ABSTRACT
If Adam was the hero who transformed American lands, Eve was nature itself, gendered as female. The story of American settlement is fi lled with metaphors that cast nature as a female object to be improved by men. Images of Eve as virgin land to be exploited, as fallen nature to be redeemed through reclamation, and as fruitful garden to be harvested are deeply encoded in American history, art, and literature. These images acted as ethical imperatives and sustained settlement ideologies.
