Beginning in 1740, experiments by Eliza Lucas (who later married Charles Pinckney - see Charles Pinckney's Town House) led to the successful cultivation of indigo, the source of a rich blue dye so prized by the English for their textile industry that they offered bounties to those who successfully grew a crop. This engraving of the indigo plant is from the cartouche of a map drawn by Henry Mouzon in 1785.
Courtesy of the Charleston Museum, Charleston, South Carolina.
