What role did women play in the cultivation of indigo
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In 1742 the face of agriculture in South Carolina changed dramatically when Eliza Lucas, the 16-year-old daughter of a wealthy planter, successfully cultivated indigo for the first time in the American colonies. Because the rich, blue dye extracted from the indigo plant was rare—and expensive—it was a symbol of status and wealth and in high demand in Europe. In 1747 the first shipment of indigo left for England, and within two decades more than a million pounds would be shipped each year, making the dye one of the colony’s largest exports, second only to rice. Indigo production was an extremely labor-intensive, multi-day process that could only be profitable when done on a large scale with slave labor, which limited it to plantations. Though most South Carolinians had few slaves, some landowners had many. The production of indigo caused a spike in the importation of African slaves—who would go on to outnumber whites in the colony by two to one—while lining the pockets of the colony’s elite.
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