Mirrors are a fascinating piece of material culture. There's a great book called In the Looking Glass: Mirrors & Identity in Early America by Rebecca K. Shrum (2017) that looks at how mirror technology evolved right before North American colonization and looks at the social and cultural influences of improving mirror quality. She writes "the mirror was not just a part of the material world; it crafted the visual world on demand. As an item of visual culture, mirrors were objects through which people came to know themselves through sight," (7-8).

In almost any period, you can find Europeans using metal object with reflective properties that could give a general reflection, as well as water and glass, but all these options are distortive. In the twelfth century, the first glass mirrors were produced, but they were made from blown glass and therefore convex. In the seventeenth century, mirrors began to be cast by pouring molten glass on metal plates. By the nineteenth century, the norm was to use mercury to provide a reflective coating on glass. Each stage added to the level of accuracy in the reflection. In the late eighteenth century, Shrum cites data that shows roughly 50% or more of households in the English North American colonies owned some sort of looking glass. So, in short, yes, during early American history, most people had some idea of what they looked like, but with evolving reflection quality.

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The impact of mirrors aided the creation of white supremacy. Reflective metal objects were often used for trade between European colonizers and Indigenous people. When Indigenous people used these rudimentary mirrors in spiritual practices, wore them on their clothing, and decorated mirrors, Europeans asserted that these were uncivilized and vain practices to support white supremacy. But mirrors also enabled racial resistance. Enslaved Africans and African Americans were able to view themselves in mirrors owned by white enslavers. As a result, light skinned people could recognize their ability to pass in some social situations. It changed how enforcement of racial boundaries were related to physical status vs blood status.

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Socially, mirrors were signs of status. Wealthy Americans would have a larger, grander mirror in their home for guests to see while keep a smaller one in their bedroom for private use. By keeping mirrors in the household, people were able to self-fashion themselves to dress themselves according to their status.

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Although distortive reflections were commonly available through most of European history, as technology created accurate reflections, people in early America were more widely able to see themselves and more accurately. These advancements aided the development of racial ideology and class expectations.