Indigo in Lowcountry ~ the legacy of colonial woman, Eliza Lucas (1722-1793)

In general then I rise at five o'Clock in the morning, read till Seven, then take a walk in the garden or field, see that the Servants are at their respective businesses, then to breakfast. The first hour after breakfast is spent at my musick, the next is constantly employed in recolecting something I have learned least for want of practise it should be quite lost, such as French and short hand. After that I devote the rest of the time till I dress for dinner to our little Polly {her younger sister} and two black girls who I teach to read, and if I have papa's approbation (my Mamas I have got) I intend [them] for school mistres's for the rest of the Negroe children . . .
~wrote 17yr old Eliza Lucas in 1740.

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Once there was a young lady named Eliza Lucas. She was born in Antigua in 1722. Her father, Lieutenant Colonel George Lucas, a British Army officer posted in Antigua, had moved his family to the Province of South Carolina in hopes that the climate there would prove better for his ailing wife. He was called back to his military post in Antigua; war broke out with Spain. In a few years, he became Lieutenant Governor, and this left his daughter, Eliza, to run the estate and to care for her mother and a younger sister, Polly.

In addition to running the plantation, Eliza taught her sister and two slave children how to read and write, studied music and art, wrote letters, and studied enough law to be able to draft legal wills for nearby residents.

Eliza's father sent indigo seeds to her from the West Indies which she experimented with for several years, eventually perfecting a process of making blocks of indigo cakes to be turned into dye. The dye, (England had relied on the French for this before), was in great demand. It was used in military dress and coats of the era.

In 1744, Eliza married a widower, Charles Pinckney. Charles was a Chief Justice of the South Carolina Province. The couple had four children: Charles Cotesworth, Thomas, another son who died, and a daughter, Harriott. After her marriage, Eliza continued experiments with hemp and flax, reviving the silk culture in the Lowcountry. She took over management of her husband's many plantations and Charles Town properties after his death in 1758.

Eliza's two sons were national figures. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was a General in the Revolutionary War and a signer of the United States Constitution. Thomas Pinckney was also a Revolutionary War officer, later a General, and then United States Minister to Spain and to Great Britian. Eliza Lucas Pinckney lived to see America win its Revolution. She died after a short illness in 1793 in Philadelphia, where she had been taken for cancer treatment. She is buried there. At his own request, George Washington was a pallbearer at her funeral.

Eliza Lucas Pinckney remains a prominent woman in South Carolina's history.

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Indigo in Lowcountry, a Sampler Tale
copyright 2005 The Sampler Girl
Click HERE for details on this pattern.

Verse on sampler is from one of Eliza's favorite hymns and reads:

When all thy mercies, O my God,
my rising soul surveys,
transported with the view, I’m lost
in wonder, love and praise.

Through all eternity to thee
a joyful song I’ll raise;
for, oh, eternity’s too short
to utter all thy praise!
-Joseph Addison (1672 - 1719)