There has been a viral post on social media concerning a 1786 law called the Tignon Law. Before we get into what the law did, first let’s talk about what a Tignon is. Most men have no idea what a tignon is although we have seen them many times. Some women don’t even know what a tignon is although they wear them all the time. A tignon is simply a scarf wrapped around a women head. Black Man: “Hey baby!! Look at you!! I wish my women had a tignon like yours!!” Black Woman: Smack!! Smack!! Get yo nasty azz away from me!!” Anywho, so yeah that’s what a tignon is.. and there is a lot of history behind that fashion. The forced wearing of tignon’s by women slaves and free black women and the Tignon Laws were part of what were called Sumptuary Laws. Sumptuary laws were designed to regulate the consumption of luxury goods. They were also put into place so that you could tell the bosses from the fieldhands. The tignon laws were first enacted in the United States in New Orleans, Louisiana, by the Spanish governor Esteban Rodriguez Miro. As far as racist go, Miro could be considered a moderate by today’s standards. I mean twenty lashes was his limit if you messed up. He is widely seen by historians as a capable and fair administrator. At least by their historians as being fair and capable… they must have forgotten the part about the man presiding over a slave state whose slave population was bonded to the Code Noir, an offshoot of the Barbados Slave Codes.
The Barbados Slave Codes
“To Protect “them” (black folks) as we do other mens goods and chattels.” That’s right, the Barbados Slave Codes were enacted to protect us… gawd bless dey heart. So what if it describes black people as “an heathenish, brutish and an uncertaine, dangerous kinde of people.” It was either that or let Massa “Left Testicle” McDirtynife have his way. So although its aim was to protect black folks from cruel slave owners, for all practical purposes it gave more protections to the slave owners than to the slaves. Still it had to be some really foul stuff going on to have to enact laws against harming slaves. In addition to “protecting us,” it required the slave owners to provide at least one set of clothing per year for each person. It also prohibited slave owners from killing you for a first offense.. for instance if you woke up one morning and felt like you done had enough of this shat and went out and smacked the Good Morning Barbados out yo massa mouth, then they were restricted to either, 1- Whipping yo azz like they caught you in dey bed drinking gin and juice with dey daughter or 2- setting yo head on fire after they have spit yo nose in half, because you took that chamber pot and emptied it on Lady Keap Faquingwitu’s head… as long as they didn’t kill you. So I may be joking about the reasons, but those were penalties associated with a first offense. Flogging or cutting a slit down your nose and burning your face with fire. Do it again.. and you surely gonna die!! They also stipulated in the codes that if the massa woke up one day and just wanted to kill a nigra and he killed you, then he would be required to pay a certain sum into the public treasury. Now if he woke up and killed somebody else’s slave then he would have to pay “double” into the public treasury and then report to the Justice of the Peace (police) to be bound by good behavior. Police: “Aye there good citizen.. you blew up that slave up with a keg of gunpowder and all we found was a eyeball and middle index finger.. so we now have to ask you to be on good behavior…may I have your gentleman promise?” Massa: “Aye!” So yeah… that’s about how that went down… The codes did not provide for food, housing, or working conditions. In reality you could be punished for anything they considered a “misdeed,” and that punishment usually was severe… even all the way up to hanging. I mean for real who’s to say it was a first offence? Massa: “Naw.. he did it before..” Police: “Aye..” Anywho, in 1688 there was a revision to the codes..
“No person of the Hebrew Nation residing in any Sea-Port Town of this Island, shall keep or employ any Negro or other Slave … for any Use or Service whatsoever.” Jews were not permitted to have slaves.
Code Noir
The Code Noir or Black Code was decreed by a French monarch in 1685. Unlike the Barbados Slave Codes whose primary goal was to keep them psychopaths on Barbados from killing all of us, the Code Noir was made to primarily restrict the freedoms of free people of color and to mandate that all slaves be converted to Christianity. It also ordered all Jews out of French colonies. So the Code Noir has been said to be the most comprehensive document on slavery ever written. Legally it said that slaves were property but could not be seized against a debt… at least for the most part. There were exceptions. Now although they were property, they were also held accountable to the same laws free whites were held accountable to. Massa 1: Hey Massa 2, yo garden rake just came ova heh and stole some watermelons and Ima needs some dough for dat or Ima have to call the PoPo..” The code also legally made distinctions between field slaves and domestic slaves. Now before we move on with all this stuff the Code Noir was doing for slaves, these codes although called the Black Codes.. thats what Noir means in French… these codes also affected white slaves. Wait.. what!! WHITE SLAVES?? Why do you think they made a code.. okay? If it was just black slaves then… Massa: “Now you make me pull out my gun… just make me!!” Yes there were white slaves also… however they were called serfs. Serfs were by and large white folks, which was another reason they wanted them converted to Christianity. There might have been a few black serfs, but they weren’t trying to make any trouble. Trouble could mean a long nasty trip down that funky river in the bottom of what might as well been a toilet, to a hot mosquito and rat infested colony where the massa’a brother and a skinny hairy one eyed white man with a tattoo of a decapitated nigra on his chest was waiting for you with a burlap sack and a ten foot long bullwhip. Nope that was not gonna be an option. So the codes only affected blacks because we were subjects under French law and that law extended to their colonies where most black slaves were located.
Okay now where were we… Oh yes… the code provided for slaves to bring complaints against their master for mistreatment or for not providing living necessities like food, clothing and shelter. Slave: I’m tired of yo shat massa!! I’m getting ready to go tell the man on ya… Ima tell him we running around here dressed in rat fur and eating pigeon legs every day… and that you put swamp grass beds in those bear caves so that you don’t have to build us any huts!! Last night ten of us went in there to sleep and only four of us came out!! So what do you have to say about that!!?? Massa: “Oh really?… have a seat… did you shoot that arrow that just came through that window at me?” Slave: “What arrow!!?? There’s no window in here!!” Massa: Yes you did…” Slave: Massa No!! I don’t even have a bow!! How am I going to shoot an arrow at you and I’m sitting right here !!??” Massa: “Guard!!!” Complaining to the authorities rarely worked out because the codes stipulated that slave statements of complaints should be considered only as reliable as that of a child or domestic slave…. Massa: AIM… FIRE!!
In The Beginning
To understand how and why the tignon laws were enacted in the United States, we first have to understand a semi-legal system called placage. The word is French meaning ” to place with.” So to make a long story short, placage was the civil union between European men and non whites females. Did placage also apply to European women and non-white males? Yes.. but they wish a mofo would… now let’s move on. So there were other reasons that European women did not “placage” with non white males. The primary reason is that there were very few white females coming to the colonies at first. The trip was long and dangerous. Life was very difficult once they got there and so many opted not to make the trip. Now you got hundreds of white men without white women in the new world, so they turned to the next best thing. They started “placaging” with their slaves and native Americans. Now with all this placaging going on, you soon had a large population of very light skinned women as a result. Some were so light that they could even pass as white. As the years rolled by these women who were known as Mulattoes, Creoles, or Afro-Creole began to ascend in white society. Some were free, others were slaves and still others had their own businesses or had married into wealthy white families. They were living their best life.. that was until Karen decided it was time to take a trip. When Karen got there, what had once been a mosquito ridden, Indian scalping, turnip and dandelion eating bunch of hoodlums cowering in a muddy swamp surrounded by a couple of bushes they chopped down for protection, was now a thriving city, with homes and plantations that rivaled those of the great cities of Europe… and at the heads of those households were none other than women of color. For the first time in their lives Karen’s were now forced to take a back seat to the children of African slaves and I’ma tell you right now that shat wasn’t going to fly! Karen immediately sent word back to Uncle Deep Pockets in Europe that somebody here had lost their @##!! mind!!
Dear Uncle Deep Pockets,
“The blacks have taken over. I fear I will not be able to find me a suitable companion because they have gotten the affection of every white man in town. Yesterday I dropped my handkerchief in front of the Peace Officer and instead of retrieving it, he gave me a fine for littering. Well I had never been so humiliated and I just fainted… When I came to, the Mayor and his black wench Beautiful Sarah were stepping over me while I laid in the most dreadful position… and you know what dear Uncle.. I think she winked at me!! I pray every day that wench’s hair and teeth fall out.. and that when she asks me have I seen her hair and teeth, I can tell her I put them on the little dolls I set on fire. I am so sad as I have never been treated like this. Black women are walking around with diamonds and gold on their necks, wearing fine dresses and shoes, holding little umbrellas with satin around the edges…. smiling with big gleaming white teeth and winking at us.. and when those dastardly white men see them do it, they shove us out the way so they honeybunch can get by!! We need help now!!”
Your Loving Niece,
Karen Deep Pockets.
Well since Uncle Deep Pockets was the man who had financed the trip in the first place to establish the colony, ain’t no way he was going to let that stand. So he told Governor Miro to get that fixed .. right now!! Enter the Tignon Laws.
The Tignon Laws
So as we said in the beginning the Tignon Laws were first enacted by Governor Miro in 1786. He was governor of Louisiana. The laws were meant to make a distinction between the class status of free women of African descent as well as to distinguish Creole women of color who had obtained economic status and, in some cases had become almost physically indistinguishable from white women. Creole’s were the descendants of European French or Spanish colonist and women of African descent. The Tignon law stated that women of pure or mixed African descent could no longer wear their hair uncovered or adorned in public. From that moment on they were to wear a headdress tied around it to prevent them from passing for white and receiving treatment reserved for our white honeybunches. In addition the law stated that women of color could no longer show “excessive attention to dress..”
Karen: “Excuse me… but is that dress is clean… did you wash it before you came here? You do know you violating.. right? Did you just wink at me…??” The laws were meant to force free women of color to visually re-establish their ties to slavery. Free women of color who were accustomed to a higher status, in other words married to rich or powerful white men could wear a “panuelos.” A panuelos was basically a large bandana. They did not have to completely wrap their hair in a scarf. Some experts believed that the law was never really enforced and that the women who followed the law turned the wearing of the headdress into a fashion statement, adorning them with jewelry and perfumes. Karen: “I Know What I Said!! Make Em Take Em Off!!!” Indeed in Europe when Empress Josephine of France started wearing the style, it became a hit and white women all over Europe were wearing it. I don’t blame them. Back in those days the lice were big as cats and you can almost bet that there were a lot of bald heads under them head wraps… besides that, sitting at the hairdresser day after day, hour after hour, ever since you could say pomatum was getting old. You could literally spend half the day on your hair. It only took you a few minutes to wrap it. Pomatum was a type of grease use to hold the hair in place in those times. It was usually made with lard and some fragrance, but if you was high on the hog, you used bear fat or some other type of animal fat and fragrance. Because they used animal fat to take care of their hair, it had to be washed out daily or you may get to feeling some kinda way when people walk up to you and say.. “Hey Karen.. lice to see you..” Okay.. I couldn’t resist it… anywho.. Sometime in the 1830’s the style begin to lose its popularity. I suspect it had to do with the slave trade in the America’s and people not wanting to be associated with slavery. It was in the 1830’s that Nat Turner and his crew dropped it like its hot and started chopping folks up. After his execution they named a road after him called, “Bofofthem Right A Way.” Anywho… France and its colonies had abolished slavery in 1794 and Spain in 1811. Although Spain had abolished slavery in its colonies also, Cuba ignored the ban and slavery didn’t end there until 1887, about twenty years after the Civil War… still want to know where all them die hard confederate traitors went after the war? Anywho, the hairstyle lost popularity around the mid century of the 1800’s and began to re-emerge in the 20th century with celebrities like Lauren Hill and Sade rocking the style. Finally I’m sure you will all agree that we should tip our hats to those black women who truly knew what it meant to make lemonade out of lemons.
Thanks for reading ©Hill1News.
PS. I have no idea why the font has changed in different blocks. Please excuse the inconvenience.
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