Over the past few months I ran a trilogy of articles addressing what Latter-day Saint women who lived in polygamous marriages had to say about the effect of plural marriage on their lives, on their place in LDS society, and on Utah’s community in general. The reason for this was simple – there is no better way to counter anti-Mormon lies about polygamy than actually listening to the voices of the women who live it. In contrast to the anti-Mormon narrative that polygamy oppressed women, devalued them as members of society, and subjected them to greater male dominance (more so than already existed in the 19th century) these women testified that the exact opposite was true.
In the mass protest meeting that has since become known as the Great Indignation Meeting, the women of the church met in the Old Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah to proclaim the truth about plural marriage and its effect on their lives. Plural marriage empowered them, elevated their positions in society, freed them to pursue social, political, and educational opportunities not available to women elsewhere in the USA (if not the world), and that government efforts to prevent them from practicing polygamous were what was oppressive and destructive to them as women. They declared that any efforts by the federal government to outlaw polygamy were unconstitutional, demanded that their constitutional right to religious liberty be respected, and proclaimed that they would rather die than give up plural marriage because the government said they must do so.
Though they never uttered the word nullification they nevertheless promulgated the doctrine when they said that where federal law and state law conflicted because the federal law was unconstitutional, as it was with polygamy, then they would ignore national law and obey the laws of their state. In doing so they proclaimed their righteous willingness to break the law and engage in noncompliance and civil disobedience in service to God and His commandments. They understood the difference between God’s will and man’s law and to which they owed their supreme allegiance and obedience. Their efforts here to organize and protect their rights initiated a new “era of women” and culminated in Utah being the second place to give women the right to vote and being the first place they did vote. Plural marriage – polygamy – was the foundation of feminism and women’s suffrage in Utah, placing it at the vanguard of these issues in the United States. This seems to have even included Black women, though to what degree is likely dependent on locality. All government efforts thereafter was dedicated to stripping these women of the right to vote in the overall effort to destroy polygamy in Utah which only proved that polygamy did elevate, empower, and strengthen the rights of Latter-day Saint women while federal efforts to eliminate polygamy were oppressive, anti-feminist, racist, and degrading to women.
Below are the links to each part of the trilogy of article reproducing the words of these women during the Great Indignation Meeting along with commentary on their addresses drawing out the social, political, and religious points of their arguments. This is followed by a photo-reproduction of the original 1870 Deseret News article.
Below is the copy of the original article. I suggest though that the reader peruse the original as found here in the archives of the University of Utah as my resolution is limited.
