• Rumors of plural marriage among the members of the Church in the 1830's and 1840's led to persecution, and the public announcement of the practice after August 29, 1852, in Utah gave enemies a potent weapon to fan public hostility against the Church...considerable evidence suggests that the principle of plural marriage was revealed to Joseph Smith more than a decade before...probably as early as 1831...a man could have more than one wife at a time and not be condemned for adultery...Evidence for the practice of plural marriages during the 1830's is scant. Only a few knew about the still unwritten revelation, and perhaps the only known plural marriage was that between Joseph Smith and Fanny Alger. (emphasis added)
• Teaching new marriage and family arrangements where the principles could not be openly discussed compounded the problems. Those authorized to teach the doctrine stressed the strict covenants...those who heard only rumors...often envisioned and practiced something quite different... (emphasis added)

• "Plural Marriage", Encyclopedia of Mormonism

Kirtland Mills Ohio Aug 10th 1833.

Dear Brethren, W, J, E, I, J, and S, and all others who are willing to lay down their lives for the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ:

P.S. Brethren if I were with you I should take an active part in your sufferings, and although nature shrinks, yet my spirit would not let me forsake you unto death, God helping me. Oh be of good cheer, for our redemption draweth near. Oh, God save my brethren in Zion. Oh brethren give up all to God, forsake all for Christ's sake.

J[oseph] S[mith] (emphasis added)

• Jesse, 306
• Jessee, The Personal Writing of Joseph Smith, p. 283

I then withdrew to transact some business with a gentleman who had called to see me, when Joshua informed my scribe that he was born in Cambridge, Washington County, New York. He says that all the railroads, canals, and other improvements are projected by the spirits of the resurrection. The silence spoken of by John the Revelator, which is to be in heaven for the space of half an hour, is between 1830 and 1851, during which time the judgments of God will be poured out, after that time there will be peace.

Curiosity to see a man that was reputed to be a Jew, caused many to call during the day, and more particularly in the evening....

[After listening to what Matthias said] I told him that his doctrine was of the devil, that he was in reality in possession of a wicked and depraved spirit, although he professed to be the Spirit of truth itself; and he said also that he possessed the soul of Christ.

He tarried until Wednesday, 11th, when, after breakfast, I told him, that my God told me, that his god was the devil, and I could not keep him any longer, and he must depart. And so I, for once, cast out the devil in bodily shape, and I believe a murderer."

• The author cites Jesse, Papers of Joseph Smith, 2:68–73, 568–69.
• This information is also found in History of the Church 2:306, The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, p. 78 and Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 104.

Robert Matthews "advocated what he called a 'community of property and of wives,' in a more 'spiritual generation.' Mormons avoided the idiom but not the practice." "…Mormon communal practices extended to property as well as to marriage."

Another practicioner of spiritual wifery was Robert Matthews, alias "Matthias the Prophet." Matthews announced that "all marriages not made by himself, and according to his doctrine, were of the devil, and that he had come to establish a community of property, and of wives...After a brief prison sentence, Matthews turned up on Joseph Smith's doorstep in Kirtland as "Joshua, the Jewish Minister." Smith's account of the two day meeting is sketchy, but apparently Matthews was sent on his way after a disagreement on the "transmigration of the soul."

• Richard S. Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy: A History (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989), 8.

• The quote is incorrect. The correct phrase, as seen if one looks at the cited source Messenger and Advocate is "some kind messenger."
• The text actually reads, "On the evening of the 21st of September, 1823, previous to retiring to rest, our brother's mind was unusually wrought up on the subject which had so long agitated his mind—his heart was drawn out in fervent prayer, and his whole soul was so lost to every thing of a temporal nature, that earth, to him, had lost its claims, and all he desired was to be prepared in heart to commune with some kind messenger who could communicate to him the desired information of his acceptance with God." (emphasis added)

• Oliver Cowdery to W.W. Phelps, LDS Messenger and Advocate 1 [No. 5] (Feb 1835): 79.

• Author cites Oliver Cowdery to W.W. Phelps, Messenger and Advocate 1 (Feb 1835): 79.
• CITATION is in ERROR. The author is quoting from Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, 125, 134 and Vogel, Indian Origins, 14–15.
• Actual quote is found in: Oliver Cowdery to W.W. Phelps, LDS Messenger and Advocate 2/1 (October 1835): 197.

"These verses suggest that "white" garments are metaphors for purity and cleanliness. A physical cleansing agent removes stains, soils, dirt, disease, and impurities from clothing. Clothing washed in physical blood does not appear white....I suggest that “whiteness” for Mary and Jesus refers to a countenance that is exquisite, radiant, awe-inspiring, and not to blue-eyed, blond-haired, white-skinned Aryans....

The “whiteness” of gentiles is also metaphorical. To see this, consider the question, who are the gentiles in the Book of Mormon? The prophet Mormon gives us an answer on the title page. As did the Jews, Mormon divides the world into two: Jews and gentiles. Gentiles are the non-Jews. Black Africans, brown Hispanics, yellow Vietnamese, black Melanesians, fair-skinned Scandinavians, or olive-complected Italians are not Jews....

White-skinned Nephites and black-skinned Lamanites are metaphors for cultures, not for skin colour. The church teaches that the descendants of the Lamanites inhabited the Americas when Columbus arrived. But Lamanites are not black-skinned; they are not even red-skinned. As the “skin of blackness” is a metaphor, so too is the white skin of the Nephites. Perhaps 3 Nephi 2꞉15-16, in which the Lamanites have the curse taken from them, fulfills 2 Nephi 30꞉6. In these verses the Lamanite has become “white and delightsome” not “pure and delightsome.”...

It is Moroni in Mormon 9꞉6 who gives this fervent prayer as to what our condition may be on the day of resurrection: spotless, pure, fair. And white, not white skinned. Not Aryan. Not Caucasian. But cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb....

2 Nephi 26꞉33...elates salvation to sets of opposites. Salvation transcends gender, social condition, and race. Christ’s gospel is intended to overcome our narrow biases.

• Campbell, "'White' or 'Pure': Five Vignettes," Dialogue 29 (Winter 1996) 119-120
• Lester E. Bush Jr. and Armand L. Mauss, Neither White nor Black (SLC, Signature Books, 1994).

"I was visiting <at> Mr [Josiah] Stowell's who lived in Bainbridge and saw your father there. I had no intention of marying when I left home; but during my visit at Mr Stowell's, your Father visited me there. My folks were bitterly opposed to him; and being importuned by your father, aided by Mr Stowell, and preferring to marry him than any one I Knew, I consented, we went to Squire Tarbeill's and were married. Afterwards when father found I was married he sent for us. The statement in mother [Lucy] S[mith]'[s] history is substantially correct as to date and place." (Vogel, "Emma Smith Bidamon Interview with Joseph Smith III, February 1879", Early Mormon Documents, 538.

• No source provided (One wonders why he didn't use the available source containing Emma's own words).

She did not want to attend the meeting, but her parents prevailed upon her, and she agreed reluctantly. That night, as she walked into the meeting room, 'The Prophet, raising his head, looked her full in the eye. With the greatest feeling of shame ever experienced, she felt her very soul laid bare before this man as she realized her thoughts concerning him. He smiled and her anger melted as snow before the sunshine. She knew he was what he claimed to be and never doubted him thereafter." (Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, 228).

• No source provided.

• Neither Parrish nor Cowdery said anything about them being found in the hay together. That relies entirely on William McLellin's second and third hand reports.

• Note that the day prior to Joseph praying to be delivered from temptations, William McLellin was excommunicated:

December 3d [1832]...William Mclelen was excommunicated from the church &c—[1]

Jessee notes that "The cause of McLellin's 1832 excommunication is not known...."[2] D. Michael Quinn, however, notes that McLellin was excommunicated in December 1832 for spending time with "a certain harlot" while on a mission.[3] This event, then, may have weighed on Joseph.

And, the very next day, Joseph wrote that:

....this day I been unwell done but litle been at home all day regulated some things this Evening feel better in my mind then I have for a few days back Oh Lord deliver out thy servent out of temtations and fill his heart with wisdom and understanding.[4]

Joseph is by now less troubled than he has been over the last few days. In context, he may have been burdened by the necessity of disciplining McLellin and the other press of church business which his entry of December 3 describes.

1. Dean C. Jessee (editor), The Papers of Joseph Smith: Autobiographical and Historical Writings (Vol. 1 of 2) (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1989), 16–17. ISBN 0875791999
2. Jessee, note 11.
3. D. Michael Quinn, Mormon Hierarchy: Origins, 44.
4. Jessee, 17.

1. G. D. Smith (p. 532 n. 151) quotes Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy, 8. Van Wagoner indicates that Hyde’s journal “disdainfully described” the Cochranites’ practice. Elsewhere Van Wagoner likewise notes that Hyde was “worried” by the practice: “Mormon Polygamy at Nauvoo,” Dialogue 18/3 (Fall 1985): 69–70)
2. Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (New York: S. Converse, 1828), s.v. "wonderful."

• There were many causes of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, not just something that can be labeled "the proximate cause." (Smith gives links to various treatments on pp. 298–299, n.107—this is a refreshing, if rare, example of him providing links to the relevant literature which advocate different views.)
• While Pratt's murder doubtless increased the LDS sense of alienation, President Brigham Young counseled peace and patience, and Pratt's murder was "old news" before the Fancher train arrival (it went unmentioned, for example, in accounts of the Mormons receiving news of the approaching federal army).[1]

1. Turley, Walker and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 30–32, 37.

• The author cites: Scott F. and Maurine J. Proctor, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt (1874; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 586-99.

• The History of the Church recounts:

"President Smith then stated that the meeting had been called, because God had commanded it….and it was the will of God that those who went to Zion, with a determination to lay down their lives, if necessary, should be ordained to the ministry, and go forth to prune the vineyard for the last time, or the coming of the Lord, which was nigh—even fifty-six years should wind up the scene." (HC 2:182, 14 Feb 1835.)

N/A

• The author's main evidence for this is Emma Smith's denial that Joseph taught polygamy (pp. 442-443), but this has little to do with the leaders of the Church.

• The Church remained well aware—as evidenced by nineteenth century sermons—that polygamy played a large role in their persecution. Later Church historians also noted the connection.[1]

• For example, after detailing the many factors that contributed to animosity between Illinois and the Mormons, Elder B.H. Roberts concludes that events were “awaiting only the spark. . . . The spark came.” The spark was the Expositor, according to Roberts, since it involved

the new marriage system, involving the practice, within certain limitations and under very special conditions, of a plurality of wives, [which] constituted a ground of appeal to popular prejudices and passions that would have been absolutely resistless if the paper had been allowed to proceed. In the presence of such difficulties, what was to be done? In addition to declaring the existence of the practice of plural marriage, not yet announced or publicly taught as a doctrine of the Church, and agitating for the unqualified repeal of the Nauvoo charter, gross immoralities were charged against leading citizens which doubtless rendered the paper grossly libelous.[2]

1. See, for example, John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 20:352-354. (30 November 1879)
2. Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 6:xxxvii–xxxviii. Volume 6 link