History Lecture Series: Margaret Pickett, author of 'Eliza Lucas Pinckney'

The Beaufort History Museum and Beaufort County Library District Collection present the next presentation in their History Lecture Series, by local author and historian Margaret Pickett.

In 1744 Eliza Lucas Pinckney sent a sample of indigo she had developed on her father’s plantation to England where it was said to be as good as the indigo produced by the French in their island colonies in the West Indies.  Indigo soon became a valuable export for Carolina planters.  Explore the history of indigo in South Carolina and discover how it affected the sea islands around Beaufort.

In 1739, Major George Lucas moved from Antigua to Charleston, South Carolina, with his wife and two daughters. Soon after their arrival, England declared war on Spain and he was recalled to Antigua to join his regiment. His wife in poor health, he left his daughter Eliza, 17, in charge of his three plantations. Following his instructions, she began experimenting with plants at the family estate on Wappoo Creek. She succeeded in growing indigo and producing a rich, blue dye from the leaves, thus bringing a profitable new cash crop to Carolina planters.

While her accomplishments were rare for a young lady of the 18th century, they were not outside the scope of what was expected of a woman at that time. Her biography, drawn from her surviving letters and other sources, chronicles Eliza Pinckney's life and explores the 18th century world she inhabited.

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Margaret F. Pickett

Margaret is a graduate of the University of Maryland.  She is a former teacher who spent 20 years working in museum education in Virginia’s historic triangle—Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown. In 1999 she became an independent Living History Interpreter researching and developing several documented Living History programs based on the lives of prominent colonial women. She has portrayed these women for the National Park Service, the Learning Odyssey Program at the College of William and Mary and many local organizations in both Virginia and South Carolina.  

In 2007 Margaret and her son Dwayne started Pickett Educational Resources and as co-director she developed several educational DVD’s to help bring history alive in the classroom. She is the co-author of The European Struggle to Settle North America: Colonizing Attempts by England, France and Spain, 1521 – 1608 and the author of Eliza Lucas Pinckney: Colonial Plantation Manager and Mother of American Patriots 1722-1793.

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Price of Event: Free, but a donation of $5.00 to the Beaufort History Museum is requested; Ages 12 – Adults

For more information: Contact the Museum at (843) 379-3079