INTRODUCTION: America’s Civilized

Standing in the foreground of a large oil painting are two female figures (Fig. 0.1). Their bodies are clothed in sumptuous European garments of the early modern period: fitted silk brocade petticoats, layered golden pearls, and velvet bows. And yet their identities, as articulated by their skin and hair, conflict with both the concept of elite European women and what it means to exist in the early modern world as the survivors of colonization. The female figure on the left is Indigenous to Turtle Island (the continent now called North America, mainly the current nations of the United States and Canada). 1 Her long, thick, straight, dark brown hair is styled in two braids that extend past the canvas’s bottom border. Her facial tattoos on her brown skin and high cheekbones showcase her Indigenous culture’s representations of her accomplishments and roles in her society. 2 The Indigenous woman’s body is entirely covered in her elaborately embroidered pink bodice and high, lace-trimmed ruff. With her forlorn expression, she turns to look upon her companion, an African woman to her left.