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=''Gospel Topics'': "Divorce was therefore available to women who were unhappy in their marriages"=
"Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah," ''Gospel Topics'' on LDS.org:
<blockquote>
Church leaders recognized that plural marriages could be particularly difficult for women. Divorce was therefore available to women who were unhappy in their marriages; remarriage was also readily available.<ref>[http://www.lds.org/topics/plural-marriage-and-families-in-early-utah?lang=eng "Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah,"] ''Gospel Topics'' on LDS.org (2013)</ref>
</blockquote>

=How were divorces formalized among Mormons on the frontier in the 19th century?=
==Some members of the Church remarried without obtaining a formal legal divorce==

Some members of the Church remarried without obtaining a formal legal divorce. Was this adultery? Remarriage without a formal, legal divorce was the norm for the period, especially on the frontier and among the poor. These were the legal realities faced by nineteenth century Americans.

"Presentism" is an analytical fallacy in which past behavior is evaluated by modern standards or mores. Even worse than a historian's presentism is a historian exploiting the presentism of his readers. Critics do this repeatedly when they speak about legal issues. "Presentism," observed American Historical Association president Lynn Hunt, "at its worst, encourages a kind of moral complacency and self-congratulation. Interpreting the past in terms of present concerns usually leads us to find ourselves morally superior. . . . Our forbears constantly fail to measure up to our present-day standards." <ref> Lynn Hunt, "Against Presentism," ''Perspectives'' 40/5 (May 2002); available online at http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2002/0205/ (accessed 2 December 2008).</ref>

==To remarry without a formal divorce was not an unusual thing in antebellum America==

Louisa Rising married Edwin Woolley "without first divorcing her legal husband," the dust jacket of George D. Smith's ''Nauvoo Polygamy'' teases. We are reminded later that "though she was not divorced from her legal husband, she agreed to marry" (p. 345). Eleanor McLean also married [[Mormonism_and_polygamy/Parley_P._Pratt%27s_marriage_and_murder|Parley Pratt]] without divorcing her first husband. It appears that G. D. Smith hopes to capitalize on ignorance about nineteenth-century laws and practices regarding marriage and divorce. "From the standpoint of the legal historian," wrote one expert who is not a Latter-day Saint, "it is perhaps surprising that anyone prosecuted bigamy at all. Given the confusion over conflicting state laws on marriage, there were many ways to escape notice, if not conviction." <ref>Beverly J. Schwartzberg, "Grass Widows, Barbarians, and Bigamists: Fluid Marriage in Late Nineteenth-Century America" (PhD diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2001), 51–52.</ref> To remarry without a formal divorce was not an unusual thing in antebellum America.

<blockquote>
Bigamy or, rather, serial monogamy (without divorce or death) was a common social experience in early America. Much of the time, serial monogamists were poor and transient people, for whom the property rights that came with a recognized marriage would not have been much of a concern, people whose lives only rarely intersected with the law of marriage. <ref>Hendrik Harlog, ''Man & Wife in America: A History'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 87.</ref>
</blockquote>

==The legal apparatus for performing divorces was not always readily available==

The Saints were often poor and spent most of their time on the frontier, where the legal apparatus of the state was particularly feeble. Women who had joined the church and traveled to Zion without their husbands were particularly likely to be poor, and also unlikely to be worried about property rights. Nor, not incidentally, were their husbands available for a formal divorce.

Does this mean that marriage in America was a free-for-all? Hardly, notes Nancy Cott:

<blockquote>
When couples married informally, or reversed the order of divorce and remarriage, they were not simply acting privately, taking the law into their own hands. . . . A couple about to join or leave an intimate relationship looked for communal sanction. The surrounding local community provided the public oversight necessary. Without resort to the state apparatus, local informal policing by the community affirmed that marriage was a well-defined public institution as well as a contract made by consent. Carrying out the standard obligations of the marriage bargain—cohabitation, husband's support, wife's service—seems to have been much more central to the approbation of local communities at this time than how or when the marriage took place, and whether one of the partners had been married elsewhere before. <ref>Nancy F. Cott, ''Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 37.</ref>
</blockquote>

It also should be remembered that because Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and other Latter-day Saint leaders exercised exclusive jurisdiction over celestial or plural marriages, marriages conducted under their supervision had as much (or more) formal oversight as many traditional marriages in America during the first half of the nineteenth century. Critics of the Church offer us none of this information or perspective—with the result that some readers might be horrified by the "loose" marriage practices of the Saints. 

=Was it normal not to obtain a formal civil divorce in 19th century America?=
==To remarry without a formal divorce was not an unusual thing in pre-Civil War America==

Some critics of Mormonism like to emphasize that some LDS members did not receive civil divorces before remarrying&mdash;either monogamously or polygamously.  They either state or imply that this shows the Saints' cavalier attitude toward the law.

The Saints were often poor and spent most of their time on the frontier, where the legal apparatus of the state was particularly feeble. Women who had joined the church and traveled to Zion without their husbands were particularly likely to be poor, and also unlikely to be worried about property rights. Critics usually tell us nothing of all this—with the result that some credulous readers might be horrified by the "loose" marriage practices of the Saints. It also should be remembered that because Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and other Latter-day Saint leaders exercised exclusive jurisdiction over celestial or plural marriages, marriages conducted under their supervision had as much (or more) formal oversight as many traditional marriages in America during the first half of the nineteenth century. 

"From the standpoint of the legal historian," wrote one expert who is not a Latter-day Saint, "it is perhaps surprising that anyone prosecuted bigamy at all. Given the confusion over conflicting state laws on marriage, there were many ways to escape notice, if not conviction." <ref>Beverly J. Schwartzberg, "Grass Widows, Barbarians, and Bigamists: Fluid Marriage in Late Nineteenth-Century America" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2001), 51–52. </ref> 

<blockquote>
Bigamy or, rather, serial monogamy (without divorce or death) was a common social experience in early America. Much of the time, serial monogamists were poor and transient people, for whom the property rights that came with a recognized marriage would not have been much of a concern, people whose lives only rarely intersected with the law of marriage. <ref>Hendrik Harlog, ''Man & Wife in America: A History'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 87</ref>
</blockquote>

Nor, not incidentally, were their husbands available for a formal divorce.

==Marriage in 19th century America was not a "free-for-all"==

Does this mean that marriage in America was a free-for-all? Hardly, notes Nancy Cott:

<blockquote>
When couples married informally, or reversed the order of divorce and remarriage, they were not simply acting privately, taking the law into their own hands. . . . A couple about to join or leave an intimate relationship looked for communal sanction. The surrounding local community provided the public oversight necessary. Without resort to the state apparatus, local informal policing by the community affirmed that marriage was a well-defined public institution as well as a contract made by consent. Carrying out the standard obligations of the marriage bargain—cohabitation, husband’s support, wife’s service—seems to have been much more central to the approbation of local communities at this time than how or when the marriage took place, and whether one of the partners had been married elsewhere before. <ref>Nancy F. Cott, ''Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 37.</ref> 
</blockquote>

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[[Category:MormonThink]]
[[Category:Questions]]
[[es:Fuente:El matrimonio plural y las familias en los primeros días de Utah:Temas del Evangelio:el divorcio estaba disponible para las mujeres que no eran felices en sus matrimonios]]
[[es:Pregunta: ¿Cómo se formalizaron los divorcios entre los mormones en la frontera en el siglo XIX?]]
[[es:Pregunta: ¿Era normal no obtener un divorcio civil formal en la América del siglo XIX?]]
[[pt:Fonte:O Casamento Plural e as Famílias Polígamas nos Primórdios de Utah:Tópicos do Evangelho:O divórcio estava, portanto, disponível para as mulheres que eram infelizes no casamento]]
[[pt:Pergunta: Como divórcios foram formalizados entre os mórmons na fronteira no século 19?]]
[[pt:Pergunta: Foi normal não para obter um divórcio civil, formal na América do século 19?]]
[[fi:Mormonismi ja moniavioisuus/Mormonien avioerot 1800 -luvulla]]
[[pt:Mormonismo e Poligamia/Divórcio no século 19]]
[[es:El Mormonismo y la poligamia/Divorcio en el siglo XIX]]