Hair, Accessories, and Other Uses for Clothing

Enslaved people did not have a lot of resources, but that did not stop them from expressing themselves with joy and care.

Across the United States, enslaved men and women used handkerchiefs as adornment. This was no different in Louisiana, as runaway slaves ads proved.

Runaway ad from Le Courier. Adapted from On to New Orleans! Louisiana’s Heroic 1811 Slave Revolt.
Runaway ad from Le Courier. Adapted from On to New Orleans! Louisiana’s Heroic 1811 Slave Revolt.
Runaway ad from Le Courier. adapted from On to New Orleans! Louisiana’s Heroic 1811 Slave Revolt.

‹›

Runaway ads also described jewelry that enslaved people wore, usually gold earrings. At Woodland Plantation, a part of a brooch was uncovered, as well as fan boning. This fan and this brooch could have been the planter’s wife; it could have also been gifted to an enslaved worker from the wife. It wasn’t an uncommon practice for fans specifically to be given to favorite enslaved domestic workers. Likewise, enslaved women wore small brooches from time to time, especially if they worked inside the planter’s house.

Portrait of a former slave woman, 1901. Courtesy of Historic New Orleans Collection, gift of Ms. Sara Mastin, 1984.2.3.

Piece of a brooch, recovered from Woodland Plantation. Courtesy of GNO ARC.

Fan boning, recovered from Woodland Plantation. Courtesy of GNO ARC.

Portrait of an enslaved woman, 1855. Courtesy of the Gulf South database, the Historic New Orleans Collection, CIS-2015-2008.

Courtesy of Historic New Orleans Collection, acquisition made possible by the Diana Helis Henry Art Fund of The Helis Foundation in Memory of Charles A. Snyder, 2010.0306

Praline Vendor, Louisiana Digital Library (1895). Coutesy of the Louisiana State Museum, 09813.0023.

When the first Tignon Law passed in 1785, colored women, enslaved and free, popularized the stylized headwrap as a symbol of elegance and beauty, pragmatism and simplicity, and self-expression under a regime that rejected their existence. The most well recorded examples are the freed women of color in New Orleans, but enslaved women often wore simpler tignons for day-to-day work.

There are fewer sources on how enslaved men distinguished themselves, but many runaway ads cite men wearing capots and handkerchiefs, which some argue were traded with Native Americans as precious gifts, or for safe passage to freedom.

Shell Button, Woodland Plantation. Courtesy of GNO ARC.

Clothing, as well as other household items, were also used for various other purposes. Flannel bags, for example, are used in Hoodoo practice to create gris-gris bags. Buttons, buckles, and other small items on clothing could be used inside the gris-gris bags to target the person who would be “crossed,” or affected.