The color indigo blue was associated with political and religious rituals in early world civilization. It is a blue dye derived from the leaves of a leguminous plant which grew in India and Egypt before Christ. During the 16th century Portuguese, Dutch, and English traders brought it to Europe from India.

This dye had an important role in the industrial development of South Carolina. In the late 1700s, it was developed in the swampy land, north of the Cooper River, along Wappoo Creek. Indigo continued to be an important exported crop, especially to England.

Shocking for this era, the indigo crop was developed by a young woman, Eliza Lucas Pinckney. Eliza was born in Antiqua, West Indies in 1722. She was the daughter of George Lucas, a sugar planter and politician. Along with her brothers, she was educated in London. Eliza's father relocated them to S.C. in 1739, with Eliza, her ailing mother, and younger sister. He soon returned to the West Indies, leaving the running of his three plantations to Eliza, then only 17 years old.

Processing of indigo dye was a difficult task, because the process of indigo involves carefully timed fermenting and agitating stages. Eliza's father sent an indigo maker from Monteserrat to assist her. After building the equipment and several experimental runs, he wanted to return to his own crop. Suspecting the indigo maker of ruining her crop, Eliza dismissed him. She continued to experiment with the seeds, gathered from the Caribbean Islands. Indigo processing was labor intensive requiring a large slave labor force.

After many trials, Eliza managed to produce enough indigo in 1747 to make a shipment to England. After five years planting, cultivating, and processing indigo, Eliza succeeded in establishing one of the first profitable crops in S.C. Soon after, Indigo plantations spread and became a major crop of S.C. Her innovations helped make it the colony's second most profitable export after rice. Unlike rice, it did not require tidal marshes; therefore, it could be grown on uplands. She shared her ideas on growing indigo with other planters and was ac-cepted as an accomplished agriculturist in a society dominated by men.

Eliza Lucas Pinckney In 1744, she married Charles Pinckney, a Charleston attorney and member of the Royal Council. Within a few years, Eliza had four children: Charles Cotesworth, George Lucas (born and died in June, 1747), Harriott, and Thomas. She was as devoted a mother and wife as she was a planter.

Charles Pinckney died of malaria on July 12, 1758. Heartbroken by the death of her husband, Eliza moved in with her daughter Harriott Horry. Harriott was married to Daniel Horry, a rice planter who lived at Hampton Plantation on the Santee River.

Respected as an industrious and patriot woman, George Washington made a

visit to her during his tour in S.C. At her death in 1793, The South Carolina Gazette called her "so highly cultivated and improved by travel and extensive reading, and . . . so richly furnished, as well with scientific, as practical knowledge, that her talent for conversation was unrivalled, and her company was sedulously sought after by all."

Editor's note: This article contains excerpts from the manuscript- in- process, Women in My Fam.ily Deas- Moore is the author and photographer of several books. She is noted for her book,

Hampton Plantation Home: Portraits for the Carolina Coast , co- authored with William Baldwin, 2006.

Indigo blue adopted as S.C.'s official color

SECTION 1. Article 9, Chapter 1, Title 1 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"Section 1- 1- 710. The color indigo blue worn on the uniform of Colonel William Moultrie's soldiers and adopted as the background of the South Carolina State flag, is designated as the official color of the State of South Carolina."

Time effective

SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

Ratified the 10th day of April, 2008. Approved the 16th day of April, 2008.