When Black Women Used Hair Braids to Escape Slavery
A history lesson in brilliance and resilience
Any student of history knows that Africans were enslaved in more places than just the U.S.
In fact, over the period of 400 years from the 1500s all the way to the early 1900s, 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped and transported to the Americas.
Most historians, including Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., report that hundreds of thousands ended up in the U.S. while the other 10 million plus went to the Caribbean and South America. Close to 2 million died of starvation and illness during the Middle Passage.
The stories of these enslaved Africans should be told, too.
One of these stories is a fascinating history in creativity, intelligence and a longing for freedom. A lesson in perseverance for us all.
It’s a history of the use of hair braids to escape slavery.
Communities of enslaved Africans in Colombia designed different braid styles to communicate with each other.
A braided hairstyle called departes, meaning “to depart,” was formed on the heads of women when someone wanted to escape.
More intricate braids were then used to draw actual maps of escape routes from the plantations.
