The Runaway Ghost -

A long time ago, in the southern state of Louisiana, when it was legal to own slaves, there was a female plantation owner named Meredith Scott who had a male slave named Nathaniel that kept running away.
The first time he was caught he was given forty lashes as was the normal punishment for runaway slaves in those days ; the second time he was caught he was branded upon his chest with the letter 'R' for runaway which was also quite a normal practice at the time and the third time he ran away he was hung from a hickory tree until, because his neck didn't break, he was strangled to death.
But only two nights after the slave died, the plantation owner was getting ready to go to bed when she was mysteriously attacked by something invisible wielding a whip and given two large welts upon her back then the next night, the woman, while staying at the house of a neighbouring plantation owner, said she saw a glowing 'R' floating in the darkness of her room at the foot of her bed and when she tried to touch it her hand was badly burned.
So the following day, she decided, to escape the vengeful spirit that she was sure was haunting her she would go and live at the house of a cousin in far away Boston, Massachusetts but the morning after she arrived she was found hung from the ceiling of her room showing that however far she had run she could not runaway from the ghost of Nathaniel.
After that the Runaway ghost was not seen or heard of again although, not long after that the Scott plantation was mysteriously burned to the ground.
Some say that it was the fault of a drunken overseer accidently knocking over an oil lamp but others claim it was the ghost of Nathaniel trying to destroy the Scott plantation and there are also those who say that, if you visit the plantation, there are nights when you can still see the glowing letter 'R' appear in the darkness.
Perhaps it stands for Runaway or Revenge or perhaps it is R for Remember, something that keeps returning to remind those who visit the plantation of the evil acts of slavery that were committed in that place long ago.