by Cynthia Andrews
Follow the Sappho
to
Meet Baby Aleeza
Charleston Harbor
The Charleston Harbor is where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers meet the Atlantic Ocean. The two rivers are named after one Lord Proprietor, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury. Both rivers tell a story.
Standing on the west side of the Charleston peninsula, one can see where the blackwater of the upland cypress swamps and the Wassamassaw River meet up with the tidal estuary of the saltwater marshlands. The Ashley supports a diverse ecosystem of wildlife and vegetation. It proved to be the perfect environment to grow Carolina Gold.
Standing on the east side promenade of the city, one can look out over the Copper River and witness the formation of our founding nation and the division of our brotherhood a century later. Fort Sumpter sits on a man-made island in the center of the harbor. To the left is Sullivan's Island, where Fort Moultrie hosted the first Patriot victory over the British at the start of the American Revolution. Looking to the right of Fort Sumpter is James Island, where the Confederate troops of Charleston at Fort Johnson directed the first shot against the Union troops who occupied Fort Sumter.
The Sappho- did Mr. Witte own this ferry?
Before the first Copper River bridge was built in 1929, the only way to reach Mt. Pleasant, Sullivan’s Island, or Ilse of Palms was by ferry boat. Today, there are lots of hidden clues as to where these boats would have originated. With names like Clements Ferry, Mathis Ferry, and Ferry Street near Alhambra Hall it’s easy to envision the bustling harbor with all the boats crossing the Charles Town waterways. The Sappho was a steam-powered ferryboat built in Brooklyn, New York, in 1874. It was 142 feet long, 24 feet wide, and had a draft of 8.7 feet. It was named after an ancient Greek poet, Sappho, best known for her lyric poems about love. The Sappho could carry 750 passengers and traveled between Charleston and Mount Pleasant in about fifteen minutes. The cost of a ticket was 30 cents. In the summer months, the Sappho and its sister ferry boat, Lawrence, carried between 3,500 and 5,000 passengers. After arriving in Mount Pleasant, passengers would board street railways to Sullivans Island and the Isle of Palms where they attended popular dances and concerts.
https://charlestonmag.com/ferried_away
https://charlestonmag.com/features/ferry_tales
Meet Eliza Pinckney (Aleezah in Arabic)
I first learned about Eliza Pinkney when I came across one of her exquisite silk dresses on display at the Old Exchange Museum. It turns out the dress was hers, the silk was hers, and the silkworms were hers! I became curious to know more about her, and I was amazed by what I learned. This remarkable young woman planted Mulberry trees to feed her silkworms and produced enough silk thread to make more than two dresses. One of the gowns was presented to Princess Augusta, the Dowager Princess of Wales (mother of the future King George III), and one was made for Eliza. The remaining silk was given to Lord Chesterfield, a fellow botanist and a friend of the Colonies. Because her extraordinary story involved traveling back and forth across the Atlantic as well as learning how to survive and even thrive on her own, Eliza Pinkney became the model for my character of Aleezah.
She was born in Antigua in 1722 and educated in London from the age of ten. When she turned sixteen, her father moved her family to Charleston and then returned to Antigua. Shortly after, her mother died, leaving Eliza to raise her little sister by herself. Alone, with the sole responsibility of managing her father's three plantations, Eliza called upon the help of her African Slaves from the West Indies. Luckily, her favorite subject in school was botany. Her father sent her many seeds and plantings for possible cultivation, encouraging her and her slave workers to experiment with ginger, cotton, alfalfa, hemp indigo, and silkworms. In 1744, Eliza shared her indigo seed with other planters, and by 1748, Charleston planters produced and exported 130,000 pounds of indigo. Without slave labor this achievement would have never happened. The hot, wet working environment meant workers were always susceptible to cholera, yellow fever, and malaria. It took some 180 pounds of leaves to produce one pound of indigo dye.
Eliza married Col. Chief Justice Charles Pinckney and had three sons and a daughter. Her oldest son, Charles, was one of the signers of the United States Constitution, and her son, Thomas, was appointed Minister to Spain.
https://www.gibbesmuseum.org/miniatures/collection/detail/20A6D05D-0630-4853-A7CA-262935512022
https://www.facebook.com/SC.State.Parks/videos/eliza-lucas-pinckney-indigo/3207316869488022/
https://www.si.edu/object/womans-dress-1750-1780%3Anmah_361871
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/south-carolina-indigo-artists-enslaved-plantations
Eliza Pinckney by Harriott Horry Ravenel, reprint,1896 by Charles Scribner’s Sons