Under a system called "couverture, " their husbands essentially owned women. They had some rights to inheritance, either to the property they brought into a marriage or to a portion of their husband's property, but in the context of the marriage itself they owned nothing, not even their own jewelry. " (Roberts (1), p.12) This, however, did not stop them from doing what needed to be done; to ensure the survival of their livelihoods. "They did what all women who went before them and came after them did when it came to raising children and running households, but they were assigned by history to play other roles as well. " (Roberts (1), p.15).
Eliza Lucas Pinckney, at the age of sixteen was left in charge of her families three plantations in South Carolina. This would be a ludicrous notion in the present day, but in the Eighteenth Century, it was not truly uncommon. What makes her a woman who stands out is that she took those three plantations and transformed them into something truly magnificent. She became the first farmer to cultivate and process indigo into dye. Indigo became a major cash crop for the south. Eliza herself once wrote to a friend about her daily life as the person in charge of three plantations: "I have the business of three 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 burdensome 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"" (Roberts (1), p.2). .
Eliza worked hard to make her life on the plantations a good one. Working as a planter, she met a neighboring planter Charles Pinckney whom she married. Together they produced four children. Two of whom, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Thomas Pinckney, were active in the politics of the nation and international politics as well.