The Tignon Law — Part 2 Teacher Resources

The Tignon Law — Part 2

Teacher Resources

The Backfire: They Tried to Use Her Crown Against Her

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Quiz — The Tignon Law — Part 2

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?

B) Wrapped them in silk and satin and added jewels, feathers, gold beads, and intricate knots.

Students should be able to describe the specific materials and details the lesson names — silk, satin, jewels, feathers, gold beads, and intricate knots — rather than a vague "they decorated it." This matters because the lesson's central point is that a law designed to mark these women as inferior instead became the foundation for, in the lesson's words, "the most powerful crown in the room." Students who answer A, C, or D are describing responses that do not match what the lesson states happened — compliance without transformation, refusal, or replacement are all incorrect.

2. What happened to the Tignon Law after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase?

C) It was no longer enforced, but Black women kept wearing the tignon by choice.

Students should understand the timeline: the Tignon Law was tied to Spanish colonial governance, and when the United States acquired Louisiana in 1803, the structure enforcing the law was gone. But the lesson is explicit that this is not where the story ends — Black women continued wearing the tignon, and the lesson frames this continuation as a choice, not a holdover obligation. Students who answer A, B, or D are inventing outcomes (a rewritten law, federal adoption, or an anachronistic jump straight to the CROWN Act) that the lesson does not describe.

3. What does the phrase "by choice" describe in this lesson?

B) The shift from the tignon being a legal requirement to something Black women chose to continue wearing after the law ended.

This is the lesson's pivot point. Students should be able to articulate that "by choice" marks a change in meaning — the tignon began as something imposed from outside, and became something chosen from within. This distinction is what allows the lesson to argue that the tignon's meaning had already changed by the time the law disappeared. Students who answer A, C, or D are attaching the phrase to the wrong historical actor or moment — Governor Miró's original decree, a supposed exemption for enslaved women, or fabric requirements, none of which is what "by choice" refers to here.

4. How is Empress Joséphine of France connected to the tignon, according to this lesson?

B) Portraits show her wearing turban styles similar to the New Orleans tignon, without crediting its origins.

Students should be able to state the specific claim: portraits of Joséphine from the early 19th century show turban-style headwraps similar in construction and ornamentation to the New Orleans tignon, and the lesson presents this as adoption without credit. Students who answer A, C, or D are either inventing events (a ban, funding the original law) or reversing the chronology (claiming she was the first person to wear a tignon, when the lesson's entire point is that the style originated with Black women in Louisiana before it appeared in European portraiture).

5. What does this lesson identify as the result of Joséphine's adoption of the tignon style?

B) The look was adopted into European fashion while the Black Creole women who originated it went uncredited.

Students should be able to name this as the lesson's example of cultural appropriation: a style originates with a marginalized group, is adopted by someone with greater visibility and status, and the originating group goes uncredited. The lesson's language is direct — "they stole the look, and erased who it came from." Students who answer A, C, or D are describing outcomes (a ban, formal recognition, disappearance of the style in New Orleans) that contradict or are unrelated to the lesson's actual claim.

6. According to this lesson, what is the CROWN Act?

B) A piece of legislation prohibiting discrimination based on hair texture and hairstyles historically associated with race.

Students should be able to define the CROWN Act in the lesson's terms — legislation addressing discrimination based on hair texture and hairstyles such as braids, locs, twists, and head wraps. This is the lesson's bridge from 1786 to the present day: it is presented as evidence that the impulse behind the original Tignon Law — regulating how Black women present their hair — persists into modern law and policy. Students who answer A, C, or D are confusing the CROWN Act with the original 1786 decree, inventing an unrelated entity, or describing something the lesson does not claim exists.

7. As of late 2025, how many U.S. states (plus Washington, D.C.) have passed CROWN laws, according to this lesson?

C) 27 states plus D.C., with Pennsylvania as the 28th state.

Students should be able to state this figure precisely, because the specific number is what makes the lesson's closing argument concrete: roughly half of U.S. states still do not have CROWN Act protections, meaning hair discrimination remains legal in many places more than two centuries after 1786. Students who answer A, B, or D are either dramatically understating the legislation's reach or overstating it by claiming universal adoption, which would undercut the lesson's point that "the Tignon Law never really ended."

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PART B — SHORT ANSWER KEY POINTS

Question 8. 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."

A strong answer should include:

• At least two specific details: free Black women wrapped their tignons in silk and satin — the finest fabrics they owned — and added jewels, feathers, gold beads, and intricate knots
• What this transformation accomplished: the tignon had been designed as a visible sign meant to link free Black women to the enslaved class; by making it elaborate and beautiful, they moved the display of status and wealth that the law had tried to suppress directly onto the headwrap itself
• Why this matters: the law could mandate that fabric be worn on the head, but it could not control what that fabric looked like or what it communicated — the women retained control over meaning even while complying with the letter of the law
• Strong answers will connect: this transformation to the lesson's framing of the tignon as something that "became" rather than simply "was" — its meaning was actively built, not given

Question 9. 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.

A strong answer should include:

• What "by choice" means in context: the Tignon Law was enforced under Spanish colonial governance; after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase transferred the territory to the United States, that enforcement structure no longer existed — yet Black women continued wearing the tignon
• Why this is described as a choice rather than a holdover: the lesson frames this as evidence that the tignon's meaning had already changed during the years it was worn under the law — it had become something that belonged to the women who wore it, not merely something imposed on them
• Why this shift matters: it demonstrates that the people the law was designed to control had, by the time the law disappeared, already redefined what the object meant — the law's removal did not end the tradition because the tradition no longer depended on the law
• Strong answers will connect: this idea of an outlasting, redefined meaning to the lesson's broader argument that attempts to control or diminish someone through an object or symbol can result in that person redefining the symbol entirely

Question 10. 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.

A strong answer should include:

• Detail about Joséphine: portraits of Empress Joséphine of France from the early 19th century show her wearing turban styles similar in construction and ornamentation to the New Orleans tignon, adopted into European fashion without crediting the Black Creole women who originated the style
• Detail about the CROWN Act: as of late 2025, 27 states plus Washington, D.C. have passed CROWN Act legislation prohibiting hair discrimination, with Pennsylvania becoming the 28th state — meaning roughly half of U.S. states still lack these protections
• How these connect across centuries: Joséphine's adoption shows the tignon's influence spreading and being appropriated within decades of the original law; the CROWN Act's incomplete adoption, more than 200 years later, shows that the underlying issue — who controls how Black women present their hair — was never fully resolved
• Strong answers will connect: both examples to the lesson's closing claim that "the Tignon Law never really ended" — it changed form across centuries, from a colonial decree, to an uncredited fashion adoption, to a patchwork of modern state laws

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