“P” is for Pinckney, Eliza Lucas (ca. 1722-1793)

“P” is for Pinckney, Eliza Lucas (ca. 1722-1793). Planter, matriarch. Born in the West Indies (probably Antigua), Eliza was educated in London and later moved with her family to a rice plantation on Wappoo Creek near Charleston. When her father returned to Antigua in 1739, he left his teenaged daughter in charge of the plantation. He sent Eliza indigo seed from the West Indies hoping that the crop might be grown in South Carolina. After five years of experimentation, she had cultivated enough indigo to justify the construction of an “indigo works” at Wappoo. In 1744 she married the widowed Charles Pinckney and they had four children including the future founding fathers Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Thomas Pinckney. After her husband’s death Eliza Lucas Pinckney directed her children’s education and managed the family’s plantations.