Page 238 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

C H APTER S I X

discrimination at the hands of Mormons, who would not hire a Gentile
f o r a job that a Mormon wanted. She did not hesitate, however, to direct
prejudice at Mormons. She leveled her worst barrage against plural mar­
riage, which she fe lt made the Latter-day Saints an "unprincipled sect"
who "live like brute creations more than like white fo lks."91
Tales of easy divorce among the Saints also inf u riated Gentile
women. Although the divorce rate in the United States was at an all­
time high in 1 8 50, more women f e ared divorce than saw it as a liberat­
ing f o rce fr om an unfortunate marriage. In 1 8 4 7, church officials began
parting men f r om one or more of their plural wives. Because church
leaders had no authority over civil marriage, they dealt only with reli­
Y
gious couplings. By 8 58, Brigham o ung was granting a record number
1
of divorces. Although he opposed divorce, he wanted to fr ee what he
called "discontented wives." In that year, he relieved George D. Grant
of three wives, and a f o urth wife several weeks later. Although Y o ung
hoped to keep Mormon marriages peaceful by dispatching troubled
ones, his church divorces f u rther inflamed Gentiles.9 2
Gentile women, who perceived plur:al marriage and easy divorce
as institutions that white civilized people should shun, blamed Mormon
men fo r their existence. Unsurprisingly, they saw these men-whom
f
they believed to be amoral and in need of e male morality-as the cause
of the evi1.93 In 1853, Harriet W a rd, who radically modified her view of
Native Americans, indicted male Mormon leaders. According to her,
Mormon men "boasted" that they "owned a plurality of wives f o r the
purpose of raising up a perfect race to inhabit this new Jerusalem fo r­
W
ever."94 a rd dismissed Mormon doctrine, saying that "not any of them
believes a word they preach, and they are a miserable lot of extortion­
ers upon whom the wrath of God will yet be poured out." As W a rd left
the Salt Lake area, she expressed her disgust: "The country through
which we have passed today is beautiful and should be inhabited by a
different set of beings than the Mormons."9s In 1 8 65, Sarah Herndon
reinforced this view: "This is a beautiful valley. T o o good to be possessed
by a community of bigamists."96 Other disgruntled women supported
these contentions. One said that men married and unmarried "at pleas­
Y
ure several times a year if they choose." She added that Brigham o ung
housed his "harem" in a "poor, miserable log and adobe affair, directly

2 3 0