Afro Hair in the Time of Slavery
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Peer-reviewed
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Authors
Nabugodi, Mathelinda
Abstract
Treatment of European and African hair radically differed in the time of slavery: the former sentimentally preserved in mourning jewellery and keepsakes, the latter shaved off in preparation for the slave-ship hold. This essay considers some examples of how hair functioned as a racial marker. While hair texture was used to establish boundaries between races, hair styling emerged a site of racial contamination where these boundaries threatened to dissolve as white people “frizzled” their hair to make it curly, while Black people shaped their Afro hair so as to mimic the aristocratic hairstyles of white Europeans.
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Keywords
47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4705 Literary Studies
Journal Title
STUDIES IN ROMANTICISM
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Journal ISSN
0039-3762
2330-118X
2330-118X
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Sponsorship
Leverhulme Trust (ECF-2019-309)
Isaac Newton Trust (19.08(r))
Isaac Newton Trust (19.08(r))
Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship