I just saw a post on Facebook about a remarkable 18th century woman named Eliza Pinckney, who transformed the agrarian economy in South Carolina and defied the conventions of her day. She is the subject of the book Indigo Girl, by Natasha Boyd, and I just ordered that. I look forward to reading it.
I enjoyed reading the short post. I had heard of Eliza but I was fascinated to learn more about her.
One of the comments came from a young woman who said sneeringly she made her fortune from the labor of the enslaved -- so basically that fact means nobody should admire her. That kind of thinking makes me really angry.
It's possible to be pro human rights and anti-slavery AND to still admire people who changed the world more than two hundred years ago.
In the 18th century, often referred to as The Age of Enlightenment, there were huge strides made in human achievement, particularly in scholarly accomplishments, as explained by Britannica:
"The great geniuses of the 17th century confirmed and amplified the concept of a world of calculable regularity, but, more importantly, they seemingly proved that rigorous mathematical reasoning offered the means, independent of God’s revelation, of establishing truth. The success of Newton, in particular, in capturing in a few mathematical equations the laws that govern the motions of the planets, gave great impetus to a growing faith in the human capacity to attain knowledge."
What the article doesn't address is the fact that when Eliza Lucas Pinckney was born, women were viewed as literally inferior in every way -- inferior minds, inferior character, inferior physically, etc. According to this website, liveyourdream.org:
"Prior to the 19th century, very few girls received formal schooling unless their families could afford a private education, which mostly focused on manners and domesticity."
Eliza Pinckney studied botany in an English boarding school and made important discoveries but she is not listed on their website as a woman who we should admire now, in the 21st century, undoubtedly because she was a slaveowner. Yet, she didn't get to choose the world she was born into. She was a product of her time and place. I admire her greatly.
By the standards of modern feminism, however, Eliza must be shunned, her accomplishments ignored. However, she not only transformed her community and married for love, she taught her slaves to read -- which was a very daring thing to do at that time. She could have been arrested for it.
Eliza was honored last year by the Daniel Island Historical Society. Here is an excerpt from the talk given:
"Born on Antigua (where he father was Lt. Governor) and educated in England, Eliza Lucas moved to South Carolina at 16 with her mother and sister Polly. The family owned three plantations in the Charleston area. Eliza turned her love of botany into an effort to develop indigo as a cash crop to complement the areas dependence on rice. Family friend Charles Pinckney, a widower, married Eliza when she was 25 and he was 45. They had 4 children in the following 4 years! They had one daughter, Polly. One of their sons died soon after birth. Charles Cotesworth (the oldest) and youngest child Thomas both achieved fame in the military and in government of the new nation."
It makes me sad that so many young women today look down on pioneers like Eliza Pinckney. Eliza didn't get to choose when she was born, or the society where she lived. There were no professions that warmly accepted a woman. She had to fight to learn. Her life was limited by the fact that she had four children in four years.
Eliza was the mother of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. According to Walking Charleston:
"Charles Pinckney [Eliza's husband] passed away in July of 1758. After his death, Eliza became an enthusiastic supporter of the Revolution. She spent much of her time with her daughter Harriott Pinckney Horry at Hampton Plantation near Georgetown. There she met the “Swamp Fox “, Francis Marion. Eliza actually helped Marion to evade British troops (as he had done many times) by entertaining a group of them at Hampton. Eliza was also known to George Washington. The two met at Hampton Plantation during his 1791 visit to South Carolina. Eliza traveled to Philadelphia for breast cancer treatment in 1793. She died May 26th and was buried there. George Washington was one of her pallbearers.
In 1989, almost two centuries after her death, Eliza Lucas Pinckney was the first woman inducted into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame."
Instead of denigrating women like Eliza Pinckney, we should revere them.
My grandmother Beaulah Phillips Butler (known the me as Granny Butler) was sent to a "finishing school" as a teenager, and married off at the age of 18. For the next 30 years, she had a baby every year or two, and not all of them lived. It was illegal to use birth control at the time, and anyone giving birth control or selling it to women, could be jailed.The lives of women -- even wealthy ones, like Beulah -- had not changed much in the hundred years since Eliza's death.
Granny coped with a bad marriage to an unfaithful man at a time when divorce was rare, and shocking, and often cost a person their friends. It was seen as a violation of Christian principles. (Granny was a devout Christian.) Granny also had to deal with the deaths of several of her children in infancy, the loss of all her money in the 1920's, the murder of one of her sons in 1933, the Great Depression and World War II.
Despite it all, Granny lived life with grace and dignity, admired by many, and greatly loved by her children and grandchildren. She saw that all but one of her 7 daughters were sent to college. One of her daughters, Jenny Butler Nottingham, was a full professor at Mercer University, for many years, after earning a Ph.D. in German.Granny's sons were successful business owners and one of them, Carl Butler, was mayor of Acworth Georgia for many years.
I never knew Granny but my mother adored her, and told me many stories about her.
Women like Eliza Pinckney and Beulah Butler faced daunting challenges in their day, challenges young women of today cannot fathom, and yet they triumphed. Were they morally perfect, or "woke," by the standards of feminists in 2024? Likely not. However, they should still be admired. Their lives were far more difficult than ours. I am proud to be Beulah's great-granddaughter, and proud of my Southern heritage.
Below, Granny Butler and her daughters, about 1921