Trotter (James Monroe) is born in Grand Gulf, Mississippi.

The son of slave owner Richard Trotter and the enslaved Letitia, James Monroe Trotter moves with his mother moved to Cincinnati in 1882, graduates from Albany Manual University, and comes to Boston in June 1863 to join the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He trains at Camp Meigs, serves in the Civil War, rising to the rank of lieutenant, and returns to Boston briefly after the war, living on Blossom Street. Trotter returns to Ohio, marries, and moves back to Boston with his family in 1867.* He becomes a recorder of deeds in Washington , DC in 1887, and returns to Boston in 1889. He dies in Hyde Park on February 26, 1892, and is buried in Fairlawn Cemetery.