American bodies and landscapes in early English colonisation

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe illustrations of sixteenth-century Algonquian-speaking peoples of present-day North Carolina by Theodore de Bry and John White are among the most recognisable images associated with European colonisation, and reading the differences between the two sets in the light of contemporary travel literature clarifies the commercial interests of England’s colonisation promoters. De Bry attenuated “native” characteristics like ritual tattooing and made his female subjects appear healthier and more robust by emphasising their youth. Explorers like Thomas Harriot and Arthur Barlowe reinforced de Bry’s images, and reports and pictures of flora and fauna indicated that Algonquian women were as fertile as their lands. Depictions of Native American women as under-clothed and uncivilised allowed Europeans to cast colonisation as a religious endeavour to “civilise” and clothe them. Native American bodies and lands were distorted to convince English people to leave their overpopulated and deforested island for a better home across the Atlantic.