Forced to wear oversized clothing similar to smocks and without pockets, enslaved women outsmarted the system by repurposing cotton, tobacco, and flour sacks to create secret pockets worn beneath their clothing.
These simple pockets became a significant threat to the system.
Pockets threatened the status quo because they provided a certain level of bodily autonomy and accessibility to freedom. They were essential to helping our people escape because they allowed them to carry necessary possessions.
Enslavers put out ads for escaped people using pockets as identifying markers because they were afraid we might use pockets to carry papers or other items needed to make our way to freedom.
Pockets evolved into purses, sacks, and suitcases, sometimes called “freedom bags,” during the Great Migration aboard segregated trains headed north. Today, this Black innovation is weaponized against us, particularly in policing, with cases like 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who in 2014 had his hands tucked in his pockets before police shot him.
Coloniality tries to limit us in every way possible, but we must never let it. We can imagine new things and turn them into reality.