Although it is a very upsetting subject, slavery is important to talk about, especially during Black History Month. Most people know about the Underground Railroad movement which was led by the courageous and determined Harriet Tubman. However, many are unaware of other ways that slaves would escape such as the use of cornrows.

Cornrows are defined by the Google Dictionary to be “[a] style of braiding and plaiting the hair in narrow strips to form geometric patterns on the scalp.” Though this hairstyle can be seen today still, it is known to have first emerged about five thousand years ago in West Africa. While cornrows were initially used to indicate factors such as tribe and religion, they served another purpose during the time of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The trans-Atlantic slave trade was a system in which Europeans would trade European goods, most notably guns, for Africans that were taken from their homes to become slaves. They would then transport them to areas such as North America, Brazil, and Cuba by ship. During this process, it was common for Europeans to force Africans to shave their heads with the purpose of deliberately ripping them from their culture. However, many Africans would instead braid their hair to avoid shaving it which was allowed.

Enslaved peoples in Columbia were the most known to have used cornrows to escape. They were able to do this by braiding their hair in a way to resemble roads or a path that one would have to take. By doing this, they had cleverly made a system of communication that Europeans would not be able to decipher as they would simply believe that the braiding was only a hairstyle and not a map. Because of this, a great amount of enslaved Africans were able to escape the horrible forced labor that they had to experience.