Role Playing Activity
ELIZA LUCAS PINCKNEY

Objectives:

1. The student will gain a broader understanding of the colonial period of U.S. history.
2. The student will become aware of the role of Eliza Lucas Pinckney in colonial history as an example of a woman who had influence in that time period.
3. The student will become aware of the importance of indigo cultivation in colonial South Carolina and how the Revolutionary War changed that role.

Time Frame: approximately 15-20 minutes

Context: Integrate into a science unit on plants and/or a social studies unit on colonial America preceding and through the Revoultionary War.

Rationale: Science (as well as Social Studies) is more meaningful to students when it is "brought to life" through information about real people. Girls, especially, may be encouraged to consider entering some field of scientific study as they learn of women who have been successful and respected for their efforts. Eliza Lucas Pinckney was such as woman.

Materials: a hat and an outfit with a floor-length skirt as accurate a representation of colonial dress as possible.

Script: The following notes are given to be developed into a presentation according to one's personal style.

Notes on the life of Eliza Lucas Pinckney:

• born Elizabeth "Eliza" Lucas to an officer in the British army and his wife on the British-ruled island of Antigua in the West Indies in 1722
• returned to England for education...few children, boys or girls, wre as well educated
• fifteen when moved to South Carolina with family for mother's health
• lived on plantation called Wappoo, near Charleston
• father owned three plantations
• father recalled to Antigua to be royal governor
• at sixteen was placed in charge of father's plantations and business dealings as he recognized Eliza was more mature and capable than others twice her age
• began each day at 5 A.M. to manage the business affairs
• elderly woman friend worried, according to Eiza, getting up so early would "'spoil my marriage, for she says it will make me look old long before I am so.'"(Jaher)
• Eliza advised, however: Avoid "'Sloth and Idleness....and be neither luxurious or extravagant.'"(Jaher)
• hobbies: music lessons, gardening, reading
• she advised herself and her kin, "'Use all your diligence to improve yourself.'"(Jaher)
• elderly woman friend also worried, according to Eliza, I would "'read myself mad'"(Jaher)
• ran school for family's young slaves while many colonists felt it wrong to educate slaves as it would encourage them to run away
• two of closest friends were Charles Pinckney, whose father had moved to SC in 1692, and Elizabeth Lamb Pinckney....Eliza visited with them, borrowed books....Charles supported the cause of "Negro" education and gave money towards building a school for "Negro" children to be taught reading and religion
• loved experimenting to see if a crop would grow well in SC
• experimented with flax, hemp, and silk culture
• about 1740 began to try to grow indigo with seeds sent by her father from the West Indies; indigo is a shrubby legume, growing five feet high, with dainty compound leaves and typical legume pods which is used to make indigo dye...use goes back to Sanskrit records 4000 years old...failed at first...crops hurt by storms and frost
• encouraged by friend, Dr. Alexander Garden, whose hobby was collecting samples of plants and animals native to SC but unknown to European scientists....who discovered the mud iguana and who visited fishermen's homes and would snatch fish dinners right off their tables if the fish were interesting specimens....who was one of first to describe use of pinkroot as medicine for killing intestinal worms in humans
• successful in growing indigo by 1744
• encouraged others to grow indigo and it became leading money maker for SC
• friend and neighbor Andrew De Veaux als experimented with and was successful with indigo....others then followed their successful examples
• Elizabeth Lamb Pinckney died in 1744 and 4 months later at age 22 Eliza married Charles Pinckney
• she and husband had three children: Charles éotesworth born in 1745, Harriott, and Thomas
• felt children could learn at young age....made set of carved blocks for letters of alphabet....Charles C. knew letters before age of two and began to spell....had children find sermon text in Bible as soon as returned home from church
• religion was important to family...Eliza told Charles C., "you must know the welfair of a whole family depends in a great measure on the progress you make in morral Virtue, Religion and Learning...'" You must fortify yourself "'against those Errors into which you are most easily led...What I most fear for you is heat of temper....'"(Zahnister)
• other planters grew indigo
• angered when Charels not confirmed by England as interim Chief Justice of SC Supreme Court after appointment by colonial governor
• by 1750 two of three Carolinians were slaves and not all were brought from Africa...South arolinians forced Native Americans to give up lands, conquered them in bloody battles, enslaved them more than any other colony..to have enough free labor to grow crops cheaply (Charleston main entry point for slaves...when no farm work, slaves hired out to work as fishermen, carpenters, garbage collectors...money given to masters...little spent on needs of slaves ...mostly lived in small huts a distance from home of masters...often fed meat fat, skimmed milk, moldy bacon...some not even given clothes until age 13)
• by 1754 colony was exporting over 216,000 pounds of processed indigo per year (was used for color of uniforms of British sailors and later American sailors as well as other clothes and cloth)
• returned to England for 5 years (17531758) to educate the children, husband served as colonial agent
• husband died in 1758 shortly after return to SC to manage business affairs...Eliza, age 36, stayed on in SC....sons stayed in England for education
• friend Dr. Alexander Garden in 1760 had gardenia named after him though he had not discovered it...discovered by British sea captain, grown in England by his friend Richard Warner...flower given name by Carolus Linnaeus to honor Garden
• 1760s Charleston richest town in 13 colonies...3/4s of SC white population lived there....social center with theater, America's first music club, horse races....and ethnic clubs (Scottish, English, German) to help immigrants
• son Charles C., while still in England, had picture painted showing himself objecting to the Stamp Acti in 1765
• sons stayed in England until 1769 but colonials were snubbed or teased by sons of England's elite, even friends, in public schools and sons always thought of selves as Americans, maybe because of this
• promoted independence for colonies (SC was successful under British rule yet thousands fought for independence, including the "Swamp Fox"...was where over 100 battles fought)
• studied law on own and wrote wills for others
• son Charles C. joined Charles-Town Militia Regiment in June 1772 to protect against Indian attacks, slave uprisings, coastal raids by Spanish
• son Thomas joined a group of Americans in military drills conducted by a sergeant of the Royal Guards...called "the little rebel" by friends
• both sons signed Declaration of Independence and fought with continental army
• continued to manage plantations and helped raise grandchildren
• need for food during Revolution so people grew rice instead of indigo
• after war, competition from Inida ended indigo growth in SC...cotton took over....Thomas Jefferson and Dolly Madison and others tried to encourage farmers to raise dye plants, such as indigo, madder, and woad on a commercial scale but failed...dyers improved their chemical practices, though, over trial and error methods and advanced
• son Charles C. delegate to 1787 convention in Philadelphia that drafted U.S. Constitution to replace Articles of Confederation....also Federalist candidate for vice president in 1800...ran for president against Thomas Jefferson in 1804 and James Madison in 1808
• died at age 71 in Philadelphia...had gone there for cancer treatment..President George Washington requested to be and served as one of her pallbearers
• statue as memorial to her in the Colonial National Historic Park in Virginia

Sources:

• Adrosko, Rita J. Natural Dyes and Home Dyeing. NY: Dover, 1971.
• "Elizabeth Lucas Pinckney." World Book Encyclopedia. 1977 ed.
• "Charles Cotesworth Pinckney." World Book Encyclopedia. 1977 ed. Fradin, Dennis Brindell. The South Carolina Colony. Chicago: Children's P, 1992.
• Jaher, Frederic Cople. The Urban Establishment. Urbana: U of IL P, 1982.
• Leckie, Shirley. "Elizabeth Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793)." Women's History. 1995:16.
• Zahniser, Marvin R. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Chapel Hill: U of NC P, 1967.