Very few pieces of clothing connected to known African Caribbean enslaved wearers survive. The piece on the left is a rare example. It is believed to have been worn by Mary ‘Pinkie’ Franklin, a woman enslaved in Louisiana, but little is known about her life.

In the absence of records documenting the lived experiences of the enslaved, artworks can offer glimpses of their character. The portrait on the right depicts Neky, a woman from Saint Croix who was brought to Copenhagen, Denmark, to work as a nanny. Almost nothing is known about Neky, including whether she was free or enslaved at the time of this portrait. But her Madras handkerchiefs are testaments to her personal taste, expressions of her culture, and markers of her identity. Compare the patterns of Mary’s Madras to Neky’s Madras.