The Tignon Law — Part 2

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The Tignon Law — Part 2

The Backfire: They Tried to Use Her Crown Against Her

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Explain how free Black women in colonial New Orleans transformed the mandated tignon into an elaborate display of silk, satin, jewels, feathers, gold beads, and intricate knots.
  • Describe what happened to the Tignon Law after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, and explain why Black women continued wearing the tignon by choice after the law was no longer enforced.
  • Explain how Empress Joséphine of France adopted the tignon-style turban, and analyze what this adoption represents as an example of cultural appropriation.
  • Connect the 18th-century Tignon Law to ongoing natural hair discrimination today, including the CROWN Act and its current status across U.S. states.
  • Evaluate the lesson's central claim — that an attempt to use a symbol of control against Black women instead became a symbol of pride and history.

Key Vocabulary

  • Tignon — (pronounced tee-yon) A large piece of fabric tied or wrapped around the head to form a turban or headscarf, mandated for Black women — free or enslaved — by the 1786 Tignon Law. After the law ended, Black women continued to wear the tignon by choice, transforming it into an enduring symbol of identity and pride. [1][2]
  • Louisiana Purchase (1803) — The transfer of the Louisiana territory from France to the United States. After this transfer, the Tignon Law was no longer enforced as Spanish colonial policy — but the practice of wearing elaborate tignons had already become part of Black women's chosen self-expression, and continued regardless of the law's status. [1][2]
  • By Choice — A phrase describing the shift in the tignon's meaning after 1803: from a legal requirement imposed on Black women to a style they actively chose to continue wearing — turning what had been a tool of control into a tradition of their own making. [2]
  • Empress Joséphine of France — Joséphine de Beauharnais, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte and Empress of France in the early 19th century. Portraits from this period show her wearing turban-style headwraps similar in construction to the tignon styles worn by Black women in Louisiana and the Caribbean during the same era. [3][4]
  • Cultural Appropriation — The adoption of elements of one culture — often a marginalized group's — by members of a dominant culture, typically without acknowledgment, credit, or benefit to the originating community. The adoption of the tignon-style turban into European high fashion, while its Black Creole origins went uncredited, is presented in this lesson as an example of this pattern. [3][4]
  • CROWN Act — Legislation — "Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair" — that prohibits discrimination based on hair texture and hairstyles historically associated with race, including braids, locs, twists, and head wraps. First signed into law in California in 2019, the CROWN Act has since been enacted in 27 states plus Washington, D.C., with Pennsylvania becoming the 28th state in November 2025. [5][6]
  • Hair Discrimination — The practice of penalizing or excluding people — disproportionately Black women and girls — in schools, workplaces, and public spaces based on natural hair texture or protective hairstyles. This lesson frames ongoing hair discrimination as a continuation of the same logic behind the 1786 Tignon Law: regulating how Black women are allowed to present themselves. [5][6]

The Full Lesson

Part 1 — The Crown They Built

After the 1786 Tignon Law required Black women to cover their hair, free Black women in New Orleans did not simply comply with a plain piece of cloth. They wrapped their tignons in silk, in satin, in the finest fabrics they owned. They added jewels, feathers, gold beads, and intricate knots. [2]

What had been designed as a mark of inferiority — a visible sign meant to link free Black women to the enslaved class — became, in their hands, the most powerful crown in the room. The law had tried to take away their right to display status and beauty through their hair. Instead, they moved that display onto the headwrap itself, and made it impossible to ignore. [1][2]

"What was meant to mark them as inferior — became the most powerful crown in the room."

Part 2 — By Choice

The Tignon Law was tied to Spanish colonial governance in Louisiana. After the United States acquired the Louisiana Territory in 1803, the legal and political structure that had enforced the law was gone. [1]

But Black women kept wearing the tignon. Not because a law required it — but by choice. What had started as an imposed marker of status had become, over years of being transformed into art, something that belonged to the women who wore it. The tignon outlived the law that created it, because its meaning had already changed. [2]

Part 3 — Joséphine Copied It

The elaborate tignon style — the silk, the jewels, the structured wrap — became iconic enough that it reached far beyond New Orleans. Portraits of Empress Joséphine of France from the early 19th century show her wearing turban-style headwraps strikingly similar in construction and ornamentation to the New Orleans tignon. [3][4]

The style was taken into European high fashion. But the women who had originated it — the free and enslaved Black women of Louisiana who had turned a mandated headcovering into elaborate art — were not credited. The look was adopted. Where it came from was erased. [3][4]

"They stole the look — and erased who it came from."

Part 4 — Still Legislated

The Tignon Law was a law from 1786. But the impulse behind it — regulating how Black women are allowed to present their hair — did not end with the law itself.

Today, Black women's hair is still being policed in schools and workplaces, and in some places, it is still being legislated. The CROWN Act — "Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair" — was first signed into law in California in 2019 to prohibit discrimination based on hair texture and protective hairstyles such as braids, locs, twists, and head wraps. As of late 2025, 27 states plus Washington, D.C. have passed CROWN laws, with Pennsylvania becoming the 28th state. [5][6]

The fact that this legislation is still needed — more than two centuries after 1786 — is the lesson's central claim made literal: the Tignon Law never really ended. It changed form, but the underlying question — who gets to decide how Black women wear their hair — is still being fought over today. [5][6]

"The Tignon Law never really ended."

They tried to use her crown against her. She turned it into history. That is who she has always been.

🛍 Carry the crown — shop The Tignon Collection

Critical Thinking Discussion Questions

  1. Free Black women responded to the Tignon Law by wrapping their mandated headcoverings in silk, satin, jewels, feathers, gold beads, and intricate knots. [2] What does it mean that a law designed to mark someone as inferior became, instead, the foundation for "the most powerful crown in the room"?
  2. After 1803, the Tignon Law was no longer enforced, but Black women kept wearing the tignon "by choice." [1][2] Why might something that started as an imposed requirement become something people choose to continue — and what does that tell us about how meaning can change over time?
  3. Portraits of Empress Joséphine of France show her wearing turban styles similar to the New Orleans tignon, without crediting the Black Creole women who originated the look. [3][4] How does this example illustrate the pattern of cultural appropriation — and why does it matter who gets credit for a style?
  4. The CROWN Act exists because, as of 2025, hair discrimination is still legal in roughly half of U.S. states. [5][6] What does the continued need for this legislation — more than 200 years after the Tignon Law — suggest about how long it can take to fully undo a law's effects, even after the law itself is gone?
  5. The lesson's closing line states: "They tried to use her crown against her. She turned it into history." Based on everything in this lesson, what do you think this sentence means — and do you agree that this is "who she has always been"? Explain your reasoning.

Quiz — The Tignon Law — Part 2

Part A: Circle the best answer. Part B: Write in complete sentences.

Part A — Multiple Choice

  1. After the 1786 Tignon Law required Black women to cover their hair, what did free Black women in New Orleans do with their mandated tignons?
    A) Left them plain to comply exactly with the law
    B) Wrapped them in silk and satin and added jewels, feathers, gold beads, and intricate knots
    C) Refused to wear them and were punished
    D) Replaced them entirely with European-style hats
  2. What happened to the Tignon Law after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase?
    A) It was rewritten to apply to all women in Louisiana
    B) It became a federal law enforced by the United States
    C) It was no longer enforced, but Black women kept wearing the tignon by choice
    D) It was replaced immediately by the CROWN Act
  3. What does the phrase "by choice" describe in this lesson?
    A) The choice of Governor Miró to issue the original 1786 decree
    B) The shift from the tignon being a legal requirement to something Black women chose to continue wearing after the law ended
    C) A choice given to enslaved women to avoid wearing the tignon
    D) The choice of fabric mandated by the 1786 law
  4. How is Empress Joséphine of France connected to the tignon, according to this lesson?
    A) She banned the tignon throughout the French Empire
    B) Portraits show her wearing turban styles similar to the New Orleans tignon, without crediting its origins
    C) She funded the original 1786 Tignon Law
    D) She was the first person recorded wearing a tignon
  5. What does this lesson identify as the result of Joséphine's adoption of the tignon style?
    A) The style was banned in Europe as a result
    B) The look was adopted into European fashion while the Black Creole women who originated it went uncredited
    C) The originators of the style were given formal recognition in France
    D) The tignon disappeared from New Orleans entirely
  6. According to this lesson, what is the CROWN Act?
    A) A 1786 Spanish colonial decree
    B) A piece of legislation prohibiting discrimination based on hair texture and hairstyles historically associated with race
    C) A fashion brand founded by Empress Joséphine
    D) A museum exhibit about the Tignon Law
  7. As of late 2025, how many U.S. states (plus Washington, D.C.) have passed CROWN laws, according to this lesson?
    A) 7 states
    B) 15 states
    C) 27 states plus D.C., with Pennsylvania as the 28th state
    D) All 50 states

Part B — Short Answer

  1. Explain, using at least two specific details from the lesson, how free Black women transformed the tignon from a mark of inferiority into "the most powerful crown in the room."
  2. The lesson states that after 1803, Black women kept wearing the tignon "by choice." Explain what this phrase means in context, and why this shift in meaning matters.
  3. Using at least two specific details from the lesson — one about Empress Joséphine and one about the CROWN Act — explain how the lesson connects the 18th-century Tignon Law to events and laws from the 19th century and today.

Extension Activity

Still Legislated: This lesson states that as of late 2025, 27 states plus Washington, D.C. have passed CROWN Act laws, with Pennsylvania becoming the 28th state. Research the current status of CROWN Act legislation in your own state. Write 1 to 2 paragraphs explaining whether your state has passed a CROWN law, what it covers (or what is being proposed if it has not yet passed), and how it connects to the history described in this lesson. Then write one sentence explaining what you think this tells us about how long it can take for the effects of a law like the 1786 Tignon Law to be fully addressed.

Sources & Footnotes

  1. [1] "Tignon Laws." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Overview of the 1786 Bando de Buen Gobierno, its enforcement under Spanish colonial rule, and the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.
  2. [2] Long, Carolyn Morrow. A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006.
  3. [3] "Tignon." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Discussion of the tignon's influence on broader fashion in the 19th century.
  4. [4] "Fashionable Rebellion." Women & the American Story, New-York Historical Society. wams.nyhistory.org.
  5. [5] "States with Hair Discrimination (CROWN) Laws." GovDocs. Tracker of CROWN Act legislation by state, including Pennsylvania's passage in late 2025.
  6. [6] "About." The Official CROWN Act (thecrownact.com). Overview of CROWN Act legislative history and current federal reintroduction.

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