Criticism of Mormonism/Books/No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith/Chapter 24

Claims made in "Chapter 23: Into Hiding"

A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books A work by author: Fawn Brodie

Claims made in "Chapter 25: Candidate for President"

Claim

• The number of women sealed to Joseph Smith may have exceeded fifty.

Author's source(s)

• William Hepworth Dixon: New America (1867), p. 225.

Response

•  History unclear or in error: Brodie's evidentiary standards are far too low.
• Joseph Smith/Polygamy

Claim

• At least twelve of the women sealed to Joseph were already married with living husbands.

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Response

•  History unclear or in error: the number was lower; Brodie's evidentiary standards are weak. She notes that the evidence for one of these women (Mrs. Levi Hancock) is "only word-of-mouth tradition in the Hancock family."
• Polyandry

Claim

• "Most" of Joseph wives were married to him for "time [that is, life] and eternity."

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Response

• This is true.
• Joseph Smith/Polygamy

Claim

• Emma selected the Partridge sisters and the Lawrence sisters as plural wives for Joseph.

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Response

• This is true.
• Emma and plural marriage

Claim

• Emma burned the revelation on plural marriage.

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Response

• This is likely true.

Claim

• Joseph said that he would have Emma as his wife in the hereafter even if he had to "go to hell" for her.

Author's source(s)

• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 17:159.

Response

• This is likely true.

Claim

• There is "some evidence that Fannie Alger bore Joseph a child in Kirtland."

Author's source(s)

•  ^[ATTENTION!]

Response

•  History unclear or in error: the evidence is not persuasive.
• Joseph Smith and polygamy—Children of polygamous marriages—Alger

Claim

• Prescindia Huntington Buell's son Oliver may have been Joseph's son.

Author's source(s)

•  ^[ATTENTION!]

Response

•  The author's claim is false: DNA has definitively ruled this out.
• Buell children ruled out
• Joseph Smith and polygamy—Children of polygamous marriages—Buell

Claim

• "Legend" says that John Reed Hancock may have been Joseph's son.

Response

•  History unclear or in error: no other author has followed Brodie on this; there is very little evidence that this is true.
• Joseph Smith and polygamy—Children of polygamous marriages—Hancock

Claim

• The son of Mary Rollins Lightner "may as easily have been the prophet's son as that of Adam Lightner."

Response

•  History unclear or in error: this is unlikely
• Joseph Smith and polygamy—Children of polygamous marriages—Lightner

Claim

• Mrs. Orson Hyde's sons Orson and Frank "could have been Joseph's sons."

Response

•  History unclear or in error: Brodie mistakes the date on Frank's birth certificate—it is impossible for him to have been Joseph's son.
• Orson died in infancy, but the birth dates match times when Orson Sr. was available to sire him. Most historians have disagreed with Brodie here.
• Joseph Smith and polygamy—Children of polygamous marriages—Hyde

Claim

• Mrs. Parley P. Pratt's son Moroni "might also be added to this list."

Response

•  The author's claim is false: Moroni Pratt has been ruled out by DNA testing.
• Joseph Smith and polygamy—Children of polygamous marriages—Pratt

Claim

• "According to tradition," Emma beat Eliza Snow with a broomstick and caused her to fall down the stairs, resulting in a miscarriage.

Author's source(s)

• None specified.

Response

•  History unclear or in error: the stairs story has not stood up to investigation. See Emma, Eliza and the stairs
• Joseph Smith and polygamy—Children of polygamous marriages—Snow

Claim

• "It is astonishing that evidence of other children than these has never come to light."

Response

• It is astonishing that the author guessed wrong so often, and missed the one viable candidate: Josephine Fisher.
• Joseph Smith and polygamy—Children of polygamous marriages

Claim

• Jedediah Grant "excused" Joseph's marriages to married women by stating that it was a way to "try the people of God to see what was in them."

Author's source(s)

• Jedediah M. Grant, Journal of Discourses 2:14.

Response

•  Misrepresentation of source: Grant says nothing about Joseph's polyandrous marriages; he is speaking of cases (e.g., such as Heber and Vilate Kimball) in which Joseph proposed plural marriage but then relented.
• See Quote mining—Journal of Discourses 2:14 to see how this quote was mined.
• Polyandry

Claim

• Perhaps Joseph "learned some primitive method of birth control" or took advantage of items such as "Portuguese Female Pills" to produce miscarriage.

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Response

•  Prejudicial or loaded language
• Author's conjecture—Brodie can't adequately explain why a large number of children were not produced from Joseph's other "marriages."
• Joseph Smith and polygamy—Children of polygamous marriages