The lasses from the low country
In the 1960s, Joan Baez was one of my favorite recording artists. She sang many wonderful American folk songs, and one of my favorites was She was a lass from the low Countree, ascribed to John Jacob Niles, an American singer, songwriter, and transcriber of traditional Appalachian folk tunes. You can listen to it here if you want.
We are on our way to South Carolina’s low country tomorrow. It doesn’t have anything to do with the Appalachian folk song I talked about in the last paragraph, but I really like the song and wanted to share it with you.
Anyway.
We’re going to Bluffton, SC (outside of Savannah, GA) to have lunch with my new best friend Mary Pinckney and her friend Peggy Piggott. Peggy has written several books about the low country during the colonial era, including biographies of Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Rebecca Brewton Motte. Both of these women were successful businesswomen at a time when it was not easy for women to hold positions of power and influence.
These are the “lasses from the low country,” if you’re looking for a connection.
If you have followed my essays on recent Tuesdays, you’ve read about my research for a class on the Pinckney family of South Carolina for an Osher class I’m teaching this spring. On December 13, I wrote about the time I wrote about spending some time with Mary in DC, learning about her Pinckney ancestors and the Society of the Cincinnati.
I’ve finished reading Peggy’s book about Eliza, and I’m halfway through her book on Rebecca. I plan to finish it before I see her tomorrow.
Tomorrow I expect to learn more from Mary about the Pinckney family, and we plan to go to the nearby Pinckney Wildlife Refuge, located on an island where members of the Pinckney family lived in the 18th century. Peggy will add a lot of information about the two women associated with the Pinckney family. She has done costumed interpretation of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, and I hope to figure out a way for her to come to Williamsburg while I’m teaching the Pinckney class. I would love to have her show up for the last hour of the class and tell the class members about Eliza and the other Pinckneys. She used to be a costumed interpreter at Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg, so she’s familiar with the territory. I can’t afford to buy her a plane ticket to fly to Williamsburg, but I can give offer her a place to stay while she’s here. That would be so cool.
After we leave Bluffton on Wednesday morning, we’re going to drive to Charleston, SC (a little less than two hours away).
This map shows several locations we plan to visit in Charleston. There are a couple of museums and visitors’ centers we’d like to see, and we want to visit St. Philip’s Church, where many members of the Pinckney family are buried. The Middleton family is closely associated with the Pinckney family, and there are two sites linked to the Middleton family that I’d like to visit. Charles Pinckney’s house burned in the middle of the 10th century, but the site still has some signage telling about the place.
After a few hours in Charleston, we’ll head on up the road to stay the night in Florence, SC. From there it will be about a 6-hour drive home.