This is a novel based on an incident in the life of Charles Willson Peale, Early American painter, Revolutionary War veteran, inventor, museum founder, farmer. Although he opposed slavery publicly, Peale accepted an enslaved family into his household as payment for a debt. He freed the husband and wife after a few years, but held their son, Moses Williams, until he was 26, and taught him to be a profile cutter, working in his Philadelphia natural history museum. In imagining the Peale family's life on an 18th-century farm, the book explores ethics and inclusion: the contradictions at the heart of this country. I relied on the work of biographers and art historians, as well as Charles Willson Peale's own voluminous writings, as published by Yale University Press. I found that Peale is a controversial figure; once seen simply as a hero, he has been criticized by feminist scholars for his patriarchal approach to his children and his treatment of his wives; and by art historians of color for not freeing Moses with his parents, and not teaching him to paint, only to cut profiles. Through fiction, I imagine the strengths and weaknesses-- the humanity-- of Peale and his household.