Candles

Early American households used some form of a grease lamp at night to supplement light from the fireplace. By the late 1700s, however, families turned to candles. Most households made their own tallow candles derived from sheep or cattle hard fat. They were hardly the aromatherapy indulgence of today. Tallow candles smoked easily and were malodorous, making them attractive to mice. Only wealthier families could afford more pleasant-smelling beeswax or bayberry candles.

A colonial housewife would take a day or more each winter to make her yearly supply of tallow candles, which then took, at minimum, six months to harden. For all their preparation, they burned quickly. A household would burn through hundreds of candles annually. Colonial wicks were made of linen or cotton fibers, whereas today’s candles use a braided cotton wick which is designed to keep pace with the melting wax. The latter weren’t invented until 1824. Colonial wicks required frequent trimming or else the tallow would melt away too quickly, leaving nothing to support the collapsing wick. The colloquial phrase in the eighteenth-century for this was a “thief in the candle,” referring to the collapsed wick leaning against the tallow, causing it to burn even more quickly until it sputtered out and “thus steals it away.”

In Witness to the Revolution, Savvy comes across Jonathan in his tent, his burning candle forgotten. Not only was this a waste of his limited supplies, but the fact that Jonathan had allowed the candle to burn without keeping the wick well-trimmed so it collapsed and guttered out shows how lost in thought he was.

The photograph of the dinner table was taken aboard the Mayflower II. The other photograph shows a bundle of modern, white candles.