Page 239 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

FRONTIER PLACE: COLON IALISM TR IUMPHANT

in front of his elegant, Gothic-windowed barn!"97 Parsons claimed that
Mormon men treated their wives badly, so that quarreling, desertion,
and divorce were common.98
Gentile women also worried about Mormon women. As white,
Christian, and fe male, they could not help imagining how they would
f e el as plural wives.99 T o Herndon, plural marriage was disastrous f o r
Mormon women, who according to her, constituted "a poor heart
broken & deluded lot." I OO Another thought Mormon women were
O
"good-natured, stupid f o ols" f o r consenting to the idea. I I Some spec­
ulated that Mormon women accepted plural marriage because they
were intimidated and f e arful of male Mormon leaders. And Gentile
women claimed that Mormon women confided to them horrible tales
regarding plural marriage. One young woman said that she had not met
a Mormon woman "satisfied with her lot," but had received "applica­
tions from women that wanted to get away." I02 The newly converted
Sarah Cooke even admitted that her fr iends who were plural wives f e lt
"they would die f r om the distress of it."I03
Because Gentile f r o ntierswomen hated plural marriage, they obvi­
ously projected their own fe elings onto Mormon women. Mormon
women's documents tell a different story, however. Mormon women
often defended plural marriage. I04 During the r 8 40s, a plural wife
accepted the presence of a second wife because it was a "sacred revela­
tion." She maintained that her f a mily lived happily with no jealousy . She
hated those who held Mormon women "up to scorn," and opposed the
passage oflaws making plural marriage illegal because it would deprive
women of lawful husbands and would brand their children as illegiti­
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mate. I S About the same time, Eliza Roxey Snow, a wife of Joseph Smith
who migrated to Salt Lake City in r 844, claimed that she had learned
to "love" the "principle and design of Plural Marriage." She, too, dis­
liked Gentile critics. During her migration, she wrote, the inhabitants
of Des Moines, Iowa e rritory, "manifested as much curiosity as though
T
viewing a menagerie of wild beasts." I06
Other Mormon wives who made the trek to Salt Lake City
described their introduction to plural marriage as a "bitter pill," a con­
cept "repugnant to their f e elings, and as a crushing trial," but, like Snow,
they eventually accepted plural marriage as a religious duty. I07 In r857,

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