Barber–Scotia began as a women's seminary in 1867. Scotia Seminary was founded by the Reverend Luke Dorland and chartered in 1870. A project by the Presbyterian Church to prepare young African American southern women (the daughters of former slaves) for careers as social workers and teachers, it was the coordinate women's school for Biddle University (now Johnson C. Smith University)

Barber-Scotia was the first historically Black women's institution of higher education established after the American Civil War.

The Charlotte Observer, in an interview with Janet Magaldi, president of Piedmont Preservation Foundation, stated, "Scotia Seminary was one of the first black institutions built after the Civil War. For the first time, it gave black women an alternative to becoming domestic servants or field hands."

Scotia Seminary was modeled after Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College) and was referred to as "The Mount Holyoke of the South".

The seminary offered grammar, science, and domestic arts. In 1908 it had 19 teachers and 291 students.
From its founding in 1867 to 1908 it had enrolled 2,900 students, with 604 having graduated from the grammar department and 109 from the normal department Faith Hall, built in 1891, was the first dormitory at Scotia Seminary.

It is listed in National Register of Historic Places and "is one of only four 19th-century institutional buildings left in Cabarrus County." It was closed by the college during the 1970s due to lack of funds for its maintenance.

It was renamed to Scotia Women's College in 1916. In 1930, the seminary was merged with another female institution, Barber Memorial College, which was founded in 1896 in Anniston, Alabama by Margaret M. Barber as a memorial to her husband This merger created Barber–Scotia Junior College for women.

The school granted its first bachelor's degree in 1945, and became a four-year women's college in 1946. In 1954, Barber–Scotia College became a coeducational institution and received accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Today, the college maintains close ties to the Presbyterian Church
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