Charlotte Scott

Charlotte Scott. A Friend of Lincoln. , Charlotte was born enslaved on the Scott Plantation near Lynchburg, VA. Her birth date is not recorded. She became the property of Dr. William and Margaret Scott Rucker after their marriage. At the start of the Civil War, the family lived in Covington, VA where Rucker was detested for his loyalty to the Union. After Rucker was accused of burning a bridge, captured and imprisoned in 1862, Union authorities moved the family to Marietta for their safety. Charlotte accompanied the family as a domestic servant and was freed. When Rucker escaped from prison, he rejoined his family and they resided near here during the war. Upon learning of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, Charlotte was deeply distressed and gave $5.00 of her first earnings to a local minister to build a monument in Lincoln's memory. When the idea reached James Yeatman, President of the Western Sanitary Commission, he embraced the vision and made it a reality. Funds for the memorial were raised solely from former slaves, or freedman. including former U.S. Colored Troops. President Grant unveiled the Emancipation Memorial in Washington's Lincoln Park on April 14, 1876, the 11th anniversary of the assassination, with Frederick Douglass as the keynote speaker. Charlotte attended the event. Abraham Lincoln and Charlotte Scott are the only names that appear on the memorial. After the war, Charlotte lived as a free woman on the Scott Plantation until her death on January 24, 1891. She is buried in an unmarked grave in Lynchburg, VA.