The Black Roots Of Soapmaking
Black History Year
PushBlack
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 30 September 2024
⏱️ 3 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Laundering on the plantation was no joke. It wasn’t easy work, especially because enslaved people made everything from scratch–including the soap.
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Transcript
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| 0:33.8 | Laundering on the plantation was no joke. It wasn't easy work, especially because enslaved people made everything from scratch, including the soap. |
| 0:44.3 | This is Two-Minute Black History, what you didn't learn in school. |
| 0:49.3 | Many enslaved women spent their days laundering on hot plantations. |
| 1:02.8 | Task with washing clothes for so many people wasn't easy, but they used what they had and made something out of nothing. |
| 1:10.8 | That something was soap. |
| 1:13.6 | They initiated the soap-making process by making a lie substance known today as |
| 1:19.5 | suponification. |
| 1:21.6 | The process required a slow mixing of water with oak wood ashes, |
| 1:26.5 | but their craft was much deeper than just making |
| 1:29.3 | soap. |
| 1:30.3 | It provided a clean path to liberation. |
| 1:34.3 | Our people were skilled artisans who used their skills to claim more autonomy and independence |
| 1:40.3 | from enslavers. |
| 1:42.3 | Often, they would get more work off the plantation, and many eventually |
| 1:46.7 | saved enough to buy their freedom. Today, many black-owned companies like Blade and Bloom and Butter continue the soap-making tradition of our people. |
| 2:10.4 | Consider honoring this history and switching to a product and made for us, by us. |
| 2:17.0 | We've always had the ingenuity to find and create new paths. |
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