09/12/2025
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Colonial women were responsible for making the family’s soap. They made soap from leftover animal fat and lye, saving grease and wood ashes throughout the year. One barrel of soap usually required about six bushels of ashes and twenty-four pounds of grease. The wood ashes were packed into a barrel with layers of straw between them, and a little water was poured in from time to time. A seep hole at the bottom allowed the lye to slowly drip out, while the straw kept the larger pieces of ash from clogging the opening.
The grease and lye were then boiled together in a large iron kettle over an outdoor fire because the smell was strong and unpleasant. The mixture had to be stirred constantly in one direction. Soap-making was a difficult and sometimes unsuccessful process, so it was not unusual for neighbors to wish a woman good luck on her soap.
This process created a soft, jelly-like soap that showed no trace of the grease it came from. This soft soap was used for monthly washings, as laundry often accumulated for a month or sometimes even three months in certain households.
Women also made a hard soap using bayberry tallow and salt. This soap was especially desirable for toilet use, but it was rarely made in order to preserve the salt for cooking. The most challenging part of soap-making was judging the strength of the lye. The strength was tested with an egg or a potato. If the lye could perforate it, the mixture was strong enough. It was common to hear people say, “We had good luck with our soap,” or “We had bad luck with our soap.”
