Did you know that it was once against the law for black women to show their hair in public?
The Tignon laws of the 18th century banned black women from exposing their natural hair in public and to cover their hair with a headwrap called a tignon. #BlackHistoryMonth
A THREAD!
The Tignon laws of the 18th century banned black women from exposing their natural hair in public and to cover their hair with a headwrap called a tignon. #BlackHistoryMonth
A THREAD!
This headdress was the result of laws passed in 1786 under the administration of Governor Esteban Rodriguez Miró. It aimed to prohibit women of color from displaying excessive attention by their dressing in the streets of New Orleans'.
A tignon (tiyon) is a headdress used to conceal hair. It was worn by free and enslaved Creole women of African ancestry in Louisiana in 1786. The regulation was meant as a means to regulate the style of dress and appearance for people of color.
Black women’s features often attracted male white, French, and Spanish suitors and their beauty was a perceived threat to white women.
Apparently, women of color were wearing their hair in such fabulous ways, adding jewels and feathers to their high hairdos and walking around with such beauty and pride that it was obscuring their status.
The law was meant to distinguish women of color from their white counterparts and to minimize their beauty.
Black women began to adopt the tignon, and tied the tignon in elaborate ways and used beautiful fabrics and other additions to the headdress to make them appealing. In the end, what was meant to draw less attention to them made these ladies even more alluring.
If you love my content, You can support the page/project here through tips on: ko-fi.com/africanarchives
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
