Enslavement and Madras

Although worn by both free and enslaved African Caribbean people, Madras handkerchiefs became particularly associated with slavery both as a currency of the trade in enslaved African people and as a fashion widely popular within enslaved African Caribbean communities.

As a fashionable accessory, Madras was not typically included in the allotments of clothing enslavers were required to provide those they enslaved. Rather, enslaved people used what money they could earn for themselves to purchase Madras in accordance with their own tastes. Worn around the shoulders, waist, torso and head as prized articles of fashionable dress, enslaved African Caribbean consumers used Madras to style themselves with prestige in a society which sought to deny them basic dignity.