The Indigo Girl

In March, Eliza grows impatient and tasks Togo, one of her father’s enslaved workers, with tilling the land in preparation for indigo crops. Mr. Deveaux visits and recommends that she soak and score the seeds before planting them. On a visit to the Woodwards, Ann announces that Eliza’s father has found a suitor for her: a man named Mr. Walsh, whom Eliza has only met once. They discuss other eligible bachelors and recall an incident when Eliza bored her most desirable suitor, Mr. William Middleton, with her talk of crops. In a letter to her father, Eliza asks him to postpone his efforts to arrange a marriage for her for the next two to three years.

One March morning, Togo tells Eliza that the indigo seeds have finally sprouted. Elated, Eliza decides to ask her father for an indigo consultant. She writes to Starrat to have Sarah brought to Wappoo. In April, the indigo sprouts are killed by a sudden frost. Eliza leaves with her mother for Charles Town to meet with Mr. Manigault, the deed holder of the Wappoo plantation. They stay with the Pinckneys, and while there, Mrs. Pinckney informs Eliza that her niece, Miss Bartlett, will be visiting.