Mormonism and polygamy#U.S. government actions against polygamy

{{Main|Origin of Latter Day Saint polygamy}}

Historian Richard van Wagoner reports that Smith developed an interest in polygamy after studying parts of the Old Testament in which prophets had more than one wife.{{Cite book |last=Van Wagoner |first=Richard S. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/681161668 |title=Mormon polygamy: A History |date=1989 |publisher=Signature Books |isbn=978-1-56085-303-9 |edition=2nd |oclc=681161668}}{{rp|3}} In the 1830s or early 1840s,{{efn|In the words of historian Benjamin Park, "the precise origins of the practice remain murky".{{harvnb|Park|2020|p=63}}. According to historian Don Bradley, Joseph Smith's first polygamous marriage was likely in 1833.{{harvnb|Bradley|2010|pp=14–58}}. According to Park, Smith initiated Mormon polygamy in the 1840s.{{harvnb|Park|2020|p=62}}}} Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith secretly initiated a practice of religious polygamy among select members of the Church of Christ he founded.{{harvnb|Hendrix-Komoto|2022|pp=65–66}}. In Nauvoo, Illinois, Smith introduced ecclesiastical leaders to the practice of polygamy, and he married several plural wives.{{harvnb|Park|2020||pp=104–107}}. On July 12, 1843, Smith dictated and had recorded what he said was a revelation from God describing the theology and purpose of polygamy, relating it to biblical portrayals of polygamous marriage by Old Testament patriarchs such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.{{harvnb|Park|2020|p=153}} When he dictated the document, Smith said he already "knew the revelation perfectly from beginning to end".{{Harvtxt|Hardy|2007|p=60}}.

At the time, the practice was kept secret from most people, both adherents and not.{{Harvnb|Bushman|2005|p=491}}{{Harvnb|Hendrix-Komoto|2022|p=66}}{{Cite book |last=Dowland |first=Seth |date=September 26, 2017 |editor-last=Barton |editor-first=John |chapter=Gender, Marriage, and Sexual Purity in American Religious History |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.432 |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.432 |isbn=978-0-19-934037-8 }} The church publicly denounced polygamy, and only some membership knew about the teachings and practiced polygamy.{{Harvnb|Bushman|2005|p=491}}; {{Harvnb|Park|2020|p=67}}; {{Harvnb|Hendrix-Komoto|2022|p=66}}. The number of members aware of polygamy grew until the church started openly practicing polygamy in early 1852, eight years after Smith's death.{{rp|4}}{{Cite book |last=Linford |first=Orma |title=The Mormons and the Law: The Polygamy Cases |publisher=The University of Wisconsin |year=1965}}{{rp|53–54}} According to some historians and then-contemporary accounts, by this time, polygamy was openly taught and practiced.{{rp|185}} The doctrine authorizing polygamy was canonized and first published in the 1876 version of the church's Doctrine and Covenants.{{harvnb|Bringhurst|2010|p=60}}.

There were two types of polygamous marriages in the LDS Church: eternity-only and time-and-eternity. Eternity-only polygamous marriages applied only in the afterlife and time-and-eternity marriages applied both in mortal life and in the afterlife.{{Cite journal |last=Hales |first=Brian C. |date=2017 |title='He Had No Other Wife but Me': Emma Hale Smith and Mormon Polygamy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26316890 |journal=The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=5 |jstor=26316890 |issn=0739-7852}} Smith had sexual relations with some of his wives; others, he had no sexual relations with.{{Harvnb|Van Wagoner|1989|p=72n3}}; {{Harvnb|Park|2020|pages=67, 104–106}}.

Other types of polygamous marriages in the early LDS Church were polyandrous (literally "many men") in contrast to polygynous marriages. In polyandrous marriages one woman was married to more than one living husband at the same time. Examples of prominent Mormon women who at some point practiced polyandry included Zina D. H. Young,{{Cite journal |last=Van Wagoner |first=Richard S. |date=1985-10-01 |title=Mormon Polyandry in Nauvoo |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/mormon-polyandry-in-nauvoo/#pdf-wrap |journal=Dialogue|publisher=University of Illinois Press |volume=18 |issue=3 |doi=10.2307/45227986 |issn=0012-2157}}{{rp|p=78}} Patty Bartlett Sessions,{{rp|p=2,23}}{{Cite magazine |last=Nalley|first=James|title=Bethel’s Patty Bartlett Sessions: The Mother of Mormon Midwifery |url=https://issuu.com/discovermainemagazine/docs/2022_western_lakes_and_mountains/s/21465762 |magazine=Discover Maine|publisher=CreMark|location=Portland, Maine|date=2022|page=15}} Sarah M. Cleveland,{{Cite journal |last=Compton |first=Todd |date=1996-07-01 |title=A Trajectory of Plurality: An Overview of Joseph Smith’s Thirty-three Plural Wives |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V29N02_21.pdf |journal=Dialogue |publisher=University of Illinois Press|volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=1–38 |doi=10.2307/45226184 |issn=0012-2157}}{{rp|p=22}} and Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner.{{rp|p=19}} Prominent men who were in polyandrous marriages included presidents Joseph Smith{{rp|p=2}} and Brigham Young,{{rp|p=79}} as well as the apostles Heber C. Kimball{{rp|p=132}} and Orson Hyde.{{Cite web |title=Hyde |url=https://mormonstudies.as.virginia.edu/family/hyde/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |publisher=University of Virginia}} Smith married 14 women who were currently married to their living husband.{{refn|{{rp|pp=2—3}}{{Cite journal |last=Hales |first=Brian C. |date=2024-04-01 |title=Joseph Smith's 'Polyandry': Expanding the Narrative |url=https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/jmh/article/50/2/105/386867/Joseph-Smith-s-Polyandry-Expanding-the-Narrative |journal=Journal of Mormon History |volume=50 |issue=2 |doi=10.5406/24736031.50.2.06 |url-access=subscription|issn=0094-7342}}{{rp|p=105}}{{Cite book |last=Hales |first=Brian C. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Joseph_Smith_s_Polygamy_Volume_1_History/OTVjEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |title=Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, Volume 1: History |date=2013-02-26 |publisher=Greg Kofford Books|isbn=9781589586857}}{{rp|p=443}}}}

Polygamy was taught as being essential for salvation.{{rp|186}} Polygamy was seen as "more important than baptism" and the practice of polygamy was required before the Second Coming of Christ. Brigham Young said that any male member of the church who was commanded to practice polygamy and refused would be damned.{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|p=112}} Other leaders of the church taught that men who refused to have multiple wives were not obeying God's commandments and that they should step down from their priesthood callings.{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|pp=112–113}} Church president Joseph F. Smith also spoke about the necessity of practicing polygamy in order to receive salvation.{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|p=113}} Members of the church in St George, Utah report being taught in the late 1800s that there is no "exaltation" without polygamy.{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|p=114}} In a church-owned newspaper, an article speculates that men and women who refuse to practice polygamy will have a lesser station in the afterlife.{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|p=117}}

Polygamy was also explained as being a commandment of God that was received by divine revelation and that polygamy was a part of God's plan.{{rp|44}}

Latter-day Saints believed that a woman could secure her place in heaven by being sealed to a righteous man who held the priesthood. Some women embraced polygamy because of this teaching and their desire to receive divine blessings.{{Cite book |last=Ulrich |first=Laurel Thatcher |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/955274387 |title=A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835–1870 |publisher=Knopf |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-307-59490-7 |edition=1st |oclc=955274387}}{{rp|132}} The salvation of women was understood to be dependent on their status as wives.{{Cite book |last=Gordon |first=Sarah Barringer |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/51831976 |title=The Mormon question : polygamy and constitutional conflict in nineteenth-century America |date=2002 |isbn=0-8078-7526-0 |oclc=51831976|page =98|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press }}

One reason given for the practice of polygamy is to increase the Mormon population by childbirth.{{rp|44}} In the Millennial Star, a church owned and operated newspaper, an article teaches that monogamous marriages result in offspring that are physically and mentally lesser than offspring of polygamous marriages.{{rp|187}}

An early church leader argued that polygamy has historically been the main form of marriage and that polygamy is the most moral form of marriage.{{rp|44}} Polygamy was sometimes explained as a way to prevent men from falling into sexual temptation, while monogamy was immoral and increased the likelihood of sexual temptation.{{rp|44}}

Some who practiced polygamy defended it as a religious practice that was taught in the Bible.{{Cite book |last=Nash |first=Brittany Chapman |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1245247408 |title=Let's talk about polygamy |date=2021 |publisher=Deseret Book |isbn=978-1-62972-823-0 |oclc=1245247408}}{{rp|44}}

Top leaders used the examples of the polygamy of God the Father and Jesus Christ in defense of it and these teachings on God and Jesus' polygamy were widely accepted among Latter-day Saints by the late 1850s.{{Cite book |last=Schelling Durham |first=Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/desertbetweenmou0000durh |title=Desert Between the Mountains: Mormons, Miners, Padres, Mountain Men, and the Opening of the Great Basin, 1772–1869 |date=1997 |publisher=Henry Holt & Company, Inc. |isbn=9780805041613 |edition=1st |page=[https://archive.org/details/desertbetweenmou0000durh/page/182 182] |quote=Pratt clearly loud out arguments in favor of polygamy that the Saints would use for years to come. ... Pratt and others argued that Jesus had three wives: Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus' two sisters, Mary and Martha. Apostle Orson Hyde went a step further and preached that 'Jesus Christ was married at Cana of Galilee, that Mary, Martha, and others were his wives, and that he begat children.' |url-access=registration}}{{Cite book |last=Swanson |first=Vern G. |title=Dynasty of the Holy Grail: Mormonism's Holy Bloodline |date=2013 |publisher=Cedar Fort, Inc. |isbn=9781462104048 |pages=247–259 |chapter=Christ and Polygamy |quote=Dr. William E. Phipps noted that the belief that 'Jesus married, and married often!' was used to encourage and promote the doctrine of polygamy amongst timid Latter-Day Saints ... By the late-1850s the idea that more than one woman was married to Jesus was widely accepted among Mormon circles. ... As if the concept of Christ's polygamy was not unsettling enough, Mormonism even taught in the nineteenth century that God the Father had a plurality of wives as well. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rss1CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT251}}{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|p=84}} In 1853, Jedediah M. Grant—who later became a member of the First Presidency—stated that the top reason behind the persecution of Christ and his disciples was due to their practice of polygamy.{{Cite journal |last=Grant |first=Jedediah |date=7 August 1853 |title=Uniformity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A18tAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA345 |journal=Journal of Discourses |volume=1 |pages=345–346 |quote='The grand reason why the Gentiles and philosophers of his school persecuted Jesus Christ, was, because he had so many wives; there were Elizabeth, and Mary, and a host of others that followed him.' ... The grand reason of the burst of public sentiment in anathemas upon Christ and his disciples, causing his crucifixion, was evidently based upon polygamy, according to the testimony of the philosophers who rose in that age.}}{{Better source needed|reason=Citation is to a primary source published in 1853 by a Latter-day Saint church leader|date=February 2024}} Two months later, apostle Orson Pratt taught in a church periodical that "We have now clearly shown that God the Father had a plurality of wives", and that after her death, Mary (the mother of Jesus) may have become another eternal polygamous wife of God.{{Cite journal |last=Pratt |first=Orson |date=October 1853 |title=The Seer |url=https://archive.org/stream/seereditedbyorso01unse#page/158/mode/1up |journal=The Seer |volume=1 |issue=10 |pages=158, 172 |access-date=9 October 2017 |quote=Inasmuch as God was the first husband to her, it may be that He only gave her to be the wife of Joseph while in this mortal state, and that He intended after the resurrection to again take her as one of his wives to raise up immortal spirits in eternity. ... We have now clearly shown that God the Father had a plurality of wives, one or more being in eternity by whom He begat our spirits as well as the spirit of Jesus His First Born, and another being upon the earth by whom He begat the tabernacle of Jesus.}}{{Original research inline|date=February 2024}} He also stated that Christ had multiple wives—Mary of Bethany, Martha, and Mary Magdalene—as further evidence in defense of polygamy. In the next two years the apostle Orson Hyde also stated during two general conference addresses that Jesus practiced polygamy and repeated this in an 1857 address.{{Cite journal |last=Hyde |first=Orson |date=March 1857 |title=Man the Head of the Woman – Kingdom of God – The Seed of Christ – Polygamy – Society in Utah |url=http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/JournalOfDiscourses3/id/500/rec/1 |journal=Journal of Discourses |volume=4 |page=259 |quote=It will be borne in mind that once on a time, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and on a careful reading of that transaction, it will be discovered that no less a person than Jesus Christ was married on that occasion. If he was never married, his intimacy with Mary and Martha, and the other Mary also whom Jesus loved, must have been highly unbecoming and improper to say the best of it.}}{{Original research inline|date=February 2024}}

In a teaching manual published by the church in 2015, the practice of polygamy is described as a "test of faith" that brought Latter-day Saints closer to God.{{Cite web |title=Lesson 20: Plural Marriage |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/eng/manual/foundations-of-the-restoration-teacher-manual/lesson-20-plural-marriage |access-date=2023-04-21 |website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org |language=en}}{{Original research inline|date=February 2024}} Other recent church documents point to an increase in children as being why Mormons believe God commanded them to practice polygamy. An article on the church's website states that early Mormons believed that they would receive blessings from God by obeying the commandment of polygamy.{{Cite web |title=Polygamy: What Latter-day Saints Really Believe {{!}} LDS.org.ph |url=https://ph.churchofjesuschrist.org/polygamy-mormons-plural-marriage |access-date=2023-04-28 |website=ph.churchofjesuschrist.org}}{{Better source needed|reason=In light of the extensive historiography, this page could do better than an essay directly published on the denomination's website|date=February 2024}}

{{See also|List of Joseph Smith's wives}}Among historians, there is disagreement as to the precise number of wives Smith married.{{Harvnb|Remini|2002|p=153}}. D. Michael Quinn reports 46,{{Harvnb|Quinn|1994|p=587}}. George D. Smith 38,{{Harvnb|Smith|2010|p=621}}. Todd M. Compton 33 (plus eight "possible wives"),{{harvnb|Compton|1997|pp=4–10}}. and Stewart Davenport 37.{{harvnb|Davenport|2022|p=139}}.

It is unclear with how many of the wives Smith had sexual relations. Some contemporary accounts from Smith's time indicate that he engaged in sexual relations with some of his wives.{{Cite news |date=2014-11-11 |title=Mormon church polygamy: Joseph Smith 'had up to 40 wives' |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30009324 |access-date=2023-04-20}} {{As of|2007}}, there were at least twelve early Latter Day Saints who, based on historical documents and circumstantial evidence, had been identified as potential Smith offspring stemming from polygamous marriages. In 2005 and 2007 studies, a geneticist with the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation stated that they had shown "with 99.9 percent accuracy" that five of these individuals were in fact not Smith descendants: Mosiah Hancock (son of Clarissa Reed Hancock), Oliver Buell (son of Prescindia Huntington Buell), Moroni Llewellyn Pratt (son of Mary Ann Frost Pratt), Zebulon Jacobs (son of Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Smith), and Orrison Smith (son of Fanny Alger).{{Cite news |last=Moore |first=Carrie |date=November 10, 2007 |title=DNA tests rule out 2 as Smith descendants |work=Deseret Morning News |url=http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695226318,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071113034023/http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695226318,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 13, 2007 |access-date=2014-04-15}} The remaining seven have yet to be conclusively tested, including Josephine Lyon, for whom current DNA testing using mitochondrial DNA cannot provide conclusive evidence either way. Lyon's mother, Sylvia Sessions Lyon, left her daughter a deathbed affidavit telling her she was Smith's daughter.

{{Main|List of Latter Day Saint practitioners of plural marriage}}

{{See also|List of Brigham Young's wives}}

LDS Church president Brigham Young had 51 wives, and 56 children by 16 of those wives.{{Cite journal |last=Jessee |first=Dean C. |date=2001 |title='A Man of God and a Good Kind Father': Brigham Young at Home |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43042842 |journal=Brigham Young University Studies |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=23–53 |jstor=43042842 |issn=0007-0106}}

LDS Church apostle Heber C. Kimball had 43 wives, and had 65 children by 17 of those wives.{{Cite web |last=Kimball |first=Stanley B. |title=Kimball, Heber Chase |url=https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/k/KIMBALL_HEBER.shtml |access-date= |website=Utah History Encyclopedia}}

Mormons responded to polygamy with mixed emotions. One historian notes that Mormon women often struggled with the practice and a belief in the divinity of the polygamy commandment was often necessary in accepting it. Records indicate that future church leaders, such as Brigham Young, John Taylor, and Heber C. Kimball, greatly opposed polygamy initially.{{Cite book |last=Newell |first=Linda King |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10376019 |title=Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith |date=1984 |publisher=Doubleday |others=Valeen Tippetts Avery |isbn=0-385-17166-8 |edition=1st |oclc=10376019|page=98}} Documents left by Mormon women describe personal spiritual experiences that led them to accept polygamy.{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|pp=160–161}} Another historian notes that some Mormon women expressed appreciation for polygamy and its effects.{{rp|382}}

An early leader of the church, Orson Pratt, defended polygamy by arguing that the practice was a result of divine revelation and that it was protected under the US Constitution as a religious freedom. Following the public announcement of polygamy, members of the church published pamphlets and literature defending the practice. Mormon missionaries were also directed to defend polygamy.{{Cite journal |last=Whittaker |first=David J. |date=1984 |title=Early Mormon Polygamy Defenses |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23286126 |journal=Journal of Mormon History |volume=11 |pages=43–63 |jstor=23286126 |issn=0094-7342}}{{rp|44}}

File:In memoriam brigham young 3.jpg following his death in 1877.]]

The majority of Americans who were not members of the church were opposed to polygamy as they saw the practice as a violation of American values and morals.{{rp|192}}{{Cite book |last=Talbot |first=Christine |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/862745819 |title=A foreign kingdom : Mormons and polygamy in American political culture, 1852–1890 |date=2013 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-09535-1 |oclc=862745819}}{{rp|86}}{{rp|382}} Opponents of polygamy believed that polygamy forced wives into submission to their husbands{{Cite journal |last=Phipps |first=Kelly Elizabeth |date=April 2009 |title=Marriage and Redemption: Mormon Polygamy in the Congressional Imagination, 1862–1887 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25478708.pdf |journal=Virginia Law Review |volume=95 |issue=2|pages=435–487 |jstor=25478708 }}{{rp|454}} and some described polygamy as a form of slavery.{{rp|117}} The overall opposition to polygamy led the Republican Party's platform to refer to it as one of the "relics of barbarianism".{{Cite web |date=2004-08-30 |title=Republicans and The Relics of Barbarism |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2004/08/republicans-and-relics-barbarism-robert-p-george-william-l-saunders/ |access-date=2023-04-11 |website=National Review |language=en-US}}{{Better source needed|reason=This National Review briefly mentions the "relics of barbarism" but not as a scholarly description or analysis; instead, the article uses this as a launching off point to make political claims about the Republican Party's "moral heritage" as a call to also oppose same-sex marriage. This seems like an opinion piece in all but name.|date=February 2024}} Sensational and often violent novels provided fictional stories about polygamy which fueled the public's dislike for the practice and Mormons.{{rp|39–50}}

However, some non-Mormons held more positive views of polygamy. For example, after surveying the Utah Territory, Captain Howard Stansbury concluded that most polygamous marriages were successful and there were good feelings between families.{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|p=191}}

John C. Bennett was a member of the church and close friend of Joseph Smith who was disfellowshipped and later excommunicated for adultery. Following his excommunication, Bennett began to travel around the eastern United States as he lectured about the church. In his lectures, Bennett included claims of sexual misconduct among church leaders, secret rituals, and violence.{{rp|73–74}} In 1842, Bennett published a book entitled The History of the Saints: Or, An Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism which includes alleged stories of sexual misconduct by Smith and other church leaders.{{Cite journal |last=Dinger |first=John S. |date=2018 |title=Sexual Slander and Polygamy in Nauvoo |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jmormhist.44.3.0001 |journal=Journal of Mormon History |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=1–22 |doi=10.5406/jmormhist.44.3.0001 |jstor=10.5406/jmormhist.44.3.0001 |issn=0094-7342}} The church responded to Bennett's claims about Smith by gathering affidavits and printing contradictory evidence in newspapers. The women of the Relief Society, encouraged by its president, Emma Smith, also wrote their experiences that disproved Bennett's statements. They also began a petition in support of Joseph Smith's character which they delivered to the governor of Illinois.{{rp|74–75}}

{{more citations needed|section|date = August 2019}}

Mormon polygamy was one of the leading moral issues of the 19th century in the United States, perhaps second only to slavery in importance. Spurred by popular indignation, the U.S. government took a number of steps against polygamy; these were of varying effectiveness.{{Cite book |last=Foster |first=Gaines M. |url=https://archive.org/details/moralreconst_fost_2002_000_7102584/page/233 |title=Moral Reconstruction: Christian Lobbyists and the Federal Legislation of Morality, 1865–1920 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8078-5366-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/moralreconst_fost_2002_000_7102584/page/233 233–34]}}E.g., Donald T. Critchlow and Philip R. VanderMeer, The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Political and Legal History, Oxford University Press, 2012; Volume 1, pp. 47–51, 154. Anti-polygamy laws began to be passed ten years after the church publicly announced the practice of polygamy.{{rp|191}}

The first legislative attempt to discourage polygamy in Utah was presented in the 33rd Congress. The bill was debated in May 1854. The bill included the provision that any man who had more than one wife would not be able to own land in the Utah Territory. This bill was defeated in the House of Representatives after multiple representatives argued that the federal government did not have the authority to legislate morals in the states.{{rp|194–195}}

{{Main|Utah War}}

As the church settled in what became the Utah Territory, it eventually was subjected to the power and opinion of the United States. Friction first began to show in the James Buchanan administration and federal troops arrived (see Utah War). Buchanan, anticipating Mormon opposition to a newly appointed territorial governor to replace Brigham Young, dispatched 2,500 federal troops to Utah to seat the new governor, thus setting in motion a series of misunderstandings in which the Mormons felt threatened.{{Citation |last=Poll |first=Richard D. |title=Utah History Encyclopedia |year=1994 |editor-last=Powell |editor-first=Allan Kent |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113105715/http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/u/UTAH_WAR.html |contribution=The Utah War |contribution-url=http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/u/UTAH_WAR.html |place=Salt Lake City, Utah |publisher=University of Utah Press |isbn=0874804256 |oclc=30473917 |access-date=November 11, 2013 |archive-date=January 13, 2017 |author-link=Richard D. Poll |url-status=dead}}

{{Main|Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act}}In 1862, the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act became law. The act criminalized the practice of polygamy, unincorporated the church, and limited the church's real estate holdings. The act was largely understood to be unconstitutional and was only enforced in rare cases.{{Cite book |last=Arrington |first=Leonard J. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/11443615 |title=Brigham Young : American Moses |date=1985 |publisher=Knopf |isbn=0-394-51022-4 |edition=1st |oclc=11443615}}{{rp|422}} While the act outlawed bigamy in the US territories, it was seen to be largely weak and ineffective at preventing people from practicing polygamy.{{Cite journal |last=Phipps |first=Kelly Elizabeth |date=2009 |title=Marriage and Redemption: Mormon Polygamy in the Congressional Imagination, 1862–1887 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25478708 |journal=Virginia Law Review |volume=95 |issue=2 |pages=435–487 |jstor=25478708 |issn=0042-6601}}{{rp|447–449}}{{harvnb|Hardy|2007|pp=243–244}} However, due to the continuous threat of legislation targeting polygamy and the church, Brigham Young pretended to comply.{{rp|422}}

On January 6, 1879, the Supreme Court upheld the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act in Reynolds v. United States.{{Cite journal |last=Firmage |first=Edwin B. |date=1987 |title=The Judicial Campaign against Polygamy and the Enduring Legal Questions |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43041301 |journal=Brigham Young University Studies |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=91–117 |jstor=43041301 |issn=0007-0106}}{{rp|93}}

The Wade, Cragin, and Cullom Bills were anti-bigamy legislation that failed to pass in the US Congress. The bills were all intended to enforce the Morrill Act's prohibition on polygamy with more punitive measures.{{Cite journal |last=Toler |first=Lorianne Updike |date=October 2019 |title=Western Reconstruction and Women's Suffrage |url=https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1917&context=wmborj |journal=William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=147–170}} The Wade Bill of 1866 had the power to dismantle local government in Utah.{{Cite journal |last=Poll |first=Richard D. |date=1986 |title=The Legislative Antipolygamy Campaign |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43042251 |journal=Brigham Young University Studies |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=107–121 |issn=0007-0106 |jstor=43042251 |jstor-access=free}} Three years after the Wade Bill failed, the Cragin Bill, which would have eliminated the right to a jury for bigamy trials, was introduced but not passed.{{Cite journal |last=Prior |first=David |date=2010-09-10 |title=Civilization, Republic, Nation: Contested Keywords, Northern Republicans, and the Forgotten Reconstruction of Mormon Utah |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/14/article/392714 |journal=Civil War History |language=en |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=283–310 |doi=10.1353/cwh.2010.0003 |s2cid=145660564 |issn=1533-6271}} After that, the Cullom Bill was introduced. One of the most concerning parts of the Cullom Bill for polygamists was that, if passed, anyone who practiced any type of non-monogamous relationship would not be able to become a citizen of the United States, vote in elections, or receive the benefits of the homestead laws. The leadership of the church publicly opposed the Cullom Bill. Op-eds in church-owned newspapers declared the bill as unjust and dangerous to Mormons.{{Cite book |title=The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women's History |publisher=Church Historian's Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-62972-150-7 |editor-last=Derr |editor-first=Jill Mulvay |at=3.12 |chapter=Minutes of 'Ladies Mass Meeting,' January 6, 1870 |editor-last2=Madsen |editor-first2=Carol Cornwall |editor-last3=Holbrook |editor-first3=Kate |editor-last4=Grow |editor-first4=Matthew J. |chapter-url=https://www.churchhistorianspress.org/the-first-fifty-years-of-relief-society/part-3/3-12?lang=eng}}

The introduction of the Cullom Bill led to protests by Mormons, particularly Mormon women. Women organized indignation meetings to voice their disapproval of the bill.{{rp|xii}} The strong reaction of Mormon women surprised many onlookers and politicians. Outside of the church, Mormon women were seen as weak and oppressed by their husbands and the men of the church. The political activism in support of polygamy of Mormon women was unexpected from a group that had been portrayed as powerless.{{Cite web |last=Kitterman |first=Katherine |date=2020-03-16 |title=How Utah Women Gained the Right to Vote in 1870 (Part 2) |url=https://www.utahwomenshistory.org/2020/03/how-utah-women-gained-the-right-to-vote-in-1870-part-2/ |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=Better Days 2020 |language=en}}{{Rp|pages=xii–xvi}}

{{Main|Poland Act}}

Following the failure of the Wade, Cragin, and Collum Bills, the Poland Act was an anti-bigamy prosecution act that was successfully enacted by the 43rd United States Congress. The Poland Act, named after its sponsor in the US House of Representatives, attempted to prosecute Utah under the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act for refusing to stop practicing polygamy. The act stripped away some of Utah's powers and gave the federal government greater control over the territory. Among other powers, the act gave US district courts jurisdiction in the Utah Territory for all court cases.{{Cite web |title=The Poland Act |url=https://www.famous-trials.com/mountainmeadows/933-the-poland-act |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=www.famous-trials.com}} The Poland Act was a significant threat to Mormons practicing polygamy as it allowed for men who had multiple wives to be criminally indicted.{{Cite web |title=Chapter Thirty-Three: A Decade of Persecution, 1877–87 |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/manual/church-history-in-the-fulness-of-times/chapter-thirty-three?lang=eng |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org}}

{{Main|Edmunds Act}}

In February 1882, George Q. Cannon, a prominent leader in the church, was denied a non-voting seat in the U.S. House of Representatives due to his polygamous relations. This revived the issue of polygamy in national politics. One month later, the Edmunds Act was passed by Congress, amending the Morrill Act and made polygamy a felony punishable by a $500 fine and five years in prison. "Unlawful cohabitation", in which the prosecution did not need to prove that a marriage ceremony had taken place (only that a couple had lived together), was a misdemeanor punishable by a $300 fine and six months imprisonment. It also revoked the right of polygamists to vote or hold office and allowed them to be punished without due process. Even if people did not practice polygamy, they would have their rights revoked if they confessed a belief in it. In August, Rudger Clawson was imprisoned for continuing to cohabit with wives that he married before the 1862 Morrill Act.{{cite book |last1= Dickinson|first1=Ellen E. |last2= Spaulding |first2=Solomon |author-link= |date=1885 |title= New Light on Mormonism|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=d7wUAAAAYAAJ |location= Harvard University|publisher=Funk & Wagnalls |pages= 182–184|isbn=}}{{cite book |last=Hardy |first=B. Carmon |author-link= |date=August 30, 2017 |title= Doing the Works of Abraham: Mormon Polygamy – Its Origin, Practice, and Demise|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TgQxDwAAQBAJ |location= |publisher= University of Oklahoma Press|page= 291|isbn=9780806159133}}

{{Main|Edmunds–Tucker Act}}

File:Polygamists in prison.jpg, imprisoned under the Edmunds–Tucker Act, at the Utah Penitentiary in 1889.]]

In 1887, the Edmunds–Tucker Act allowed the disincorporation of the LDS Church and the seizure of church property; it also further extended the punishments of the Edmunds Act. On July 31 of the same year, U.S. Attorney General George Peters filed suit to seize all church assets.{{cite journal |last1= Alexander|first1=Thomas G. |date= 1991|title= The Odyssey of a Latter-day Prophet: Wilford Woodruff and the Manifesto of 1890 |url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/23286430 |journal= Journal of Mormon History|volume=17 |issue= |pages= 169–206|doi= |jstor=23286430 |access-date=February 5, 2024}}

The church was losing control of the territorial government, and many members and leaders were being actively pursued as fugitives. Without being able to appear publicly, the leadership was left to navigate "underground".{{harvnb|van Beek|2003|p=123}}.{{harvnb|Bowman|2022|p=174}}.

Following the passage of the Edmunds–Tucker Act, the church found it difficult to operate as a viable institution. After visiting priesthood leaders in many settlements, church president Wilford Woodruff left for San Francisco on September 3, 1890, to meet with prominent businessmen and politicians. He returned to Salt Lake City on September 21, determined to obtain divine confirmation to pursue a course that seemed to be agonizingly more and more clear. As he explained to church members a year later, the choice was between, on the one hand, continuing to practice polygamy and thereby losing the temples, "stopping all the ordinances therein" and, on the other, ceasing to practice polygamy in order to continue performing the essential ordinances for the living and the dead. Woodruff hastened to add that he had acted only as the Lord directed.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}

{{Main|Reynolds v. United States}}

In 1879, the Supreme Court ruled that a defendant cannot claim a religious obligation as a valid defense to a crime and upheld the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act in Reynolds v. United States.{{rp|93}}{{Cite web |title=Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145 (1878) |url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/98/145/ |access-date=2023-03-31 |website=Justia Law |language=en}} The Court said that while holding a religious belief was protected under the First Amendment right of freedom of religion, practicing a religious belief that broke the law was not.{{Cite web |author=Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs |title=Reynolds v. United States |url=https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/cases/reynolds-v-united-states |access-date=2023-03-31 |website=berkleycenter.georgetown.edu |language=en}} Reynolds vs. United States was the Supreme Court's first case in which a party used the right of freedom of religion as a defense. The ruling concluded that Mormons could be charged with committing bigamy despite their religious beliefs.{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Stephen Eliot |date=2009 |title=Barbarians within the Gates: Congressional Debates on Mormon Polygamy, 1850–1879 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23921808 |journal=Journal of Church and State |volume=51 |issue=4 |pages=587–616 [587]|doi=10.1093/jcs/csq021 |jstor=23921808 |issn=0021-969X}}

{{Main|1890 Manifesto}}

The final element in Woodruff's revelatory experience came on the evening of September 23, 1890. The following morning, he reported to some of the general authorities that he had struggled throughout the night with the Lord regarding the path that should be pursued. The result was a 510-word handwritten manuscript which stated his intentions to comply with the law and denied that the church continued to solemnize or condone polygamous marriages. The document was later edited by George Q. Cannon of the First Presidency and others to its present 356 words. On October 6, 1890, it was presented to the Latter-day Saints at the General Conference and unanimously approved.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}

While many church leaders in 1890 regarded the Manifesto as inspired, there were differences among them about its scope and permanence. Contemporary opinions include the contention that the manifesto was more related to an effort to achieve statehood for the Utah territory.{{Cite web |title=The Mormons – Special Features – PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/mormons/sfeature/utah_04.html |website=www.pbs.org}} Some leaders were reluctant to terminate a long-standing practice that was regarded as divinely mandated. As a result, over 200 polygamous marriages were performed between 1890 and 1904.{{Harvnb|Hardy|1992}}

{{Main|Second Manifesto}}

It was not until 1904, under the leadership of church president Joseph F. Smith, that the church completely banned new polygamous marriages worldwide.Scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the Sunday Schools, Salt Lake City: Deseret Sunday School Union, 1968, p. 159.{{Better source needed|reason=Appears to be a denominational Sunday School manual|date=February 2024}} Not surprisingly, rumors persisted of marriages performed after the 1890 Manifesto, and beginning in January 1904, testimony given in the Smoot hearings made it clear that polygamy had not been completely extinguished.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}

The ambiguity was ended in the General Conference of April 1904, when Smith issued the "Second Manifesto", an emphatic declaration that prohibited new polygamous marriages and proclaimed that offenders would be subject to church discipline.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} It declared that any who participated in additional plural marriages, and those officiating, would be excommunicated from the church. Those disagreeing with the Second Manifesto included apostles Matthias F. Cowley and John W. Taylor, who both resigned from the Quorum of the Twelve. Cowley retained his membership in the church, but Taylor was later excommunicated.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}

Although the Second Manifesto ended the official practice of new polygamous marriages, existing ones were not automatically dissolved. Many Mormons, including prominent church leaders, maintained their polygamy into the 1940s and 1950s.{{Cite web |last=Embry |first=Jessie L. |year=1994 |title=The History of Polygamy |url=https://heritage.utah.gov/history/uhg-history-polygamy-2 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181107044102/https://heritage.utah.gov/history/uhg-history-polygamy-2 |archive-date=2018-11-07 |access-date=2018-12-31 |website=heritage.utah.gov |publisher=Utah State Historical Society |quote=Those involved in plural marriages after 1904 were excommunicated; and those married between 1890 and 1904 were not to have church callings where other members would have to sustain them. Although the Mormon church officially prohibited new plural marriages after 1904, many plural husbands and wives continued to cohabit until their deaths in the 1940s and 1950s.}}

In 1943, the First Presidency learned that apostle Richard R. Lyman was cohabitating with a woman other than his legal wife. As it turned out, in 1925 Lyman had begun a relationship which he defined as a polygamous marriage. Unable to trust anyone else to officiate, Lyman and the woman exchanged vows secretly. By 1943, both were in their seventies. Lyman was excommunicated on November 12, 1943. The Quorum of the Twelve provided the newspapers with a one-sentence announcement, stating that the ground for excommunication was violation of the law of chastity.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}

Image:Teens from polygamous families.jpg |agency=Associated Press |url=https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060820/ap_on_re_us/polygamy_rally |access-date=2012-09-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902171217/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060820/ap_on_re_us/polygamy_rally |archive-date=2 September 2006}}]]

Over time, many of those who rejected the LDS Church's relinquishment of polygamy formed small, close-knit communities in areas of the Rocky Mountains. These groups continue to practice "the Principle". In the 1940s, LDS Church apostle Mark E. Petersen coined the term "Mormon fundamentalist" to describe such people.Ken Driggs, "'This Will Someday Be the Head and Not the Tail of the Church': A History of the Mormon Fundamentalists at Short Creek," Journal of Church and State 43:49 (2001) at p. 51. Fundamentalists either practice as individuals, as families, or as part of organized denominations. Today, the LDS Church objects to the use of the term "Mormon fundamentalists" and suggests using the term "polygamist sects" to avoid confusion about whether the main body of Mormon believers teach or practice polygamy.{{Cite web |title=The Mormons . Frequently Asked Questions . Dissent/Excommunication/Controversies – PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/mormons/faqs/controversies.html |website=www.pbs.org}} The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (also referred to as the FLDS Church) continues to practice polygamy.{{Cite web |title=Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/fundamentalist-church-jesus-christ-latter-day-saints |access-date=2023-04-10 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |language=en}}

{{Main|Current state of polygamy in the Latter Day Saint movement}}

Although the LDS Church has abandoned the practice of plural marriage, it has not abandoned the underlying doctrines of polygamy. It is still the practice of monogamous Mormon couples to be sealed to one another. However, in some circumstances, men and women may be sealed to multiple spouses. Most commonly, a man may be sealed to multiple wives: if his first wife dies, he may be sealed to a second wife. A deceased woman may also be sealed to multiple men, but only through vicarious sealing if they are also deceased.Handbook 1: Stake Presidents and Bishops (Salt Lake City, Utah: LDS Church, 2010) § 3.6.1.

In the case where a man's first wife dies, and the man remarries, and both of the marriages involve a sealing, LDS authorities teach that in the afterlife, the man will enter a polygamous relationship with both wives.Charles W. Penrose, "Mormon" Doctrine Plain and Simple, or Leaves from the Tree of Life, 1897, Salt Lake City, p.66 ("In the case of a man marrying a wife in the everlasting covenant who dies while he continues in the flesh and marries another by the same divine law, each wife will come forth in her order and enter with him into his glory."); Joseph Fielding Smith, Bruce R. McConkie, ed., Doctrines of Salvation, 1956, vol. 2, p. 67 (Smith, who was sealed to two different women, stated, "[M]y wives will be mine in the eternity."); Harold B. Lee, Deseret News 1974 Church Almanac, p. 17 ("My lovely Joan was sent to me: So Joan joins Fern/That three might be, more fitted for eternity./'O Heavenly Father, my thanks to thee'."). Current apostles Russell M. Nelson and Dallin H. Oaks are examples of such a case."When I was 66, my wife June died of cancer. Two years later I married Kristen McMain, the eternal companion who now stands at my side." [https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2003/10/timing?lang=eng "Timing"], Ensign, October 2003.

Under LDS Church policy, a man whose sealed wife has died does not have to request any permission beyond having a current temple recommend and an interview with his bishop to get final permission for a living ordinance, to be married in the temple and sealed to another woman, unless the new wife's circumstance requires a cancellation of sealing. However, a woman whose sealed husband has died is still bound by the original sealing and must request a cancellation of sealing to be sealed to another man (see next paragraph for exception to this after she dies). In some cases, women in this situation who wish to remarry choose to be married to a subsequent husband and are not sealed to them, leaving them sealed to their first husband for eternity.

As of 1998, however, women who have died may be sealed to more than one man. In 1998, the LDS Church created a new policy that a woman may also be sealed to more than one man. A woman, however, may not be sealed to more than one man while she is alive. She may only be sealed to subsequent partners after both she and her husband(s) have died.LDS Church, Church Handbook of Instructions, (LDS Church, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1998) p. 72. "A deceased woman may be sealed to all men to whom she was legally married during her life. However, if she was sealed to a husband during her life, all her husbands must be deceased before she can be sealed to a husband to whom she was not sealed during life." Thus, if a widow who was sealed to her first husband remarries, she may be sealed by proxy to all of her subsequent husband(s), but only after both she and the subsequent husbands have died. Proxy sealings, like proxy baptisms, are merely offered to the person in the afterlife, indicating that the purpose is to allow the woman to choose the right man to be sealed to.{{Cite web |title=38. Church Policies and Guidelines |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/general-handbook/38-church-policies-and-guidelines?lang=eng |access-date=2024-08-25 |website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org |language=en}} This caveat is necessary to comply with Jesus's teaching in Mark 12, wherein he teaches the law of marriage with regards to the question of widows remarrying.

In the twenty-first century, church leadership has taught that doctrinal knowledge about the nature of family relations in the afterlife is limited and there is no official church teaching on how multiple marriages in life play out in the afterlife beyond trust in God that such matters will work out happily.{{Cite journal |last=Oaks |first=Dallin H. |date=November 2019 |title=Trust in the Lord |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2019/11/17oaks?lang=eng |journal=Ensign |publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints}}

A man who is sealed to a woman but later divorced must apply for a "sealing clearance" from the First Presidency in order to be sealed to another woman.{{Cite web |title=Why must one who is divorced be cleared by the First Presidency to go back to the temple? |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1976/02/i-have-a-question/why-must-one-who-is-divorced-be-cleared-by-the-first-presidency-to-go-back-to-the-temple?lang=eng |access-date=2021-11-11 |website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org}} Receiving clearance does not void or invalidate the first sealing. A woman in the same circumstances would apply to the First Presidency for a "cancellation of sealing" (sometimes called a "temple divorce"), allowing her to be sealed to another man. This approval voids the original sealing as far as the woman is concerned.{{Cite web |last=C |first=Angela |date=2019-06-26 |title=Clearance vs. Cancellation |url=https://bycommonconsent.com/2019/06/26/clearance-vs-cancellation/ |access-date=2021-11-11 |website=By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog |language=en}} Divorced women who have not applied for a sealing cancellation are considered sealed to the original husband. However, according to Drs. Joseph Stuart and Janiece Johnson of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, even in the afterlife the marriage relationship is voluntary, so no person could be forced into an eternal relationship through a temple sealing they do not wish to be in.{{Cite podcast |url=https://mi.byu.edu/abide-19-doctrine-and-covenants-129-132/ |title=Abide #19: Doctrine and Covenants 129-132 |website=Abide: A Maxwell Institute Podcast |publisher=Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship |last=Stuart |first=Joseph |last2=Johnson |first2=Janiece |access-date=December 3, 2021 }} "All eternal relationships are voluntary. We will not be forced into anything eternally" (39:32). Divorced women may also be granted a cancellation of sealing, even though they do not intend to marry someone else. In this case, they are no longer regarded as being sealed to anyone and are presumed to have the same eternal status as unwed women.

According to church policy, after a man has died, he may be sealed by proxy to all of the women to whom he was legally married while he was alive. The same is true for women; however, if a woman was sealed to a man while she was alive, all of her husbands must be deceased before she can be sealed by proxy to them.{{Cite web |title=Help Center — FamilySearch.org |url=https://help.familysearch.org/kb/UserGuide/en/policy/r_wws_policy_sealing_to_spouse_multiple_husbands.html |website=help.familysearch.org}}

Church doctrine is not entirely specific on the status of men or women who are sealed by proxy to multiple spouses. There are at least two possibilities:

1. Regardless of how many people a man or woman is sealed to by proxy, they will only remain with one of them in the afterlife, and that the remaining spouses, who might still merit the full benefits of exaltation that come from being sealed, would then marry another person in order to ensure each has an eternal marriage.
2. These sealings create effective plural marriages that will continue after death. There are no church teachings clarifying whether polyandrous relationships can exist in the afterlife, so some church members doubt whether this possibility would apply to women who are sealed by proxy to multiple spouses. The possibility for women to be sealed to multiple men is a recent policy change enacted in 1998. Church leaders have neither explained this change, nor its doctrinal implications.

Critics of polygamy in the early LDS Church claim that polygamy produced unhappiness in some wives.{{Harvnb|Tanner|1979|pp=226–228}} Historian Todd Compton, in his book In Sacred Loneliness, described various cases where some wives in polygamous marriages were unhappy with polygamy.{{Harvnb|Compton|1997}}

Critics of polygamy in the early LDS Church claim that church leaders established the practice of polygamy in order to further their immoral desires for sexual gratification with multiple sexual partners.{{Harvnb|Tanner|1979|pp=204–290}} Critics point to the fact that church leaders practiced polygamy in secret from 1833 to 1852, despite a written church doctrine (Doctrine and Covenants 101, 1835 edition) renouncing polygamy and stating that only monogamous marriages were permitted.{{Harvnb|Tanner|1987|p=202}}File:Teenage Brides of Early Mormon Leaders.png

Historian George D. Smith studied 153 men who took multiple wives in the early years of the Latter Day Saint movement, and found that two of the girls were thirteen years old, 13 girls were fourteen years old, 21 were fifteen years old, and 53 were sixteen years old.George D. Smith, "Nauvoo Polygamists," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Spring 1994, p. ix. Historian Todd Compton believes that Joseph Smith married one girl who was fourteen-years old (possibly two); according to Compton, "it is unlikely that the marriage was consummated".{{Harvnb|Compton|1997|pp=6, 606}}.{{efn|These were Helen Mar Kimball and Nancy Maria Winchester. Kimball was fourteen-years old when Smith married her in May 1843; Winchester was either fourteen or fifteen, as the date of her marriage to Smith in relation to her birthday is uncertain. On nonconsummation, Compton states, "my judgment is that it is unlikely that the marriage was consummated" and "it is not just not certain, it is unlikely, in my judgment".{{harvnb|Compton|2010|p=231}}}} Historian Stanley Hirshon documented cases of girls aged 10 and 11 being married to old men.{{Harvnb|Hirshon|1969|pp=126–127}}

The mean age of marriage for women was lower in Mormon polygamy than in New England and the Northeastern states (the societies in which Smith and many early converts to the movement had lived), and this was partly caused by the practice of polygamy, and Compton concludes that "[e]arly marriage and very early marriage were… accepted" in early Mormonism.{{Harvnb|Compton|2010|p=229}}. These marriages were frequently dynastic in purpose, meant to join people to the families of leaders, motivated by the significance of marriage for the nineteenth-century Latter-day Saint understanding of the afterlife.{{Harvnb|Compton|2010|pages=230–231}}. According to Compton, the "valid parallel" for Mormon early marriages is the "American and European history of elite early marriages that were not consummated until the marriage participants were much older".{{Harvnb|Compton|2010|p=231}}. Compton "find[s] dynastic marriages of teenage girls problematic, even if sexual consummation is delayed".{{Harvnb|Compton|2010|p=231n74}}.

If some men have several wives and the numbers of men and women are approximately equal, some men will necessarily be left without wives. In the denominations that still practice polygamy today, such men, known as lost boys are often driven out so as not to compete with high-ranked polygamous men.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jun/14/usa.julianborger|access-date=2023-09-21|date=2005-06-14|work=The Guardian|title=The lost boys, thrown out of US sect so that older men can marry more wives|first=Julian|last=Borger}}

{{Portal|Latter Day Saint movement}}

• Current state of polygamy in the Latter Day Saint movement
• Criticism of the Latter Day Saint movement
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and politics in the United States
• Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Short Creek raid
• Sister Wives

{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin|40em}}

• {{Cite journal |last=Alexander |first=Thomas G. |author-link=Thomas G. Alexander |year=1991 |title=The Odyssey of a Latter-day Prophet: Wilford Woodruff and the Manifesto of 1890 |url=http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/jmh,15544 |url-status=dead |journal=Journal of Mormon History |volume=17 |pages=169–206 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100923214900/http://content.lib.utah.edu/u/?%2Fjmh%2C15544 |archive-date=2010-09-23}}
• {{Cite book |last=Alexander |first=Thomas G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nOu7th-Y_DQC |title=Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890–1930 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=1996 |isbn=9780252065781 |author-link=Thomas G. Alexander}}
• {{Cite book |last=Andrus |first=Hyrum Leslie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J9UHGwAACAAJ&q=Andrus+%22Doctrines+of+the+Kingdom%22 |title=Doctrines of the Kingdom |publisher=Bookcraft |year=1973 |isbn=9781573454629 |page=450}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Argus |date=September 9, 1871 |title=History of Mormonism: An Open Letter to Brigham Young |url=http://sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/UT/utahmisc.htm#090971 |volume=4 |issue=84 |newspaper=The Daily Corinne Reporter}}
• {{Cite book |last=Bennett |first=John C. |title=The History of the Saints : Or, an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism |year=1842 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=0-252-02589-X |author-link=John C. Bennett}}
• {{cite book |last=Bowman |first=Matthew |chapter=Religion in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era |editor-last1= Nichols|editor-first1=Christopher McKnight |editor-last2=Unger |editor-first2= Nancy C.|author-link= |date=2022 |title=A Companion to the Gilded Age and Progressive Era |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=amF6EAAAQBAJ |publisher= Wiley|isbn=9781119775706| pages=165–177}}
• {{Cite book |last=Bradley |first=Don |title=The Persistence of Polygamy: Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormon Polygamy |chapter=Mormon Polygamy Before Nauvoo? The Relationship of Joseph Smith and Fanny Alger |publisher=John Whitmer Books |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-934901-13-7 |editor-last=Bringhurst |editor-first=Newell G. |editor-last2=Foster |editor-first2=Craig L. |volume=1 |pages=14–58}}
• {{Cite book |last=Bringhurst |first=Newell G. |title=The Persistence of Polygamy: Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormon Polygamy |chapter=Section 132 of the LDS Doctrine and Covenants: Its Complex Contents and Controversial Legacy |publisher=John Whitmer Books |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-934901-13-7 |editor-last=Bringhurst |editor-first=Newell G. |editor-last2=Foster |editor-first2=Craig L. |volume=1 |pages=59–86}}
• {{Cite book |last=Bushman |first=Richard Lyman |title=Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling |title-link=Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=2005 |isbn=1-4000-4270-4}}
• {{Cite book |last=Bushman |first=Richard Lyman |title=Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-531030-6}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Compton |first=Todd |author-link=Todd Compton |year=1996 |title=Fanny Alger Smith Custer, Mormonism's First Plural Wife? |url=http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/jmh,18163 |url-status=dead |journal=Journal of Mormon History |volume=22 |issue=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221184953/http://content.lib.utah.edu/u/?%2Fjmh%2C18163 |archive-date=2008-12-21}}
• {{Cite book |last=Compton |first=Todd |title=In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith |title-link=In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith |publisher=Signature Books |year=1997 |isbn=1-56085-085-X |author-link=Todd Compton}}
• {{Cite book |last=Compton |first=Todd |title=The Persistence of Polygamy: Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormon Polygamy |chapter=Early Marriage in the New England and Northeastern States, and in Mormon Polygamy: What Was the Norm? |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-934901-13-7 |editor-last=Bringhurst |editor-first=Newell G. |editor-last2=Foster |editor-first2=Craig L. |volume=1 |pages=184–232|publisher=John Whitmer Books }}
• {{Cite book |last=Davenport |first=Stewart |title=Sex and Sects: The Story of Mormon Polygamy, Shaker Celibacy, and Oneida Complex Marriage |publisher=University of Virginia Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-8139-4705-1}}
• {{Cite book |last=Embry |first=Jessie L. |title=Mormon Polygamous Families: Life in the Principle |publisher=University of Utah Press |year=1987 |isbn=0-87480-277-6}}
• {{Cite book |last=Faulring |first=Scott H. |title=An American Prophet's Record: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith |publisher=Signature Books |year=1987 |isbn=0-941214-55-9 |author-link=Scott H. Faulring}}
• {{Cite book |last=Gage |first=Matilda Joslyn |title=Woman, Church, and State: A Historical Account of the Status of Woman Through the Christian Ages, With Reminiscences of the Matriarchate |publisher=Arno |year=1972 |isbn=0-405-04458-5 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45580/45580-h/45580-h.htm}}
• {{Cite book |last=Hales |first=Brian C. |url=http://gregkofford.com/products/modern-polygamy-and-mormon-fundamentalism |title=Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism: The Generations After the Manifesto |publisher=John Whitmer Historical Association |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-58958-035-0}}
• {{Cite journal |author-last=Hardy |author-first=B. Carmon |year=2005 |title=That 'Same Old Question of Polygamy and Polygamous Living:' Some Recent Findings Regarding Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Mormon Polygamy |journal=Utah Historical Quarterly |volume=73 |issue=3 |pages=212–224 |doi=10.2307/45062934 |jstor=45062934 |s2cid=254439450 |url=http://history.utah.gov/history_programs/utah_historic_quarterly/table_of_contents/documents/UHQSummerBook.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080626225451/http://history.utah.gov/history_programs/utah_historic_quarterly/table_of_contents/documents/UHQSummerBook.pdf |archive-date=2008-06-26}}
• {{Cite book |last=Hardy |first=B. Carmon |url=http://www.press.uillinois.edu/pre95/0-252-01833-8.html |title=Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=1992 |isbn=0-252-01833-8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050831150532/http://www.press.uillinois.edu/pre95/0-252-01833-8.html |archive-date=2005-08-31 |url-status=dead}}
• {{Cite book |title=Doing the Works of Abraham: Mormon Polygamy: Its Origin, Practice, and Demise |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8061-5906-5 |editor-last=Hardy |editor-first=B. Carmon}}
• {{Cite book |last=Hendrix-Komoto |first=Amanda |title=Imperial Zions: Religion, Race, and Family in the American West and the Pacific |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-4962-3346-2 |series=Studies in Pacific Worlds}}
• {{Cite book |last=Hirshon |first=Stanley P. |title=The Lion of the Lord |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=1969}}
• {{Cite book |last=Ostling |first=Richard and Joan |title=Mormon America |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1999 |author-link=Richard Ostling}}
• {{Cite book |last=Park |first=Benjamin E. |title=Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier |publisher=Liveright |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-324-09110-3}}
• {{Cite book |author-last=Quinn |author-first=D. Michael |author-link=D. Michael Quinn |year=1997 |chapter=Part 2: Family and Interpersonal Relationships – Plural Marriage and Mormon Fundamentalism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ye7DYE39tf8C&pg=PA240 |editor1-last=Marty |editor1-first=Martin E. |editor2-last=Appleby |editor2-first=R. Scott |title=Fundamentalisms and Society: Reclaiming the Sciences, the Family, and Education |publisher=University of Chicago Press |series=The Fundamentalism Project |pages=240–293 |isbn=9780226508818}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Quinn |first=D. Michael |author-link=D. Michael Quinn |date=Spring 1985 |title=LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890–1904 |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/lds-church-authority-and-new-plural-marriages-1890-1904/ |url-status=live |journal=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=9–105 |doi=10.2307/45225323 |jstor=45225323 |s2cid=259871046 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110004136/https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/lds-church-authority-and-new-plural-marriages-1890-1904/ |archive-date=November 10, 2021 |doi-access=free}}
• {{Cite book |last=Quinn |first=D. Michael |title=The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power |publisher=Signature Books |year=1994 |isbn=1-56085-056-6 |author-link=D. Michael Quinn}}
• {{Cite book |last=Smith |first=George D. |url=http://signaturebooks.com/2010/02/1137 |title=Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton |publisher=Signature Books |year=1995 |isbn=1-56085-022-1 |lccn=89027572 |oclc=32830497 |author-link=George D. Smith |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141202212549/http://signaturebooks.com/2010/02/1137/ |archive-date=2014-12-02 |url-status=dead |orig-year=1991}}
• {{Cite book |last=Smith |first=George D. |url=http://signaturebooks.com/2010/02/nauvoo-polygamy-but-we-called-it-celestial-marriage/ |title=Nauvoo Polygamy: "...but we called it celestial marriage" |publisher=Signature Books |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-56085-207-0 |edition=2nd |lccn=2010032062 |oclc=656848353 |author-link=George D. Smith |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141202211906/http://signaturebooks.com/2010/02/nauvoo-polygamy-but-we-called-it-celestial-marriage/ |archive-date=2014-12-02 |url-status=dead |orig-year=2008}}
• {{Cite book |last=Stenhouse |first=Fanny |title=Tell it All: A Woman's Life in Polygamy |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |year=1875 |isbn=0-7661-2811-3}}
• {{Cite book |last=Tanner |first=Jerald and Sandra |title=The Changing World of Mormonism |publisher=Moody Press |year=1979 |isbn=0-9620963-2-6 |author-link=Jerald and Sandra Tanner}}
• {{Cite book |last=Tanner |first=Jerald and Sandra |title=Mormonism – Shadow or Reality? |publisher=Utah Lighthouse Ministry |year=1987 |isbn=99930-74-43-8 |author-link=Jerald and Sandra Tanner}}
• {{cite book |last=van Beek |first=Walter E. A. |chapter=Pathways of Fundamentalization: The Peculiar Case of Mormonism |editor-last1= ter Haar|editor-first1=Gerrie |editor-last2=Busuttil |editor-first2=James |author-link= |date=2003 |title=The Freedom to Do God's Will: Religious Fundamentalism and Social Change |publisher=Taylor & Francis |pages=111–142 |isbn=9781134490103}}
• {{Cite book |last=Woodruff |first=Wilford |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=82EmAQAAIAAJ |title=Wilford Woodruff's Journal |publisher=Signature Books |year=1984 |isbn=0941214133 |editor-last=Kenney |editor-first=Scott G. |volume=5 |author-link=Wilford Woodruff}} Volume 5 includes journals from January 1, 1857 to December 31, 1861.
• {{Cite book |last=Whitney |first=Orson F. |title=The Life of Heber C. Kimball |year=1888 |author-link=Orson F. Whitney}}
• {{Cite book |last=Young |first=Ann Eliza |author-link=Ann Eliza Young|url=https://archive.org/details/wifenoorstoryofl00youniala |title=Wife No. 19, or the Story of a Life in Bondage|publisher=Kensinger Publishing, LLC |year=1875–76 |isbn=0766140482 }}

{{refend}}

• {{Cite book |title=The Persistence of Polygamy: from Joseph Smith's Martyrdom to the First Manifesto, 1844–1890 |publisher=John Whitmer Books |year=2013 |isbn=978-1934901144 |editor-last=Bringhurst |editor-first=Newell G. |series=Volume 2 |oclc=874165313 |editor-last2=Foster |editor-first2=Craig L. |editor-last3=Hardy |editor-first3=B Carmon}}
• {{Cite book |title=Scattering of the Saints: Schism within Mormonism |publisher=John Whitmer Books |year=2007 |isbn=978-1934901021 |editor-last=Bringhurst |editor-first=Newell G. |oclc=225910256 |editor-last2=Hamer |editor-first2=John C.}}
• {{Cite book |title=Modern Polygamy in the United States: Historical, Cultural, and Legal Issues |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780199746378 |editor-last=Jacobson |editor-first=Cardell K. |oclc=466084007 |editor-last2=Burton |editor-first2=Lara}}
• Talbot, Christine. A Foreign Kingdom: Mormons and Polygamy in American Political Culture, 1852–1890. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2013.
• Smith, William Victor. "Textual Studies of the Doctrine and Covenants: The Plural Marriage Revelation." Salt Lake City, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2018.
• Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher (2017). A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835–1870. New York. Alfred A. Knopf.

• {{Cite journal |last=Bachman |first=Danel W. |author-link=Danel W. Bachman |year=1978 |title=New Light on an Old Hypothesis: The Ohio Origins of the Revelation on Eternal Marriage |url=http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/jmh,10134 |url-status=dead |journal=Journal of Mormon History |volume=5 |pages=19–32 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221221652/http://content.lib.utah.edu/u/?%2Fjmh%2C10134 |archive-date=2008-12-21}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Beecher |first=Maureen Ursenbach |author-link=Maureen Ursenbach Beecher |year=1982 |title=The 'Leading Sisters': A Female Hierarchy in Nineteenth Century Mormon Society |url=http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/jmh,15750 |url-status=dead |journal=Journal of Mormon History |volume=9 |pages=25–40 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221183634/http://content.lib.utah.edu/u/?%2Fjmh%2C15750 |archive-date=2008-12-21}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Bradley |first1=Martha Sonntag |last2=Woodward |first2=Mary Brown Firmage |year=1994 |title=Plurality, Patriarchy, and the Priestess: Zina D. H. Young's Nauvoo Marriages |url=http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/jmh,17862 |url-status=dead |journal=Journal of Mormon History |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=84–118 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221182247/http://content.lib.utah.edu/u/?%2Fjmh%2C17862 |archive-date=2008-12-21}}
• {{Cite book |last=Bradley |first=Martha Sonntag |url=http://www.signaturebooks.com/zina.htm |title=Four Zinas |publisher=Signature Books |year=2000 |isbn=1-56085-141-4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051024000910/http://www.signaturebooks.com/zina.htm |archive-date=2005-10-24 |url-status=dead}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Daynes |first=Kathryn M. |author-link=Kathryn M. Daynes |year=1988 |title=Single Men in a Polygamous Society: Male Marriage Patterns in Manti, Utah |url=http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/jmh,11296 |url-status=dead |journal=Journal of Mormon History |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=89–112 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221171322/http://content.lib.utah.edu/u/?%2Fjmh%2C11296 |archive-date=2008-12-21}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Embry |first=Jessie L. |year=1992 |title=Ultimate Taboos: Incest and Mormon Polygamy |url=http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/jmh,14794 |url-status=dead |journal=Journal of Mormon History |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=93–113 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221183629/http://content.lib.utah.edu/u/?%2Fjmh%2C14794 |archive-date=2008-12-21}}
• {{Cite journal |last=James |first=Kimberly Jensen |year=1981 |title='Between Two Fires': Women on the 'Underground' of Mormon Polygamy |url=http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/jmh,12087 |url-status=dead |journal=Journal of Mormon History |volume=8 |pages=49–62 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221221247/http://content.lib.utah.edu/u/?%2Fjmh%2C12087 |archive-date=2008-12-21}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Quinn |first=D. Michael |author-link=D. Michael Quinn |year=1998 |title=Plural Marriage and Mormon fundamentalism |journal=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=1–68 |doi=10.2307/45226443 |jstor=45226443 |s2cid=254325184 |doi-access=free }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=William |author-link=William V. Smith |year=2016 |title=A Documentary Note on a Letter to Joseph Smith. Romance, Death, and Polygamy: The Life and Times of Susan Hough Conrad and Lorenzo Dow Barnes |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V49N04_311.pdf |journal=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=87–108 |doi=10.5406/dialjmormthou.49.4.0087 |s2cid=171950489}}

• {{Cite web |last=Compton |first=Todd M. |title=The Four Major Periods of Mormon Polygamy |url=http://signaturebookslibrary.org/?p=425 |year=2011 |publisher=Signature Books |author-link=Todd Compton|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928132255/http://signaturebookslibrary.org/the-four-major-periods-of-mormon-polygamy/|archive-date=28 September 2019|url-status=dead}}
• {{Citation |title=Gospel Topics: Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/plural-marriage-in-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints |work=lds.org |publisher=LDS Church}} – provides a historical overview
• {{Citation |title=Gospel Topics: Plural marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/plural-marriage-in-kirtland-and-nauvoo |work=lds.org |publisher=LDS Church |access-date=2014-10-22}} – about the beginnings of polygamy in the church
• {{Citation |title=Gospel Topics: Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/plural-marriage-and-families-in-early-utah |work=lds.org |publisher=LDS Church}}  – about polygamy in Utah
• {{Citation |title=Gospel Topics: The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/the-manifesto-and-the-end-of-plural-marriage |work=lds.org |publisher=LDS Church}} – about the gradual ending of LDS polygamy
• {{Citation |last=Main Street Church |title=Lifting the Veil of Polygamy |url=http://www.mscbc.org/polygamy.htm |year=2007 |type=polemic exposé video}}
• {{Cite news |last=Benjamin E. Park |date=May 14, 2020 |title=How An 1843 Revelation on Polygamy Poses A Serious Challenge to Modern Mormonism |work=Religion Dispatches |url=https://religiondispatches.org/how-an-1843-revelation-on-polygamy-poses-a-serious-challenge-to-modern-mormonism/}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Mormonism and polygamy}}

{{Close plural relationships}}

{{LDSntsdenom}}

{{Latter-day Saints}}

{{Latter Day Saint movement}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mormonism And Polygamy}}

Category:Discrimination in the United States

Category:Mormon studies

Category:Polygyny

Category:Polygamy in the United States