Eliza Lucas

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Eliza Lucas Pinckney (c. 1722–1793) was the daughter of Lieut.-Colonel George Lucas of the British army, who about 1738 removed from Antigua to South Carolina, where he acquired several plantations. He was almost immediately recalled to Antigua, and his daughter undertook the management of the plantations with conspicuous success. She is said to have been the first to introduce into South Carolina (and into continental North America) the cultivation and manufacture of indigo, and she also imported silkworms. In 1753 she presented to the Princess of Wales a dress made of silk from her plantations.

Eliza Lucas married Charles Pinckney in 1744. She was the mother of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Thomas Pinckney. Contemporary historians often cite Pinckney as an example of republican motherhood although, ironically, she was less enthusiastic about American independence than her two sons, who both became prominent Federalist politicians.

This has been adapted from a 1911 encyclopedia.