Built 1780 (1780) VLR # 018-0061 Opened 1780 Added to NRHP 30 July 1980 | NRHP Reference # 80004883 Designated VLR May 20, 1980 Area 2 ha | |
 | ||
Location NW of Charles City on VA 602, Charles City, Virginia | ||
Lott Cary Birth Site, also known as the Lott Cary House, is a historic home located near Charles City, Charles City County, Virginia. The modest wooden frame house was built in the late-18th century, and consists of a 1 1/2-story, three bay, original main house, extended by the later addition of one-story wings. Little of the original fabric remains.
There is a strong local oral tradition that the property was the birth site of Lott Cary (1780-1828), a slave who bought his freedom through work in Richmond, Virginia, where he became a Baptist minister and lay physician. He was instrumental in the founding of the Colony of Liberia in Africa in the 1820s, establishing a church in Monrovia and Christian schools for natives in the interior.
At the time of Cary's birth in 1780, the house served as the residence of Cary's master John Bowry, whose plantation included more than 600 acres. Cary was more likely born in slave quarters adjoining the house.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, in recognition of Cary's significance in American history.