Mormon Polygamy and the Conflict with American Law
This paper explores the history of plural marriage within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), tracing its origins in Joseph Smith Jr.'s theological teachings through its legal confrontation with the federal government. The paper discusses the 1878 Supreme Court decision in Reynolds v. United States, which ruled that the government could restrict religious practices deemed harmful to society. It also examines how Mormon women experienced polygamy, how fundamentalist conviction shaped the practice, and how the LDS Church ultimately distanced itself from plural marriage while a small group of fundamentalists continued the tradition, placing them in ongoing conflict with both the Church and the law.
- Introduction: Mormonism as an American Phenomenon: Overview of LDS origins and social tensions
- Polygamy as Theological Doctrine: Plural marriage as divine obligation in LDS theology
- Federal Intervention and the Supreme Court: Reynolds ruling limits religious practice defenses
- Mormon Fundamentalism and Religious Conviction: Fundamentalist belief and anti-social religious practices
- Women's Experiences Within Plural Marriage: First-person accounts reveal gender inequality in polygamy
- Polygamy's Legacy in American Culture: Polygamy's enduring cultural and legal significance
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What makes this paper effective
- It draws on a diverse range of primary and secondary sources, including a first-person account by Fanny Stenhouse, historical analysis by Sarah Barringer Gordon, and Jon Krakauer's narrative nonfiction, giving the argument both scholarly and experiential grounding.
- The paper maintains a consistent analytical thread — the tension between religious liberty and civil law — while weaving in perspectives on gender, theology, and fundamentalism.
- Quotations are well-integrated and directly support the claims being made, rather than standing in for original analysis.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of multi-source synthesis. Rather than summarizing each source separately, the writer draws on Krakauer, Givens, Gordon, Flowers, and Stenhouse to build a layered argument about the same phenomenon — plural marriage — from legal, theological, psychological, and personal angles simultaneously.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with context on Mormonism's founding and theological distinctiveness, then narrows to the specific controversy of plural marriage. It moves chronologically through the nineteenth century, pivoting at the 1878 Supreme Court ruling, before broadening again to explore fundamentalism, women's perspectives, and the cultural legacy of polygamy in America. The conclusion ties together the themes of religious freedom, federalism, and gender inequality.
Introduction: Mormonism as an American Phenomenon
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) is an American curiosity. Founded in the early nineteenth century by Joseph Smith Jr., the faith blends traditional Christianity with visionary fervor. The Mormon Church diverges so much from mainstream American religion — and from Christianity in general — that it is widely regarded as a fringe faith. The church has come into frequent conflict with federal law, especially regarding plural marriage. Plural marriage has been a cornerstone of Mormon fundamentalism and one of the main reasons for the LDS Church's inability to reconcile itself with mainstream American society.
Polygamy as Theological Doctrine
The policy of polygamy remains central to the Mormon core of beliefs but has been legally banned for over one hundred years. Although the church began in the 1830s, challenges to plural marriage did not arise with any significant political force until the 1870s. Throughout the nineteenth century, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints incorporated plural marriage as an integral part of religious duty. Founder Joseph Smith Jr. taught in the 1830s and 1840s that "polygamy was divinely commanded and a religious obligation" (Flowers 21). As a result, polygamy was "part of the theology of the church for the rest of the century" (Flowers 21).
Female members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints did not have a choice about whether to enter into a plural marriage; it was simply expected of them. To resist the divinely ordained marital order risked social isolation and possibly being ostracized from friends and family. Givens relays the story of a Mormon wife who made her life story public: "Mercy's doubts nourished in secret, her resistance to polygamy, and her yearning for sublimity — all mark her as independent, different, alienated from her own people" (295).
According to Gordon, "Mormons believed in a distinct and different moral order based on new divine revelation. To many Mormons, polygamy was the most difficult and arguably the most exhilarating of the revealed Word in these latter days… [it] brought Mormons into direct and prolonged conflict with the law of marriage in the rest of the nation" (4). Early Mormons also believed that plural marriage was integral for "cleansing society of the scourge of prostitution" and for "elevating all of humanity" to a greater spiritual level (Gordon 4). Above all, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints portrayed plural marriage as a divine injunction — the foundation for an ideal social order.
Works Cited
Flowers, Ronald Bruce. That Godless Court? Supreme Court Decisions on Church-State Relationships. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1989.
Givens, Terry L. People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Gordon, Sarah Barringer. The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth Century America. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press.
Krakauer, Jon. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. Doubleday, 2003.
Stenhouse, Fanny. Expose of Polygamy: A Lady's Life Among the Mormons. Ed. Linda Wilcox Simone. Utah: Utah State University Press.
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