Today I Learned Cornrows Helped Slaves Escape

And uncovered something else for myself about language and oppression

Amy Sterling Casil
Fourth Wave
Published in
4 min readApr 12, 2024

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Young girl with braided hair by Rushay licensed from Adobe Stock

I hadn’t known before: cornrows conveyed messages.

It’s only common sense: why wouldn’t they? So does clothing, other hairstyles, makeup, and posture.

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Amy Sterling Casil
Fourth Wave

Over 500 million views and 5 million published words, top writer in health and social media. Author of 50 books, former exec, Nebula nominee.