Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793) reshaped the colonial South Carolina economy with her innovations in indigo production and became one of the wealthiest and most respected women in a world dominated by men. This biography offers a rare woman's perspective of the years surrounding the Revolutionary War.
Synopsis
The enthralling story of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, an innovative, highly regarded, and successful woman plantation owner during the Revolutionary era Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793) reshaped the colonial South Carolina economy with her innovations in indigo production and became one of the wealthiest and most respected women in a world dominated by men. Born on the Caribbean island of Antigua, she spent her youth in England before settling in the American South and enriching herself through the successful management of plantations dependent on enslaved laborers. Tracing her extraordinary journey and drawing on the vast written records she left behind--including family and business letters, spiritual musings, elaborate recipes, macabre medical treatments, and astute observations about her world and herself--this engaging biography offers a rare woman's first-person perspective into the tumultuous years leading up to and through the Revolutionary War and unsettles many common assumptions regarding the place and power of women in the eighteenth century.
Synopsis
The enthralling story of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, an innovative, highly regarded, and successful woman plantation owner during the Revolutionary era "Glover not only recovers the life of a remarkable eighteenth-century woman, she also issues a challenge to the gendered narrative of the Age of Revolution. Eliza Lucas Pinckney would undoubtedly approve "--Carol Berkin, author of Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence
Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793) reshaped the colonial South Carolina economy with her innovations in indigo production and became one of the wealthiest and most respected women in a world dominated by men. Born on the Caribbean island of Antigua, she spent her youth in England before settling in the American South and enriching herself through the successful management of plantations dependent on enslaved laborers. Tracing her extraordinary journey and drawing on the vast written records she left behind--including family and business letters, spiritual musings, elaborate recipes, macabre medical treatments, and astute observations about her world and herself--this engaging biography offers a rare woman's first-person perspective into the tumultuous years leading up to and through the Revolutionary War and unsettles many common assumptions regarding the place and power of women in the eighteenth century.