1741. It was destroyed by a frost; but in April the experiment was repeated, the second crop being also cut down by a worm. Nothing daunted, the persevering young lady planted for the third time, and the effort proved successful.
When Governor Lucas heard that the plant had seeded and ripened, he sent from Montserrat, at high wages, an indigo-maker, named Cromwell, to show Eliza the process. He built vats on the Wappoo, and made some indigo of indifferent quality. Having repented of his engagement as likely to injure the industry in his own country, he also made a mystery of the process, and tried to deceive by throwing in too much lime. But Eliza, who was watching carefully, detected the deception, and at once engaged a Mr. Deveaux to superintend further attempts at indigo-making.
Not long after these experiments Eliza Lucas married Charles Pinckney, afterward Chief Justice of South Carolina. A generation later, their son—Charles Cotesworth Pinckney—was an illustrious figure in the affairs of the State and nation.
Eliza Lucas brought to her husband as part of her dowry the fruit of her own industry, in the form of all the indigo raised on the plantation. It was saved for seed, and a part was planted the next year on Mr. Pinckney's plantation at Ashepoo. The rest was given to friends, who began making experiments in indigo. Most of these proved successful, and the manufactured product soon became an important article of export.
Miss Lucas, though best known as the introducer of indigo, and the mother of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, is said to have possessed literary talent as well as executive power. Her letters were afterward privately printed, and one of them, under the title A Love Letter of the Last Century, has been included in Stedman and Hutchinson's Library of American Literature.
The success attending the experiments with imported indigo turned the minds of the people again to the native plants. A Mr. Cattell brought to Mr. Pinckney some of the wild indigo from the woods. Experiments were made, and it was found capable of yielding good indigo, but was less productive than the other. From this time, indigo for home use and for exportation was extensively made from both kinds of plants. Of the women of the Revolution we are told, "Indigo either tame or wild enables them to give a beautiful blue to their homespun."
In 1747 a considerable quantity of indigo was sent to England, which induced the merchants trading to Carolina to petition Parliament for a bounty on Carolina indigo. This petition of the English merchants was followed by another from the planters. Parliament examined the matter, and found that indigo was one of the most beneficial articles of French commerce; that the
