“According to Mederic-Louis-Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, mulâtresses affranchies circumvented laws requiring them to go barefoot by adorning themselves with flowers. They headed out to dances, at times matching their dress to that of “a good friend who is a confidante, the woman she cannot do without.” The emergence of sumptuary laws did not stop black femme presentation or intimacy.” PleasureBeautyIntimacyFemininity Book:Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World Source: Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World