Morgan, later of the Confederate States Army, sued over an unpaid financial obligation.

"[2] According to records from a lawsuit, in autumn 1855 Wash Bolton wrote James McMillin 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.

[9] 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.

"[9] At some point before his murder, McMillin sold a young person named John Burnett, who later, under his current name of John Cook, placed a family reunification ad in the newspaper in 1886, hoping to find his lost mother and sister, or perhaps his mother's other sons:[10] DEAR EDITOR ---- I was born ten miles northeast of Mayville, Ky., on Mrs. Margaret Cook's plantation.

[11] In Slave-Trading in the Old South, Frederic Bancroft described the circumstances of McMillin's death, writing that he was "a well-known trader, who for years had ranged over Kentucky searching for slaves for Lexington and Memphis dealers.

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] An 1898 retelling of the Bolton-Dickens feud described the young man who was sold as being about 23 years old (thus born about 1833) and "possessed of some education and considerable common sense".

[11] An 1875 Memphis Avalanche newspaper account of the Bolton–Dickins family feud provides additional detail:[12] Over 20 years ago a colored lad was purchased somewhere in Kentucky at a public sale who had been manumitted by a will of his master and who was to be set free after he arrived at a certain age.

He was conveyed to their mart in this city and the firm subsequently sold the boy for the sum of $1800 to Thomas B. Crenshaw near Morning Sun in this county.

[11] McMillin claimed that Lexington-based Wash Bolton (who ran the firm's office and jail there) knew all about the legal circumstances of the laborer, and had determined that they should take the risk.

[16] A clergyman testified at the Bolton trial that although he was a slave trader and a tavern owner, McMillin was considered to be respectable and of good character.

[18][19] 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.