Year of Polygamy Podcast
Summary: The series follows the Mormon faith through the lens of “The Principle of Plural Marriage” from its genesis in 1831 with its originator Joseph Smith, through the hidden history and governmental pressure, to today and contemporary practicing Fundamentalist Mormons. For the first time polygamy is dissected through a feminist viewpoint, with attention given to the experiences of the women, women who sacrificed everything and suffered long and are never mentioned in museums or landmark tours. Their experiences, along with interviews with experts, sc20140302_130747holars, historians, and those still affected directly by the practice, paint a new portrait of how the west was shaped, by the hard work and toil of these invisible women, hidden away through controversy. Through Hansen’s careful work, we see how the practice of polygamy affected every aspect of the LDS church’s formation and is still a shadow hanging over the church, visible in it’s approach to marriage, the role of women, and the temple ceremonies. Instead of the historical footnote polygamy is often treated as, Hansen shows how this practice, started in secret and a direct cause of Joseph Smith’s death, responsible for driving the saints to Utah, and then outward again to Mexico and Canada, the root of power struggles both in the church and out, the cause of suspicion and eventually violence including the Mountain Meadows Massacre, was an instigator to most of the history of American West. For the first time, The Year of Polygamy shows how the west was settled not only to claim land and mineral rights, but in a very real way to control the bodies and sexuality of women in a way that reverberates today. Find our more at YearofPolygamy.com
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Podcasts:
Join Lindsay as she talks with historian Corey Howard about the life of Phoebe Woodruff, first wife to Wilford Woodruff (President of the LDS Church during the Manifesto period). Links and text mentioned and read in this podcast: * Todd Compton’s work on women married to Wilford Woodruff * LDS.org Woodruff’s teachings on marriage
Join Lindsay as she discusses several of the most prominent known marriages that happened after both the 1890 manifesto and the 1904 manifesto. Links and text mentioned and read in this podcast: * Solemn Covenant, The Mormon Polygamous Passage * The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power * Mormon Polygamy: A History * Sunstone: After the Manifesto * LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages * D. Michael Quinn: The Second Manifesto * D. Michael Quinn’s Plural Marriages After the Manifesto * Family Kingdom by Samuel Taylor Additional notes: * Remarks of Wilford Woodruff at Cache Stake Conference, Logan, Utah, 1891-11-01; reported at Wilford Woodruff, “Remarks”, Deseret Weekly (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1891-11-14; excerpts reprinted in LDS Church, “Official Declaration—1”, Doctrine and Covenants. * Diary entry of Marriner W. Merrill, 1890-10-06 (LDS Church archives), as cited in: Hardy 1992, p. 141. * Flake, Kathleen (2003), The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 0-8078-5501-4, OCLC 5770734
Lindsay speaks with Kristy Money, author of a recent oped discussing LDS.org’s essays on polygamy and how they can contribute to grooming and predatory behavior. Links mentioned in this podcast: * FAIR Mormon’s take on these issues. * Brian Hales’ views on these issues. * Todd Compton’s take on these issues. * Grant Palmer’s take on these issues. * Critic’s views on these issues * Mormon Think’s take on these issues. * Shindle affidavit on seduction. * Pratt/Schindle story in the Sangamo Journal * Anti-mormon literature at the time
Join Lindsay as she discusses the events leading up to the 1890 Manifesto. Links mentioned in this podcast: * LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890 – 1904 by D. Michael Quinn * The Four Hidden Revelations (1880, 1882, 1882, 1886) * LDS Church, Official Declaration — 1, Doctrine and Covenants. * Carmon Hardy’s (1992), Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage * D. Michael Quinn’s (1997), The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power * Stephen Eliot Smith’s (2005), The ‘Mormon Question’ Revisited: Anti-polygamy Laws and the Free Exercise Clause * Official Declaration—1: Full text of the Manifesto and other background statements from LDS Church Doctrine and Covenants * The Manifesto of 1890 — article from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism
This episode originally appeared on Mormonstories.org and is hosted by John Dehlin. Join John, Lindsay, John Hamer, and J. Nelson-Seawright as they discuss LDS.org’s newest essay on polygamy in Kirtland and Nauvoo. * Or listen on Mormon Stories here!
Join Lindsay as she discusses the fantastic and gruesome autobiography of the youngest wife of John D. Lee, Ann Gordge. This episode contains strong themes of violence and listener discretion is advised. Links mentioned in this podcast: * Ann’s Autobiography * Ann’s short bio * Playing With Shadows: Voices of Dissent in the Mormon West * The Limits of Autobiography: Trauma and Testimony * Blood of the Prophets by Will Bagley * Writing History, Writing Trauma * Red Water by Judith Freeman
Join Lindsay and Kate Kelly as they discuss the Women’s Suffrage movement and how polygamy played and integral role. Links mentioned in this podcast: Photo of Martha Huges Cannon in the Utah State Senate in 1897 Sister-Wives and Suffragists: Polygamy and the Politics of Woman Suffrage 1870-1896
Join Lindsay as she talks with historian Barbara Jones Brown about polygamy in Mexico around the turn of the century. Links mentioned in this podcast: * Join the Mormon History Association! * Article in Deseret News, “Remembering a Grand Soul, Lorna Call Alder” * Guest post on Keepapitchinin about Lorna * Women of Conviction lecture series * Mormon Women’s History Initiative * “They Do Things Differently There”: Understanding a Polygamous, “Foreign Country”
Join Lindsay as she interview genealogist Corey Horward about one of Brigham Young’s most beloved wives, Emmeline Free. Links mentioned in this podcast: * Emmeline Free Young Biographical Sketch, by Corey Howard * Newspaper article, “Brigham’s Abandoned Pet”
Join Lindsay as she discusses the life of Women’s Exponent writer Lucinda Dalton and the strange case of her posthumous divorce from her polygamist husband. Links mentioned in this podcast: * Buy the reading guide here! Sister Saints * Lucinda’s Autobiography * Dalton Family History Site
Join Lindsay as she interviews Perry Porter about the legislation and laws surrounding Mormon polygamy. Links mentioned in this podcast: * Perry’s chronology of polygamy site * Dialogue: Politicians, Mormons, Utah, and Statehood * Religious duty arguments * * Article of marriage (Footnotes below by Perry Porter) According to B. H. Roberts] History of the Church, Vol.2, p.246, Footnotes It should be observed that this “Article on Marriage” presented by W. W. Phelps, and also the one on “Government and Laws in General,” presented by Oliver Cowdery, were not presented as revelations and were not published as such at the time, but were expressions of course, of the belief of the Saints at that period on those subjects. It should also be noted that these two articles were presented and acted upon in the absence of the Prophet who was at the time visiting saints and preaching in Michigan. For those that think of revelation and the D&C as a seamless flow of information from God there is this: Apparently the changes in the printed revelations troubled a certain few of the brethren. At a meeting of the High Council at Far West, April 24, 1837, David W. Patten charged Lyman Wight with teaching false doctrines, among others that “the book of Doctrine and Covenants was a telestial law; and the Book of Commandments (a part of the revelations printed in Jackson county) was a celestial law.” Wight was censured for these teachings, and directed to acknowledge his error to the churches where he had preached. 78 H.C., 2:481-82. Peter Crawley, BYU Studies, Vol. 12, No. 4, p.502-503
Join Lindsay as she chats with author of The Polygamous Wives Writing Club, Paula Kelly Harline about her book, her opinions on the practice of plural marriage, and the voices of obscure Mormon frontierswomen. Links mentioned in this podcast: * Buy the book here and support the voices of LDS women!
Join Lindsay as she discusses the famous woman married to Brigham Young, dubbed as “Brigham’s Pet,” Amelia Folsom, said to be his favorite wife. Links mentioned in this podcast: The Tyranny of Mormonism: Or An Englishwoman in Utah; an Autobiography By Mrs. T. B. H. Stenhouse, Harriet Beecher Stowe Devotees and Their Shrines: A Hand Book of Utah Art By Alice Merrill Horne The Daily Argus News – Apr 27, 1894
Join Lindsay as she interviews former LDS Church archivist and former State of Utah archivist Jeffery Johnson about the women married to Brigham Young. Links mentioned in this episode: * Defining ‘Wife’: The Brigham Young Households,” by Jeffrey Johnson * A Mysterious Image Brigham Young With an Unknown Wife,” by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Robert F.E. Schwartz * List of Brigham Young’s Wives * * A Photo of Sally Kanosh * A Photo of Susannah Snively * A Photo of Naamah Kendall Jenkins Twiss Young * * The Sad Story of Sally, Native American Daughter of Brigham Young * The Persistence of Polygamy: From Joseph Smith’s Martyrdom to the First Manifesto, 1844-1890 *
Join Lindsay as she talks about Emma Batchelor Lee French, a favorite wife of John D. Lee of Mountain Meadows Massacre fame. Links mentioned in this podcast: * Will Bagley’s: “ONE LONG FUNERAL MARCH”: A REVISIONIST’S VIEW OF THE MORMON HANDCART DISASTERS * Courageous Emma Lee Endured Many Hardships in Pioneer Utah * Emma Lee by Juanita Brooks * John D. Lee family site Excerpt from Emma Lee: When the soldiers arrived about noon the next day, the commanding officer didn’t seem surprised to find John absent. The captain just shook his head and asked the three of us who were outside if we knew why the army wanted to arrest our husband. When we didn’t answer, he said, “John D. Lee is a murderer.” He went on to tell us that John’s Mormon Militia and Indian allies had slaughtered over 120 unarmed men, women and children. He said they had killed almost everyone in a wagon train that was passing through southern Utah on the way to California. He asked us if we were proud of the way John had participated in the bloodbath at Mountain Meadows, and of the way the head of our household and his cohorts had slaughtered everyone except the tiniest of their children. . . . That was it. I couldn’t listen to any more of the government man’s hateful lies. I turned and made my way down to the creek as fast as my pregnant belly would allow. When I got there, I bent over and splashed water on my face over and over again. I wanted the water to wash away the memory of what I had just heard. But it didn’t. My distress turned into dizziness, which made me fall on a jagged rock and bruise my unborn baby. John came back and comforted me after I gave birth to a stillborn son a month later.
