Historic Charleston, a few seeds, and a teenage girl

(an early American success story) Michael Krigline 2023 EFLsuccess.com

In the late 1600s and early 1700s, Charleston South Carolina’s colonial wealth and importance came from the export of two major crops. One of the early city-fathers figured out how to grow rice despite the brackish water, and this became the #1 export. The other crop that made Charleston really wealthy was indigo, used to make the majestic blue dye seen on South Carolina’s flag.

In 1739, Eliza Lucas (1722-1793) was a 16-year-old girl, who had just moved to the Charleston area after growing up in Antigua (an island in the Caribbean, of which her father was lieutenant governor). Her mother and sister were with her. The family owned several plantations in Antigua and in the SC Lowcountry. Eliza loved botany and education in general. She was determined to increase the wealth of the Lowcountry, which had only one cash crop (rice). She experimented with fig and other fruit trees and even oak trees (foreseeing the need to build great ships).

She ended up in charge of her father’s three SC plantations, thanks in part to a couple of wars. From the Caribbean, her father sent his daughter a letter with indigo seeds in it, suggesting that she figure out what to do with these plants. Neighbors ridiculed Eliza’s experiments, but years of persistence paid off. In 1744, she managed to grow enough indigo to begin the process of dye production. With help from her father, a small sample of indigo dye reached Great Britain.

To get away from the mosquitos and their diseases in the summer, it was customary that planters of Eliza’s status would socialize in Charleston during the summer. There, she became close to the Pinckney family, especially after her father had become governor of Antigua. Eliza Lamb Pinckney became a close friend, but her husband Charles Pinckney was very skeptical of Eliza’s interest in planting. He wrote “Tell the little visionary come to town and partake of some of the amusements suitable to her time of life.” Young Eliza responded “Pray tell him…what he may now think whims and projects may turn out well by and by. Out of many surely one may hit.”

Of course, Eliza’s success was only possible because of the hard work of many, many enslaved people, working in the hot Carolina (and hotter Antigua) sunshine. Unlike Eliza, they didn’t get a summer break from “the mosquitos and their diseases,” nor did their fortunes increase with the success of their crops. While it’s uncertain how many slaves the Pinkneys owned, records show that Charles C Pinckney (a generation later) held around 250 slaves on one 715 acre plantation—and his mother Eliza ran three plantations. Slavery is one of the dark parts of world history, and sadly, it continues in vast numbers to this day. The contributions of America’s slaves are now being told in many of our textbooks, museums and National Parks (including several in Charleston)—but we can never expunge the scars of man’s inhumanity to man. [For more about slavery, see the “sources” list, my article on Juneteeth, or my photo page about Charleston.]

Display at Fort Moultrie Visitor Center, near Charleston SC

In 1744, the same year she first sent dye to England, two tragedies struck. First, Eliza’s father asked the family to return to Antigua, and second, her dear friend Eliza L Pinckney died, leaving Charles a widow. Charles proposed to young Eliza; he was 45 and she was 22. The marriage saved her from returning to Antigua, and by 1750 she and Charles had 4 children (though their second son died young, in 1747).

Their indigo business grew quickly. By 1747, 138,300 pounds of dye (worth £16,803) were exported to England, which was happy to have a way to cut out the French (long-time political enemies) from dominating the market. (To put that amount in perspective, it was worth enough to buy 3600 cows or 560 years of skilled labor!) By 1775 (when the Revolutionary War started), 1,122,200 pounds of dye was sold, mostly in England (with a small percentage being shipped to northern colonies). At that point, about 30 years from Eliza’s first experiments, indigo made up one third of the exports from South Carolina. A teenage girl turned a few seeds into South Carolina’s second biggest crop!

Today, the indigo color is featured on South Carolina’s flag. Furthermore, Eliza’s first son, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, signed and contributed to the US Constitution, was a four-term SC governor and SC political leader for over 40 years. You can visit one of the Pinckney’s plantations, which is now a National Historic Site outside Charleston. Eliza Lucas Pinckney had a lasting impact on SC, and in 1989, Eliza was the first woman inducted into the SC Business Hall of Fame, for her contributions to agriculture.

PS: Eliza’s first son, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, signer of the US Constitution, is one of three Founding Fathers buried in Charleston; he is buried in St Michael’s churchyard. Charles owned #95 Rainbow Row in 1779 (before the Row was painted in pastel colors).

See sources above

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Rice and Indigo

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For higher English level

Historic Charleston, a few seeds, and a teenage girl