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well as shared in the direction of one owned by her husband. Her correspondence tells of experiments with hemp and flax. These were not permanently successful; but progress was made in teaching cotton- and wool-weaving. Furthermore, Mrs. Pinckney undertook on her husband's plantation the cultivation of silk. Although this did not prove as profitable as the indigo-raising, Mrs. Pinckney produced enough raw silk to have three handsome gowns woven from it, one of which is still preserved by her descendants.

In the spring of 1752, business took Mr. Pinckney to England, and his wife and children accompanied him. Mrs. Pinckney has left an interesting account of their gracious reception by the Dowager Princess of Wales, to whom she presented one of the silk dresses before mentioned. The family stayed in England until 1758, and then left the two little boys in school there. Only a few weeks after their return, Mr. Pinckney died, and his widow was left again with heavy responsibilities. Her husband had owned land and negroes in various parts of the colony, and the years following 1758, filled with the French and Indian War, and then troubles with the mother country, were difficult ones for landowners. Mrs. Pinckney had had too much experience, however, to be overwhelmed now. Her

sons, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Thomas Pinckney, did not return until a few years before the Revolutionary War, in which, notwithstanding their English affiliations, they took an active part on the American side. This is not the place to review their distinguished careers, but it is interesting to recall that the elder was the American commissioner to the French Republic who is credited with giving utterance to the sentiment: "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."

During the war, Mrs. Pinckney's two sons and her son-in-law were in active service; and there was plenty of call for heroism and skill on the part of their women-folk. She lived to see peace established, and to aid her daughter in welcoming Washington to her home in 1791. In April, 1793, she went to Philadelphia, hoping to get medical aid in a severe illness. She recovered enough to gain pleasure from the visits of many old friends, but she died quite suddenly on May 26th. President Washington, by his own request, acted as a pall-bearer. She lies buried in St. Peter's Churchyard in Philadelphia.1

The substantial contribution which Mrs. Pinckney made to the prosperity of South Carolina, through the establishment of indigo-raising, has

1 Ravenel.

been described. A greater contribution to the welfare of her country lies in the careers of her distinguished descendants.

It may well be that Mrs. Pinckney was preeminent among colonial women landowners; at any rate, we know more about her achievements. But it is probable that women, unnoticed by their contemporaries and unknown to posterity, through management of the land shared more in building up this country than in any other way.

CHAPTER VII

WITH TONGUE, PEN, AND PRINTER'S INK

A. Authors

"I am obnoxious to each carping tongue
Who says my hand a needle better fits,
A poet's pen all scorn I should thus wrong;
For such despite they cast on female wits,
If what I do prove well, it won't advance —
They'll say it's stolen, or else it was by chance." 1

THUS Anne Bradstreet, the first American poet, complained of the current attitude toward the literary production of women. She herself was no extreme feminist, but admitted, to a degree that many modern women would find irritating, that men's preeminent merits in all lines were unquestionable; she asked from men only "some small acknowledgement of ours." Regarding her own efforts, Mrs. Bradstreet is genuinely modest, and she concludes the poem from which the stanza above is taken thus:

"And oh, ye high flown quills that soar the skies,
And ever with your prey still catch your praise,
If e'er you deign these lowly lines your eyes,
Give thyme or parsley wreath; I ask no bays.
This mean and unrefin'd ore of mine

Will make your glistering gold but more to shine.":

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