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LETTER DESCRIBING PLANTATION LIFE IN
SOUTH CAROLINA
(2 May 1740, by Eliza Lucas
Pinckney)
Charleston County - South Carolina
contributed by John Howell
Of all Great Britain's
colonies in the New World, South Carolina held most dear the
"peculiar institution" of slavery. In an economy based primarily on
the cultivation of rice and indigo, the colony's planters relied so
heavily on unwilling human labor, in fact, that by the time of Ms.
Pinckney's correspondence, slaves actually outnumbered free whites,
accounting for some sixty percent of the population. South Carolina
was the only colony so distinguished. The letter presented here is a
look into a world in which landed white masters, often women, pined
to visit fashionable cities like Charleston and to leave for a while
the work of managing their sprawling plantations to overseers and
hired hands. The commitment of Ms. Pinckney and her fellow citizens
to an institution of forced labor would have long-lasting
consequences, nationally as well as locally. Partly in deference to
the wishes of South Carolina, the Second Continental Congress
excoriated a condemnation of slavery from Thomas Jefferson's
original draft of the Declaration of Independence. Following the
American Civil War, during which it was first to secede from the
Federal Union, South Carolina endured an especially difficult and
tumultuous period of Reconstruction.
Laura M. Miller,
Vanderbilt
University
See also Plantation System of the South ;
South Carolina .
To my good friend Mrs.
Boddicott
Dear Madam,
I flatter myself it will be
a satisfaction to you to hear I like this part of the world, as my
lott has fallen here—which I really do. I prefer England to it, 'tis
true, but think Carolina greatly preferable to the West Indias, and
was my Papa here I should be very happy.
We have a very good
acquaintance from whom we have received much friendship and
Civility. Charles Town, the principal one in this province, is a
polite, agreeable place. The people live very Gentile and very much
in the English taste. The Country is in General fertile and abounds
with Venison and wild fowl; the Venison is much higher flavoured
than in England but 'tis seldom fatt.
My Papa and Mama's great
indulgence to me leaves it to me to chose our place of residence
either in town or Country, but I think it more prudent as well as
most agreeable to my Mama and self to be in the Country during my
Father's absence. We are 17 mile by land and 6 by water from Charles
Town—where we have about 6 agreeable families around us with whom we
live in great harmony.
I have a little library well
furnished (for my papa has left me most of his books) in which I
spend part of my time. My Musick and the Garden, which I am very
fond of, take up the rest of my time that is not imployed in
business, of which my father has left me a pretty good share—and
indeed, 'twas inavoidable as my Mama's bad state of health prevents
her going through any fatigue.
I have the business of 3
plantations to transact, which requires much writing and more
business and fatigue of other sorts than you can imagine. But least
you should imagine it too burthensom to a girl at my early time of
life, give me leave to answer you: I assure you I think myself happy
that I can be useful to so good a father, and by rising very early I
find I can go through much business. But least you should think I
shall be quite moaped with this way of life I am to inform you there
is two worthy Ladies in Charles Town, Mrs. Pinckney and Mrs.
Cleland, who are partial enough to me to be always pleased to have
me with them, and insist upon my making their houses my home when in
town and press me to relax a little much oftener than 'tis in my
honor to accept of their obliging intreaties. But I some times am
with one or the other for 3 weeks or a month at a time, and then
enjoy all the pleasures Charles Town affords, but nothing gives me
more than subscribing my self.
Dear Madam,
Yr. most
affectionet and most obliged humble Servt.
Eliza.
Lucas
Pray remember me in the best
manner to my worthy friend Mr. Boddicott.
SOURCE: Pinckney, Eliza. The Letter book of Eliza
Lucas Pinckney, 1739–1762. Chapel Hill, N. C.: Univ. of North
Carolina, 1972.
Miller, Laura M.. "Letter Describing Plantation Life
in South Carolina (2 May 1740, by Eliza Lucas Pinckney)." Dictionary
of American History. The Gale Group Inc. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 27
Sep. 2009
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