Which American colonial woman played a major role in South Carolina's economy?

Eliza Lucas Pinckney was not the typical 18th Century American woman. Born in Antigua in 1722, she and her family moved to one of her father's three plantations in South Carolina. Unlike most young women at the time, she received a formal boarding school education and excelled in botany. Her father was called to duty with the British army, leaving 16-year-old Eliza in charge of one plantation and supervisor of the overseers at two others. Looking for an additional cash crop, her father sent her indigo seeds from Antigua to experiment with. She developed a plant that was suitable for the growing textile industry, and gave the seeds to South Carolina planters. Within three years, South Carolina's exports of indigo grew from 5,000 pounds per year to 130,000 pounds, one third of the state's exports.

She chose her own husband, something almost unheard of at the time. She married wealthy planter Charles Pinckney, and they had four children; two of which became very influential Americans. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was a signatory on the U.S. Constitution and twice presidential candidate on the Federalist ticket. Thomas Pinckney was named minister to Spain and negotiated the Pinckney Treaty, which gave Americans navigation rights on the Mississippi River to New Orleans.

When she died in 1793, President George Washington was a pall bearer at her funeral. In 1989, Eliza Lucas Pinckney became the first woman to be inducted into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame.