The papers of Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722–1793) and her daughter
Harriott Pinckney Horry (1748–1830) document the lives of two
observant and articulate founding-era women who were members of
one of South Carolina’s leading families. Their letters,
diaries, and other documents span nearly a century (1739–1830)
and provide a window on politics, social events, and people of
the late colonial and early national periods. They richly detail
the daily life of maintaining family ties and managing
households and plantations. Pinckney’s correspondence
illustrates the importance of women’s social connections and
transatlantic friendships. Horry’s correspondence documents the
strength of personal ties that linked the elite families of the
North and the South to each other even as connections were
threatened by disputes over slavery, commercial differences, and
political and constitutional conflict. At top right: photograph
of a brooch owned by both Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Harriott
Pinckney Horry, now in the collections o