SOUTH CAROLINA HALL OF FAME

Teacher Guide

Eliza Lucas Pinckney

South Carolina Social Studies Standards Eliza Lucas Pinckney Settlement-Settlement and Change, The Colonial Economy, The American Revolution-The War for Independence

Topics include - , Responsibilities at age 16, Rice, Alternative Cash Crop, , Dye, Slavery, Letterbook of Eliza Lucas, Indigo production, and colonial export, Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, , British raids, Revolutionary War, President

Standard 3-2: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the exploration and settlement of South Carolina.

3-2.5 - Explain the role of Africans in developing the culture and economy of South Carolina, including the growth of the slave trade; slave contributions of the plantation economy; and daily lives of the enslaved people, the development of the Gullah culture; and their resistance to slavery.

Standard 8-1: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the settlement of South Carolina and the United States by Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans.

8-1.4 - Explain the significance of enslaved and free Africans in the developing culture and economy of the South and South Carolina, including the growth of the slave trade and resulting population imbalance between African and European settlers; African contributions to agricultural development; and resistance to slavery, including the Stono Rebellion and subsequent laws to control slaves.

8-1.5 - Explain how South Carolinians used their natural, human, and political resources uniquely to gain economic prosperity, including settlement by and trade with the people of Barbados, rice and indigo planting, and the practice of mercantilism.

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Biography

Eliza Lucas Pinckney

Eliza Lucas Pinckney, was born in the West Indies in 1722, the daughter of plantation owners. She was sent to school in where she studied what was expected of young ladies of her era; French, music et al. However, her favorite subject was botany.

Whilst still at a young age, her father inherited several properties in South Carolina and the family moved to a plantation in the Charleston area. Her mother died shortly thereafter. At the age of 16, Eliza was left to care for her siblings as well as manage three plantations when her father, an officer in the British military, was summoned back to the .

From , Col. Lucas sent Eliza various types of seeds to try on the plantations, eager to find crops that could supplement the cultivation of rice. She experimented with ginger, , and alfalfa. But soon she began experimenting with cultivating and improving strains of the indigo plant, used for creating dyes for the textile industry. When her father sent indigo seeds in 1740, she expressed her “greater hopes” for them. She started experimenting by growing indigo in the new climate and soil and became dependent on the knowledge and skills of enslaved Africans who had grown indigo in the West Indies and Africa.

Eliza documented all her efforts and experiments in a letter book, which remains one of the most impressive collections of personal writings of an eighteenth-century American woman.

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After three years and many failed attempts, she eventually proved that indigo could be successfully grown and processed in South Carolina due in large part to the expertise of a black indigo-maker of African descent whom her father had hired from the .

Eliza used her 1744 crop to make seed and shared it with other planters, leading to an expansion in indigo production.

Up until that period, only about 5,000 pounds of indigo were exported from the Charleston area, but due to Eliza Pinckney's successes, that volume grew to 130,000 pounds within two years. Indigo became second only to rice as a cash crop. Before the Revolutionary War, indigo accounted for more than one-third of the total value of exports from the colony. She also experimented with other crops including figs, flax, and silk.

At the age of 22, she married Charles Pinckney, a neighboring planter and politician who was supportive of her efforts but traveled frequently with his role as a colonial leader. She continued to be in charge of the household and the plantations. Within five years she gave birth to four children, 2 of which, Charles Cotesworth and Thomas, would go on to become prominent leaders and contributors to the burgeoning new state and nation.

In 1758, her husband contracted malaria and died. Later, during the American War of Independence British raids destroyed her property leaving her ruined financially.

When Eliza Pinckney died in 1793 she was so well regarded by her contemporaries, that President George Washington served as one of the pallbearers at her funeral. Her headstone in St. Peter's Churchyard in reads "Eliza Lucas Pinckney, 1722-1793, lies buried in an unmarked grave.”

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Credits

South Carolina Social Studies Standard Correlations were provided by Lisa Ray

The purpose of the South Carolina Hall of Fame is to recognize and honor both contemporary and past citizens who have made outstanding contributions to South Carolina's heritage and progress.

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