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Title
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Pinckney, Elizabeth (1722-1793)
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birthday
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1722-12-28
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Birthplace
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Colonial British Antigua
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Death Date
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1793-05-27
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Occupation
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Writer
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Experimenter
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Businesswoman
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Biographical Text
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Eliza Pinckney was an American farmer who transformed agriculture in South Carolina. As the eldest child born to Lieutenant Colonel George Lucas and Ann Meldrum Lucas, she was raised on a sugarcane plantation. At 10 years old, Pinckney was sent oversees to England to study. While attending school in London, she picked up on botany, this became a heavy influence to the rest of Pinckney's life and inspired her creative work. In 1739, Pinckney's father had to return to his post as lieutenant. During this time is when she acted as the head of the family in business matters dealing with the plantations. Pinckney became responsible for managing Wappoo Plantations and its 20 slaves, while also supervising the other two family plantations. Pinckney conducted many experiments with ginger, cotton, alfalfa and hemp. Beginning in 1739, she began improving strains of the indigo plant. Her record of all decisions and experiments is today one of the most impressive collections of personal writing of an 18th century woman. Pinckney proved that Indigo could be successfully grown and processed all in South Carolina. Due to her successes, the volume of indigo dye exports increased from 5,000 - 130,000 pounds by 1748.
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Contributor
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Phillip, Emelda
