Trade Card for Ariosa Coffee, Arbuckle Bros., "Tennessee," 1892

Late-nineteenth-century manufacturers used trade cards to promote and sell their products. These colorful advertisements also reflected the prejudices of the time. Illustrators often depicted Indigenous people as "savages" hindering the progress of "civilized" European-Americans. This depiction supported the view of many white, middle-class Americans, especially near the end of the American Indian Wars in the West.