ST LOUIS – The City of St. Louis’ first African American Recorder of Deeds, Michael Butler, will present replicas of Dred and Harriot Scott documents to their direct decedent, Mrs. Lynne Jackson, at a ceremony in St. Louis City Hall.
The event is open to the public. Mrs. Lynne Jackson, the direct descendant of Dred and Harriot Scott, is the Founder and President of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation.
The facsimiles of the Dred and Harriot Scott documents being presented to Mrs. Jackson by Recorder Butler include the public record of the transfer of the Scotts from final owners Eliza Chaffee and Henrietta Emerson to Taylor Blow, the man who would grant them freedom only weeks later. This document, preserved in the Recorder of Deeds office, represents one of the last legal documents in Harriet and Dred’s long struggle for freedom.
Additionally, replicas of the death certificates of both Dred and Harriot Scott will be presented to Mrs. Jackson. Dred Scott died of “consumption” in 1858, a disease that is today known as tuberculosis.
He was originally interred in Wesleyan Cemetery, a popular burial ground for both free and enslaved Black St. Louisans before and after the Civil War located at the intersection of Grand and Laclede.
Harriot Scott died of “general debility” in 1876 and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, a historic Black burial ground in Hillsdale.
“We hope these documents will assist the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation in preserving the legacy and heritage of one of the most important families in our Nation’s history,” says City of St. Louis Recorder of Deeds, Michael Butler. “Both the City of St. Louis Recorder of Deeds and the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation are committed to keeping history alive and accessible to the public.”