Born Eliza Lucas in
1722, she was the daughter of the British governor of the
colony of
Antigua. Her family moved in
1739 to the colony of
South Carolina in hopes that the change of climate would improve Eliza's mother's health, but Lt. Col. Lucas shortly thereafter had to return to Antigua due to conflicts between
England and
Spain. Eliza stayed and ran the Carolina
plantation, since her mother couldn't; she was the first great experimenter in
agriculture in America and introduced the cultivation of
indigo to South Carolina, which became a great
cash crop until the
American Revolution (second only to
rice;
cotton was not much grown in the American
South until the
cotton gin was invented after the American Revolution).
In 1744 she married widower Charles Pinckney, the Chief Justice of the province. In the fourteen years before he died, they had three children: Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Thomas Pinckney, and Harriott Pinckney (later Mrs. Daniel Horry). Charles C. was an American general during the Revolution and signer of the U.S. Constitution; Thomas was also an officer on the U.S. side of the Revolution and later the U.S. minister to Spain and Great Britain and governor of South Carolina (and married the daughter of Rebecca Motte); and Harriott saved General Francis Marion's life (he had taken refuge at her house when the British were pursuing him; when the soldiers were heard approaching she was able to hid Marion while the British officer ate the meal that had been fixed for Marion). Mrs. Pinckney continued to manage the plantations while her husband was working and after his death.
The war ruined her financially, but her children were able to support her. She died in 1793 and was so well regarded that George Washington served as one of her pallbearers.