In 1739, 16-year-old Eliza Lucas’ father leaves her in charge of three plantations in South Carolina while he goes to Antigua to advance his military career. Eliza, who has a passion for botany, decides to try to grow indigo to better her family’s finances. However, extracting the dye from the plant is not a simple process, and she needs help which is hard to get when men don’t take women seriously and her mother is determined to marry her off.
Quote
“One can always judge a man’s character by how he treats those beneath him.”
Interesting Facts
Natasha Boyd was born in Denmark, grew up in Great Britain and now lives in Atlanta, GA. She was living on Hilton Head Island, SC, when she heard about Eliza Lucas for the first time at an indigo exhibit.1
The Indigo Girl is the author’s first historical fiction. She did a lot of research for the book, even though she hated history classes in school. It took her 3 years to publish it.1
The Indigo Girl is a fiction based on the true story of Eliza Lucas, a 16-year-old girl who started planting indigo, even though it had never been done successfully in South Carolina. Later, she passed around seeds to other planters, and the indigo crops became the biggest and most profitable trade of the state until the Revolutionary War.1 Eliza also taught her father’s slaves to read and write, which was against the law at the time.
Ben is not a historical character. The author invented him after she found a document mentioning that Eliza’s father sent a “Negro man” to help her with the indigo crops.2
You can learn more about the real Eliza Lucas here.3
Eliza Lucas wrote many letters. Some are available online. Read her letters here.4
Cécile Sune was born in Lyon, France, and her obsession with books started when she was 14. Her grandparents had lent her Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and she spent part of the summer indoors reading. Needless to say, her tan didn't really improve that year! It was also around that time that Cécile fell in love with the English language. Several years later, in 1999, Cécile moved to Toronto, Canada, with her cat and 5 suitcases. Her love of reading greatly increased when she discovered that English books were much cheaper than French novels. In 2013, she decided to start a blog to share her passion. Cécile now lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her husband and their daughter, and works as a freelance translator (CS Revision).
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