Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Eliza Lucas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eliza Lucas Pinckney (c. 1722–1793) was the daughter of Lieut.-Colonel George Lucas of the British army, who about 1738 migrated with him from Antigua to South Carolina, where he acquired several plantations. He was almost immediately recalled to Antigua. His daughter Eliza Lucas Pinckney undertook management of the plantations and achieved conspicuous success. She was the first to introduce into South Carolina (and into continental North America) the cultivation and manufacture of indigo. She also imported silkworms. The fermentation and processing of the indigo in plastered pits was a complex process. While Eliza Lucas Pinckney had only a general idea of the process from what she had observed in the Caribbean, she experimented to develop productive methods for South Carolina conditions.
For her contributions to South Carolina, Eliza Lucas Pinckney was inducted into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame. In 1753 she presented the Princess of Wales with a dress made of silk from Lucas plantations.
In 1744 Eliza Lucas married Charles Pinckney. She bore sons Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Thomas Pinckney, and a daughter Harriott Pinckney Horry. Contemporary historians often cited Pinckney as an example of republican motherhood. In fact she was less enthusiastic about American independence than were her two sons, who both became prominent Federalist politicians. Only five years after her marriage, Eliza became a widow when Charles Pinckney died in 1749.