Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793) was an innovative businesswoman who launched a new agricultural industry.
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Hello, from Wonder Media Network I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
All month, we’re talking about women in the driver’s seat. Our story today takes us back to the pre-Revolutionary War American South -- where this innovative business woman launched a new agricultural industry.
We’re talking about Eliza Lucas Pinckney.
Eliza was born on December 28, 1722 on Antigua, an island in the Caribbean. At the time, the island was colonized by the British. Eliza’s father, George Lucas, was a British Army Lieutenant-Colonel and the Lieutenant Governor of Antigua. Not much is known about Eliza’s mother aside from the fact that she was regularly in poor health.
Eliza’s father was adamant that Eliza receive an education alongside her brothers and sent her to school in England. This was an unusual choice. At the time, education was seen as superfluous for a woman’s future. But Eliza cherished her education. She wrote “education which esteems a more valuable fortune than any could have given, will make me happy through my future life.”
In 1738, in search of a better climate for Eliza’s mother’s health, the family relocated to South Carolina. They settled near Charleston, on a plantation they’d inherited through Eliza’s grandfather.
The following year, Eliza’s father was called to serve in the British Army when conflict broke out between England and Spain. With Eliza’s two brothers still in school overseas, at the age of 15, Eliza was left solely in charge of the plantation.
Typically at this time, a young, wealthy, land-owning white woman like Eliza would be attending teas and social functions in search of a husband. While Eliza certainly made the rounds with the Charleston elite, she also spent hours each day studying botany and the business side of agriculture.
Eliza’s father began sending her seeds from the West Indies to test out in the South Carolina soil. At the time, rice was the main cash crop in the region, but Eliza felt it was too susceptible to geopolitical whims. She sought to create a new crop that would be more resilient in the market. She tested out alfalfa, ginger and others with minimal success.
Then, in 1740, Eliza’s father sent her indigo seeds.
Indigo is a tropical plant that has ties to ancient civilizations across China, Japan and especially, India. The name indigo, is derived from the Greek word for India. The crop is valued for the potent, dark-blue dye it creates. Fabrics died from indigo plants have historically conferred great wealth and status to the wearer.
By the time Eliza got her hands on the crop in the 18th century, France had cornered the indigo market. England and France, however, were fierce economic rivals. Eliza saw an opportunity to try and cut France out of the equation.
Shortly after Eliza received the indigo from her father, France outlawed exporting indigo seeds in an attempt to maintain its monopoly on the market. This meant there was no room for error. And agriculture is an unforgiving business. The plantation still owed money to the bank and gambling it all on a crop that had never been produced in the United States was a huge risk. Eliza’s first indigo crop failed due to frost. The second crop yielded minimal results. Fortunately, her third crop produced enough seed to replant for the next year. Eliza’s experiment could continue.
Once Eliza produced enough indigo to export, she then had to figure out transportation. It wasn’t a simple process. First, she needed to convert the plant into a liquid dye. Then that dye was dried and turned into dye-cakes. This process involved stale urine - which is pretty gross.
In 1744, Eliza married Charles Pinckney. He was a well-established Charleston figure, a widower, and nearly twice Eliza’s age. Despite the age gap, they were a happy match. The two had four children together, though only three lived to adulthood. Charles was very passionate about Eliza’s burgeoning indigo business. He even went to the local jail to interview French prisoners about how to best grow and ship indigo.
Apparently the knowledge Charles brought back was helpful because shortly afterward, business took off. Eliza and Charles shipped six pounds of their indigo to English textile merchants who declared their product even finer than the French dye. With the wind behind them, Eliza and Charles distributed their indigo seeds to their neighbors and began producing the crop at a much larger scale. In 1746, their consortium of planters exported 40,000 pounds of indigo to England. The following year, it doubled.
While Eliza’s ingenuity in agriculture had a lasting impact on history - it is essential that we put that work in its full context. Eliza owned at least 20 slaves, who worked on her plantation. Eliza’s success story, and the success of the indigo industry in early America as a whole, was built on the backs of free labor from stolen bodies. While Eliza’s slaveholding practices were not unique in any way, that does not mean her legacy should be absolved of that abhorrent fact.
Eliza continued to experiment with new crops. She started a silkworm farm and began spinning silk. The couple moved back to England for a period of five years when Charles was made Colonel Agent of South Carolina. While in England, Eliza presented the Princess of Wales with a silk dress made from her own farm.
Charles and Eliza returned to South Carolina in 1758. Later that same year, Charles passed away from malaria, making Eliza a widow at just 36 years old.
In the wake of Charles’ death, Eliza chose to stay in South Carolina. She had transformed the economy of the state. In the years leading up to the American Revolutionary War, indigo accounted for a third of all exports from South Carolina. Unsurprisingly, the Revolutionary War disrupted commerce between America and England and the indigo industry diminished.
Eliza and her children remained influential in the founding years of the United States. Her son, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, is a signatory to the U.S. Constitution. He was also a presidential candidate in 1804 and in 1808. Eliza’s other son, Thomas, served as both Governor of South Carolina and ambassador to Great Britain.
In 1791, President George Washington visited Eliza at her home in South Carolina. Two years later, when Eliza passed away, President Washington served as a pallbearer at her funeral.
To this day, indigo is an important symbol in South Carolina. It is the state’s official color and appears on the state’s flag.
Eliza’s robust collection of correspondences is among the most extensive left by any woman from colonial America. Her accounts provide a detailed perspective of plantation life in the Carolinas.
All month, we’re talking about women in the driver’s seat.
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Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!