Eliza Lucas Pinckney
Colonial Entrepreneur
1722 – 1793 A.D.

If you were a well dressed lady living in 18th century colonial America and you had on a blue dress, then it was likely that your garment was colored with a dye, from an indigo plant. It could also have been that that indigo plant, came from a South Carolina plantation owned and operated by a unique American businesswoman named Eliza Lucas Pinckney, who had also personally developed the indigo. This was a product that was so profitable that, according to an online source, it became South Carolina’s “…second-most important cash crop (after rice)” and was also “…a major influence on the colonial economy.”

Elizabeth “Eliza” Lucas was born on a family owned sugarcane plantation, on a British Caribbean island in December, 1722. Her father, a British army officer and colonial official as well as sugarcane grower, owned numerous plantations on the islands, as well as in other colonies. As was the custom in such situations, Eliza and her siblings were sent to Britain for their schooling, where Eliza’s early intelligence was recognized. In her boarding school she studied the usual language and music, but her favorite subject was botany.

Then in 1738 because of increased wartime threats in the Caribbean, Eliza’s father moved his family to their plantations in South Carolina, where her mother died soon after arrival. However, her father had to return to their island home because of official duties and this in effect left Eliza at age 16 basically in charge of their property, as well as the education of her siblings. However, she and her father began and continued an extensive correspondence, as they remained in contact over the next few important years.

Even at such a young age, Eliza was in charge of operating one of their farms, with their 20 enslaved workers, plus managing the employees at two other farms the family owned.

At the time, Britain was attempting to encourage their colonies to develop new products. to use to expand economic opportunities and in the Carolinas. At first that meant rice—and later indigo. However, Eliza also had hopes for other resources—such as when she wrote that she had planted a large fig orchard. She did so, she said, “with a design to dry and export them.” Another time she wrote to a friend: “I am making a large plantation of oaks, which I look upon as my own property, whether my father gives me the land or not.” The extensive British Navy always needed ship building products and this was probably on her mind.

From his Caribbean base, Eliza’s father not just wrote letters but also provided Eliza with seeds and other plant materials, for the purpose of developing potential crops on their properties. Meanwhile, rice was an important crop for the Carolinas, yet farm owners also wanted to find alternatives. So Eliza and her neighbors welcomed obtaining samples of new products. Over time, Eliza experimented with ginger, cotton, alfalfa and hemp. Then starting in 1739 she began to work with indigo, since there was a growing need for the product in the expanding textile markets.

Her Carolina neighbors usually traveled to stay in Charleston for the social season so they could avoid the hot humid summers with the usual mosquitoes. However, Eliza often remained on her plantations during this time, so she could manage and monitor her developing crop ideas.

After several years, Eliza’s experimentations with indigo had proved successful, and after 1744 she began to share her indigo seeds with her neighbors. Due to her efforts, the export of the indigo plants increased dramatically, and became second only to rice as a local cash crop.

When first arriving in the Carolinas, Eliza had become close friends with her neighbors Charles and Elizabeth Pinckney, who introduced her to not just her neighbors but to life in her new location. With her father absent, Eliza also found Charles Pinckney proved to be a valuable source—of not just friendship—but advice as she struggled with her finances and plantation management.

At the time, it was unusual for a single woman to undertake such a management role over family property without a spouse, so Eliza’s father was ready to help her identify a potential husband. Her father’s intentions were not unusual, because such planned marriages between wealthy families were common, and were based on mutual business arrangements that benefitted both families. However, Eliza rejected two of his candidates, because they did not fit her idea for a spouse. It is likely that in the early 1740s, Eliza was more concerned about managing her properties and crop development, than she was in marriage. Also, she continued to find her neighbor Charles Pinckney to be a wise confidante, in both personal as well as financial and property issues. However, though they became close friends since Pinckney was married, it remained just that. However, this changed as Elizabeth Pinckney’s health began to fail and she died in January, 1744. Eliza and Pinckney were married a few months later, with the support of both families. He was 41 and she was 21, and the marriage meant she would not have to go live in the Caribbean, and leave her plantations and all the advancements she had achieved.

While Pinckney and his first wife had had no children Eliza and her husband would have four—three boys and a daughter. Her eldest Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, born in 1746, eventually became a signer of the American constitution.

Then in 1758 as Charles developed malaria he died, and Eliza remained single as she continued to develop new crops and products, (including silk) to support her family.

By the beginning of the American revolution indigo became an important import but as the colonies became the United States and trade with Britain gradually ceased, it became more of a domestic product.

When she was in her 70s, Eliza developed breast cancer and she traveled to Philadelphia, to take advantage of the latest medical treatments. However she died in 1793 and was interred in Philadelphia with President George Washington as a pallbearer at his own request.

In 1989 Eliza was the first woman to be honored with a position in the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame, for her contributions to economic and agricultural growth. In 2008 she was also inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame.

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Anne Adams is a retired church staffer. She lives in East Texas and has an historical column for a local newspaper. She has published in Christian and secular publications for more than 40 years.

References:
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Walking Charleston
National Park Service