Plantation Patriot: A Biography Of Eliza Lucas Pinckney

Dust jacket notes: "When Major George Lucas moved his family from Antigua to South Carolina in 1738, it was to his young daughter Eliza that he confided his hopes for improving the yield of the plantations and trying new crops, and when the major was recalled to his army post by the outbreak of hostilities between England and Spain, it was Eliza he left in charge. Managing three plantations, supervising the household, and looking after her invalid mother and young sister were heavy burdens for a sixteen-year-old girl, but she carried them well. Her greatest achievement, however, was the successful cultivation of indigo and the manufacture of indigo dye, a commodity hitherto unavailable in the British colonies and subsequently a valuable staple in the colonial trade. After her marriage to Charles Pinckney, a prominent lawyer, Eliza took an important place in colonial affairs and later in the affairs of the new nation. One of her sons served the country as ambassador to England, and the other as ambassador to France. Eliza was honored as 'a great patriot' by George Washington himself. As in her biography of Matthew Fontaine Maury, Ocean Pathfinder, Frances Leigh Williams has used letters and journals and a careful search of public records in preparing this authentic account of a woman who would have been remarkable in any age. Eliza Lucas Pinckney's intellectual curiosity, her resourcefulness, and her joy in the good things of life make her a figure of outstanding interest. Illustrated with photographs and maps."