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Hettie McClain, daughter of Hulda McClain a slave woman and William McClain the white master, was born in Henderson County, Kentucky.
Fearing that the child might be separated from her mother or fall into improper hands, William McClain brought the mother and daughter to Newburgh and presented them with papers of freedom; there the mother made many friends. Mr. McClain bought a cottage where the two could live in comfort and they were happy.
When Hettie was twelve years of age she and another young girl were in the orchard gathering apples for their mothers when they were hailed by some young white men. The girls climbed to the ground and asked what the strangers were wanting at their home. The young men seized the girls, threw them into the wagon and carried them to Kentucky and there they entered bondage on the McClain estate.
The estate of William McClain was only a few miles distant from the plantation of Archibald Dixon and when Hettie McClain grew to young womanhood Benjamin Dixon, slave of Archibald Dixon, became her admirer and they were made husband and wife.
Archibald Dixon, master of the slave Benjamin, was born in Caswell county, North Carolina and had moved to Henderson County, Kentucky, with his father in 1805. He was a member of the bar and practiced in Henderson County for many years. He was a member of the state house of representatives in 1830 and 1841 and in 1836 he was elected to the senate. In 1843 he became lieutenant Governor and in 1849 he was elected as a Whig to the United States Senate to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Henry Clay. In 1863 he was delegate to the Frankfort Peace Commission.
He was anxious for the safety of his negroes and did not object to Benjamin's marriage to the slave of his neighbor; but allowed him to work for the girl's master part of the time so that the two might be together. This arrangement continued until with the final adoption and promulgation of the Thirteenth Amendment all slaves throughout the United States were freed.
The Federal Government believed it was necessary for the proper care of the liberated negroes in the state of Kentucky to extend the Freeman's Bureau into Kentucky.
Archibald Dixon had been a kind master and would have given liberty to Benjamin but the young master McClain, who had inherited the McClain estate, held the woman, Hettie and the two remained in Henderson County until after the birth of their son, Thomas Dixon, who later took the name of Thomas Suggs.
The parents of the kidnapped girls never learned of their whereabouts and long believed they had been drowned in the Ohio River. After years spent in Kentucky Hettie and her husband and child returned to Evansville and made their home in the area.
The other girl never returned and her friends never learned whether she died or was sold when she was carried into a slave state.
The wife of Hettie Dixon's son is a resident of Evansville and lives with her family and is known as Adah Isabelle Suggs.
Thomas, Hettie and others mentioned have passed away.
To explain why slaves were held in Kentucky after the passing of the
Amendment---Kentucky statesmen, slave holders and planters expressed anger at the enrollment and enlistment of slaves into the Federal armies. The state of Kentucky was in an unhappy turmoil on this subject when the Civil War ended. The Thirteenth Amendment had already passed Congress and had been submitted to the States for ratification. Governor Bramlette submitted this amendment to the Legislature on February 7th, 1865 with advice that it be ratified. He declared that the institution of slavery was already dead and he desired the Federal Government to make compensation for the slaves.
Opinions differed as to the expediency of freeing slaves. Only a small group were in favor of unconditional ratification. Some were in favor of rejecting the amendment. Some favored the ratification of a bill conditioning ratification. The condition was that the United States pay to the state of Kentucky $36,000,000.00 to compensate owners of slaves enlisted in the United States Army, used in labor battalions during the war and freed by the amendment. By this bickering the negroes were held and disputed over and the slavery question could not be settled as long as the military regime lasted in the state and meddled.
The surrender of Lee had not ended slavery nor slave recruiting. The Lexington Observer and Reporter, April 29, 1865, explains the conditions prevailing in the Kentucky area at that time, when negroes and whites were in a deplorable state of mind. 72,000 negroes had been given freedom through enlistment in negro armies. One half the negroes in the area belonged to Confederate sympathizers and were not given freedom.
