James Ampey and Dicey Heathcock Family

James Ampey and Dicey Heathcock Family

James Ampey, born circa 1793 in Richmond, Virginia, worked as an overseer on the farm of George Mendenhall. He married Dicey Heathcock, born 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1823. It is possible Dicey might have been the natural daughter of a plantation owner (Haithcock or Heathcock) and a slave mother. They married when James was thirty and Dicey was fifteen. Shortly after their marriage, they moved to the Mendenhall plantation near Greensboro, North Carolina, where they had 3 children the eldest William, born in 1826. In 1829, George Mendenhall awarded James and Dicey their freedom and money and told them to go to Indiana where his uncle, Isaac Gardner, would help them. They went to Indiana with one horse, a wagon, all of their possessions, traveling over 700 miles with their three children (all under 5 years old) in a wagon. Although they were free blacks (mulattos, half black-half white) they were still subject to slave hunters seeking money for their capture. William, aged 3, died from Tick fever and was buried along the Ohio River. The family possibly traveled up through Virginia to Kentucky, possibly crossing the Ohio River into Ripley, Ohio. From there they traveled to Darke County, Ohio and then on to Fountain City, Indiana (Wayne County).

Isaac Gardner was contacted in 1830. They lived in Randolph County for some time and finally Levi Coffin from whom they had leased acreage, deeded 4 acres on a land contract to them from 1839-1853. The Ampeys have the original document. The property was located a mile northeast of Newport (now Fountain City), New Garden Township, Wayne County, Indiana.

James and Dicey had a total of 13 children. The last was born in 1849. James went back to Ohio at some point and never returned. He possibly went to help others to escape and was either killed or captured.

Susan Ampey, born about 1833 was one of their 13 children and my Great Grandmother. I am proud to say that we are her descendants living in the Hawaiian Islands, but that is another story.

(Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society Research pp. 16-17)