The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd

It is astounding to learn that it was a sixteen-year-old teenage girl – Eliza Lucas – who was the first farmer in South Carolina in the early 1700s to produce indigo dye – a highly sought-after dye in the European fashion world at the time. Indigo dye was first discovered and produced by the African slaves who were sold to work on the plantations in the Americas.

This lovely historical novel based on the life of Eliza Lucas tells the story of how her determination and perseverance in the face of immense adversity and obstacles enabled her to produce the first high quality indigo dye harvest. Her success led to indigo dye becoming the largest export of South Carolina and the foundation on which the strong economy of the state was built – and forms the basis of the incredible wealth of some of the Southern families who still reside there.

Yet, despite this achievement, and the ground-breaking work Eliza Lucas did in terms of the advancement of equality as well as the education and freeing of slaves, she was largely overlooked by historians. In fact, it took all of 200 years for Eliza Lucas Pinckney’s extra-ordinary contribution to the wealth of the state to be inducted in the South Carolina Women in Business Hall of Fame and for her to eventually get the recognition the male dominated historians denied her for so long.

Be that as it may, in her novel, Boyd did a great job in bringing Eliza to life in a rich and colourful way, albeit that the author acknowledges that historical facts as per Eliza’s letters and diaries were in places somewhat embellished.

In 1739, her father leaves Eliza in charge of his three plantations, and to care for her sickly mother and younger sister when he decides to return to their native Antiqua in pursuit of his military ambitions. To make matters worse, her father proceeds to bleed the estates dry, leaving Eliza to fight for survival amidst rising tensions with the British and the Spanish while slave uprisings are also on the increase.

She therefore faces a Herculean task, especially in a period during which Southern traditionalism and chauvinism dictated that women were purely good for marrying. This leaves Elisa depending on her slaves as her only loyal support, as her mother sets out to do everything in her power to destroy the estates so that they can return to Antiqua.

Upon hearing how much the French pay for indigo dye, Eliza believes it's the key to their salvation. But everyone tells her it's impossible, and no one will share the secret of how to make it. Eliza then seeks and finds help from an aging horticulturalist and wins the support and friendship of an older and married gentleman lawyer. She also makes a deal with one of her slaves to teach her the intricate thousand-year-old secret process of making indigo dye and in return ­– against the laws of the day – she agrees to teach the slaves to read. Boyd captures the period – marred by racial tensions, political and economic turmoil – perfectly as she tells an incredible story of love, dangerous and hidden friendships, ambition, betrayal and sacrifice.

Reading the author’s notes was as intriguing as the novel itself and I was warmed to learn that when Eliza passed away in 1793, President George Washington served as a pallbearer at her funeral.