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Criticism of Mormonism/Books/American Massacre/Chapter 8
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Contents
- 1 Response to claims made in "Chapter 8: Deseret, August 3, 1857"
- 1.1 Response to claim: 104 - Deaths in the handcart companies caused "most Salt Lake Mormons" to lay the blame "squarely at Young's feet"
- 1.2 Claim The book discusses the "Mormon Reformation."
- 1.3 Claim The author claims that Brigham said that "all backsliders should be 'hewn down'".
- 1.4 Claim A list of thirteen questions was "conceived by Young and expanded by Grant."
- 1.5 Claim Blood atonement
- 1.6 Claim The author claims that "those who dared to flee Zion were hunted down and killed."
- 1.7 Response to claim: 106 - The killing of William R. Parrish, "an elderly Mormon in high standing"
- 1.8 Question: Were William Parrish and his son murdered as they attempted to leave Utah because leaving Utah was "forbidden"?
- 1.9 Response to claim: 106 - Castration of a man by Bishop Warren Snow who was "engaged to a woman Snow wanted to take for a plural wife"
- 1.10 Castration as a punishment among 19th century Mormons
- 1.11 Claim The author claims that the "bloody regime…ended with [Jedediah] Grant's sudden death, on December 1, 1856."
- 1.12 Response to claim: 108 - Surveyor General David Burr "fled for his life"
- 1.13 Surveyor general David H. Burr
- 1.14 Response to claim: 110-112 - It is claimed that Parley P. Pratt was killed because he married Elenore McLean when she was not divorced from her husband
- 1.14.2 FAIR's Response
- 1.15.1 Parley Pratt is accused of being sealed to Eleanor Mclean without her having divorced her husband
- 1.15.2 Eleanor's husband Hector physically abused her
- 1.15.3 Eleanor declared herself divorced from Hector
- 1.15.4 Eleanor's husband Hector erupts over baptism of children and tries to have her declared insane
- 1.15.5 Nineteenth century marriages did not always end in a formal divorce
- 1.15.6 After Eleanor married Parley, Hector pursued and shot him six times and stabbed him twice
Response to claims made in "Chapter 8: Deseret, August 3, 1857"
| Chapter 7 | A FAIR Analysis of: American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows A work by author: Sally Denton
|
Chapter 9 |
Response to claim: 104 - Deaths in the handcart companies caused "most Salt Lake Mormons" to lay the blame "squarely at Young's feet"
The author(s) of American Massacre make(s) the following claim:
According to the author, deaths in the handcart companies caused "most Salt Lake Mormons" to lay the blame "squarely at Young's feet."Author's sources: No source provided.
FAIR's Response
105
Claim
The book discusses the "Mormon Reformation."
Author's source(s)
- N/A
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Mormon Reformation
105
Claim
The author claims that Brigham said that "all backsliders should be 'hewn down'".
Author's source(s)
- Josiah F. Gibbs, 'The Mountain Meadows Massacre, 8ff
Response
FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources
105
Claim
A list of thirteen questions was "conceived by Young and expanded by Grant."
Author's source(s)
- Gustive O. Larson, "The Mormon Reformation," Utah Historical Society Quarterly 26 (January 1958).
- Hirshson, 155
- David L. Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1998), 127. (bias and errors) Review.
Response
- This list of questions sounds very much like a temple recommend interview today. A number of the same questions are still asked.
- This claim is also made in One Nation Under Gods: p. 234, 560n43 .
- Mormon Reformation
- Crime and violence in Utah
- Danites in anti-Mormon polemic.
106
Claim
Blood atonement
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and doctrine/Repudiated concepts/Blood atonement
106
Claim
The author claims that "those who dared to flee Zion were hunted down and killed."
Author's source(s)
- Cannon and Knapp, 268.
Response
- Internal contradiction: This contradicts what the author said on page 59, where she claims that Brigham said that anyone was "free to leave."
Response to claim: 106 - The killing of William R. Parrish, "an elderly Mormon in high standing"
The author(s) of American Massacre make(s) the following claim:
The killing of William R. Parrish, "an elderly Mormon in high standing."Author's sources: Cannon and Knapp, 268.
FAIR's Response
- This claim is also made in One Nation Under Gods: p. 238, 562n60 (PB)
Question: Were William Parrish and his son murdered as they attempted to leave Utah because leaving Utah was "forbidden"?
No guilty parties were ever found
The Los Angeles Star reported that Indians had supposedly killed Parrish and two others; it noted too that "rumor had it [that Parrish]...'had a difficulty with the authorities about removing property which he had previously 'consecrated' to the church.'" [1] No guilty parties were ever found. [2]
The only "leader" accused was Parrish's bishop. [3] If a local leader did commit an act of murder, this proves nothing about Brigham Young or other general leaders ordering it, or that this is a representative example of how Utah Mormons dealt with apostates.
Response to claim: 106 - Castration of a man by Bishop Warren Snow who was "engaged to a woman Snow wanted to take for a plural wife"
The author(s) of American Massacre make(s) the following claim:
Castration of a man by Bishop Warren Snow who was "engaged to a woman Snow wanted to take for a plural wife."Author's sources: David L. Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1998), 132. (bias and errors) Review
FAIR's Response
Castration as a punishment among 19th century Mormons
Summary: I have read about a group of men (LDS) that went around castrating immoral men (who were also LDS) with the express permission of local church leaders. These events supposedly happened during the Brigham Young's administration. It is claimed that Brigham was aware of and approved of this and may have given the order. What can you tell me about this? I read that missionaries who selected plural wives from female converts before allowing church leaders to select from them first were castrated.
Jump to details:
- Question: Did Bishop Warren S. Snow forcibly castrate twenty-four-year-old Thomas Lewis?
- Question: Was Thomas Lewis castrated because he wanted to marry a young woman who was desired by an older man as a plural wife?
- Question: Was the castration of Thomas Lewis approved by Brigham Young?
- Question: Other than the story of Thomas Lewis, are there other accounts of men being castrated by Mormons in the 1850s?
106
Claim
The author claims that the "bloody regime…ended with [Jedediah] Grant's sudden death, on December 1, 1856."
Author's source(s)
- David L. Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1998), 133. (bias and errors) Review
Response
- There is no evidence of Grant implementing "blood atonement."
- For a detailed response, see: Mormonism and doctrine/Repudiated concepts/Blood atonement
- For a detailed response, see: Mormon Reformation
Response to claim: 108 - Surveyor General David Burr "fled for his life"
The author(s) of American Massacre make(s) the following claim:
Surveyor General David Burr "fled for his life."Author's sources: House Exec. Doc. 71, 118-20.
FAIR's Response
Surveyor general David H. Burr
Jump to details:
Response to claim: 110-112 - It is claimed that Parley P. Pratt was killed because he married Elenore McLean when she was not divorced from her husband
The author(s) of American Massacre make(s) the following claim:
It is claimed that Parley P. Pratt was killed because he married Elenore McLean when she was not divorced from her husband.Author's sources:
- Reva Stanley, The Archer of Paradise: A Biography of Parley Pratt, 163.
- Steven Pratt, "Eleanor McLean," 227.
- Fielding, Unsolicited Chronicler, 382.
FAIR's Response
Question: Was Parley P. Pratt murdered because he stole another man's wife?
Parley Pratt is accused of being sealed to Eleanor Mclean without her having divorced her husband
Pratt’s last wife, Eleanor, “was sealed to him without divorcing her legal husband, who fatally shot Parley near Van Buren, Arkansas” (p. 333). There is, however, much that we are not told. Eleanor’s husband was a heavy drinker, which in 1844 resulted in separation. The couple was reconciled, and the family moved to San Francisco. While in California, Eleanor discovered the church. Her husband forbade her to join and “purchased a sword cane and threatened to kill her and the minister who baptized her if she became a Mormon.” [4]
It is therefore claimed by critics of Mormonism that Parley P. Pratt's practice of polygamy was responsible for his murder, partly because he married a woman who hadn't been divorced from her first husband.
- Was Parley P. Pratt building a "harem" of wives?
- Did Parley P. Pratt "induce" another man's wife to join the Church simply so that he could add her as a polygamous wife?
Eleanor's husband Hector physically abused her
Eleanor attended LDS meetings, and one Sunday at home, “while Eleanor was singing from a Mormon hymn book she had purchased, Hector tore the book from her hands, threw it into the fire, beat her, cast her out into the street, and locked the door.” [5]
Eleanor declared herself divorced from Hector
Eleanor lodged a complaint of assault and battery against Hector and planned to leave him until prevailed upon by local church members and her physician. At that point, said Eleanor, “I presume McLean himself would not deny that I then declared that I would no more be his wife however many years I might be compelled to appear as such for the sake of my children". [6]
Eleanor was not baptized until 1854, and she had the written permission of her husband to do so. However, he forbade her to read church literature or to sing church hymns at home. It is not clear, then, why G. D. Smith feels Eleanor owed an observance of all the twentieth-century legal niceties to a violent, abusive, tyrannical drunkard. Through it all, as a church leader, Parley Pratt had tried to help the couple reconcile.
Eleanor's husband Hector erupts over baptism of children and tries to have her declared insane
Eleanor had her children baptized, and Hector responded by filing a charge of insanity against his wife so he could have her committed to an asylum. Hector sent her children by steamer to their maternal grandparents’ home, confined Eleanor to the house, and again threatened to have her committed for insanity. Eleanor eventually found her children at her parents’ home, but they refused to let her take them. [7] Eleanor went to Salt Lake City and married Pratt on 14 November 1855. As we have seen, she considered herself divorced from Hector from the time he violently threw her from their home in San Francisco. They never received a civil divorce, however.
Nineteenth century marriages did not always end in a formal divorce
It is assumed that nineteenth century marriages always ended in a formal divorce. They did not--this was often impossible. From which authority, exactly, would G. D. Smith prefer that Eleanor receive a divorce? She was in Utah; Hector was in San Francisco. He had abused, beaten, confined, and threatened to institutionalize her. As we have seen, notions of divorce were also more fluid in the mid-nineteenth century, especially on the frontier. It is unlikely that most contemporaries would have insisted that Eleanor required a formal divorce.
After Eleanor married Parley, Hector pursued and shot him six times and stabbed him twice
Pratt was arrested on trumped-up charges, freed by a non-Mormon judge, and pursued by Hector, who shot the unarmed apostle six times and stabbed him twice. He was left to bleed to death over the course of two hours. [8] In G. D. Smith’s worldview, are men like Hector entitled to hold women emotionally or martially hostage, civil divorce or no? One suspects not. But in his zeal to condemn the church, he does not provide his readers with the facts necessary to understand the Pratts’ choices.
112-113
Claim
In Brigham's speech on July 24, 1857, he said that "This American Continent will be Zion...for it is so spoken of by the Prophets." The author interprets this to mean that the "godless American government's moving against them singaled the beginning of their Armageddon scenario" and would result in Brigham's "ascendancy" to rule the Kingdom of God on earth.
Author's source(s)
- Fielding, Unsolicited Chronicler, 383.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Brigham Zion speech on 24 July 1857
115
Claim
The author claims that "Indian" massacres that occurred in Utah Territory were actually carried out by "white-faced Indians who used Mormon slang."
Author's source(s)
- No source provided.
Response
- Absurd claim: the author needs evidence beside her assertion to prove this point.
115
Claim
Brigham instructed the people to "hoard their grain," according to the author. People were told to "report without delay any person in your District that disposes of a Kernel of grain to any Gentile merchant or temporary sojourner."
Author's source(s)
- Brooks, Mountain Meadows Massacre, xvii-xviii.
Response
- For a detailed response, see: Orders to starve immigrants or not sell grain?
120
Claim
The author claims that "it seem most likely that [Charles] Rich advised the Fancher train to take the Southern Trail."
Author's source(s)
- Author's opinion.
Response
- Jacob Hamblin would testify that the Fancher train "being of southern people had preferred to take the southern route." [9]
120
Claim
Brigham is noted as having given a "current sermon" in which he vowed to "turn [the Indians] loose" on the emigrants.
Author's source(s)
- Basil Parker's memoir, 7.
Response
FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources
121
Claim
Will Bagley claims that "all information about the emigrants' conduct came from men involved in their murder or cover-up."
Author's source(s)
- Will Bagley, Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows (University of Oklahoma Press, 2002), 99.
- Compare treatment in Blood of the Prophets: p. 99.
Response
- Junaita Brooks pointed out that accounts of provocation from the immigrants appeared within days as far away California, and from |multiple sources.
- Double standard
- For a detailed response, see: Double standard of skepticism
Notes
- ↑ Edward Leo Lyman, San Bernadino: The Rise and Fall of a California Community (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1996), 342–343.
- ↑ Thomas G. Alexander, "Wilford Woodruff and the Mormon Reformation of 1855-57," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 25 no. 2 (Summer 1992), 27–28.
- ↑ Lyman, 343 n. 37.
- ↑ Steven Pratt, “Eleanor Mclean and the Murder of Parley P. Pratt,” BYU Studies (Winter 1975): 226.
- ↑ Steven Pratt, “Eleanor Mclean and the Murder of Parley P. Pratt,” 226.
- ↑ Pratt, “Eleanor Mclean and the Murder of Parley P. Pratt,” 226, emphasis in original, citing Millennial Star 19:432. (italics in original)
- ↑ Pratt, “Eleanor Mclean and the Murder of Parley P. Pratt,” 228–31.
- ↑ Pratt, “Eleanor Mclean and the Murder of Parley P. Pratt,” 241–48.
- ↑ Jacob Hamblin statement in James Henry Carleton, Report on the Subject of the Massacre at the Mountain Meadows, in Utah Territory, in September, 1857 of One Hundred and Twenty Men, women and Children, Who Were from Arkansas (Little Rock, AR: True Democrat Steam press, 1860), 6; cited by Turley, Walker and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 101.