Plural marriage and the LDS Restorationist movement
This page examines the development of polygyny among some nineteenth-century Mormon communities. It is a historical account, not a description of current policy for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which formally ended the practice in the nineteenth century. Some fundamentalist groups later continued plural marriage independently.
Terminology
Popular writing often uses polygamy for any marriage involving more than two spouses. The more precise term for the arrangement discussed here is polygyny: one man married to multiple women. Polyandry, involving one woman and multiple men, was uncommon in the historical record and is not the focus of this essay. For a concise definition, see the terminology guide.
Reading the evidence
Historical claims about plural marriage depend on diaries, institutional records, later recollections and scholarly interpretation. Numbers and individual relationships can therefore vary between sources. The summary below distinguishes documented chronology from broader interpretations.
Frequently repeated assumptions
Modern discussions sometimes simplify the movement's early history. Important points of context include:
- Joseph Smith's plural marriages were reported as taking place during his lifetime, rather than being created only through posthumous ceremonies.
- The women involved were not a single uniform group; their ages, family circumstances, motivations and relationships to the movement differed.
- Plural marriage was connected by its advocates to religious ideas about covenant, priesthood and patriarchal order. Those explanations do not erase the unequal power structure of the practice.
- The practice was not equally common in every community or period, but it became an important feature of the leadership and identity of some early settlements.
- Later fundamentalist movements should be distinguished from the contemporary LDS Church and from one another; they do not form one single organization.
Origins and early development
Joseph Smith founded the Church of Christ in 1830, a movement that later divided into numerous Restorationist traditions. Historical accounts place the secret introduction of plural marriage in the 1830s. Within the movement, it was described using expressions such as the Law of Abraham, the Patriarchal Order of Marriage, celestial plural marriage and the Law of the Priesthood. Related explanations sometimes referred to a Law of Sarah.
Accounts from the period describe Smith performing or arranging plural unions and entering plural marriages himself. The exact number of wives remains a subject of historical discussion because sources differ in completeness and interpretation. The Nauvoo period, especially the publication of the Nauvoo Expositor in 1844, brought concealed practices into a public and political conflict. The destruction of the press was followed by Smith's arrest and death in jail during an armed attack.
Public acknowledgment under Brigham Young
After Smith's death, Brigham Young became the leading figure of the largest LDS branch. The church publicly acknowledged plural marriage in 1852 at a conference in Great Salt Lake City, after years in which the practice had been kept private. Young continued to defend it as a religious principle, while federal pressure and conflict with the United States government increasingly shaped the issue.
Public sermons and institutional publications from the period presented plural marriage in strongly theological terms and sometimes linked it to exaltation, obedience and membership in the religious community. These statements are best read within their nineteenth-century setting and alongside the experiences of women and families affected by the system.
After the nineteenth century
During the late nineteenth century, the LDS Church moved toward ending plural marriage as it sought statehood and legal stability. The 1890 Manifesto announced a cessation of new plural marriages, and a later declaration reinforced the policy. The contemporary church now treats entering a plural marriage as grounds for disciplinary action. Groups that continued the practice separated from the mainstream institution and developed distinct identities.
Suggested references
- Richard S. Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy: A History, Signature Books, 1986.
- Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, Signature Books, 1997.
- For broader background, compare the site's pages on Christianity, denominations and comparing beliefs.