Eliza Lucas (Pinckney) Free Essay Example, 2000 words

Another way she differed was how she viewed her place in society. At the time, the Great Awakening, evangelical religious fervor, was spreading throughout colonial America. To most of those who lived in Colonial America, religion was vital. After all, the freedom to practice it in the way one saw fit was a motivating factor in the establishment of the British colony so far from home. â€Å"Pinckney’s religious views reflected those of most Southern Anglicans, who valued the rational exercise of religion. As the Great Awakening began its move to the South in the 1740s, Pinckney appears to have remained unaffected; her letter illustrates that she continued to emphasize a rational piety, a view that Pinckney perceived as rooted in God’s Word. †2 Most women accepted that prevailing religious view that women should be in submission to God and their husbands or fathers regardless of whether they were Anglican or evangelical. While educated women read at the time, prop er reading material consisted of â€Å"advice literature and sermons which installed and perpetuated a highly stratified social hierarchy, accepted a subordinate social status. † Not only that, since the south was entirely dependent on slavery, another hierarchical system, â€Å"white women, identifying with and desiring the protection of the white male, used reading and writing as a means to support the concept of naturalized hierarchies. We will write a custom essay sample on Eliza Lucas (Pinckney) or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Thus, in addition to securing the proliferation of slavery, white southern women also forced themselves into a tightly prescribed role as subservient to man. †3 Yet, they still saw themselves above the slave in the hierarchical order, but perhaps Lucas Pinckney saw the order of power in another way. Apparently, Lucas Pinckney was allowed to read outside of the proscribed literature and developed an interest in many subjects, science for example, from whence she came up with her â€Å"schemes. † She studied law and helped people to write their wills. One of her noteworthy â€Å"schemes† was to plant oak trees to make the masts for ships. She also cultivated silk. Education had value to Lucas Pinckney and she endeavored to share it even with slaves as one of her â€Å"schemes, † as she referred to it in a letter to a friend. In the letter, â€Å"Lucas assures her [friend] that she will get approval from both of her parent s before proceeding with her ‘scheme. ’ That Lucas still refers to her plan of instructing of slaves as a ‘scheme, ’ despite her parents’ knowledge of the idea, further alludes to the potential subversive nature of such a plan. † Although, teaching slaves to read was not prohibited by law, it certainly was not encouraged among the conservative landed gentry of the Lucas family’s social circle.