Colonial Women is the first comprehensive study to explore the interpenetrating discourses of gender and race in Stuart drama. Analyzing the plays of Shakespeare, Fletcher, Davenant, Dryden, Behn and other playwrights, Heidi Hutner argues that in drama, as in historical accounts, the symbol of the native woman is used to justify and promote the success of the English appropriation, commodification, and exploitation of the New World and its native inhabitants.