Doing a little research on Polygamy and put a first draft of this together

Sarah Pratt and Joseph Smith
History of the Saints, pp. 228-231
“Sister Pratt, the Lord has given you to me as one of my spiritual wives. I have the blessings of Jacob granted me, as God granted holy men of old, and as I have long looked upon you with favor, and an earnest desire of connubial bliss, I hope you will not repulse or deny me.”
SARAH PRATT REPLIED:
“And is that the great secret that I am not to utter? Am I called upon to break the marriage covenant, and prove recreant to my lawful husband! I never will…. I care not for the blessings of Jacob. I have one good husband, and that is enough for me….
“Joseph, if you ever attempt any thing of the kind with me again, I will make a full disclosure to Mr. Pratt on his return home. Depend upon it, I will certainly do it.”
JOSEPH SMITH RESPONDED:
“Sister Pratt, I hope you will not expose me, for if I suffer, all must suffer; so do not expose me. Will you promise me that you will not do it?”
SARAH PRATT:
“If you will never insult me again, I will not expose you unless strong circumstances should require it.”
SMITH:
“If you should tell, I will ruin your reputation, remember that.”

Nelson Winch Green, Fifteen Years among the Mormons: Being the Narrative of Mrs. Mary Ettie V. Smith, 1859, p. 31
“Sarah [Pratt] ordered the Prophet out of the house, and the Prophet used obscene language to her…”

Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. according to Brigham Young, Minutes of the Quorum of the Twelve, January 20, 1843, Brigham Young Collection
“She [Sarah] lied about me. I never made the offer which she said I did. I will not advise you to break up your family – unless it were asked of me. Then I would council you to get a bill from your wife and marry a virtuous woman – and a new family but if you do not do it [I] shall never throw it in your teeth.”

Sarah Pratt, in Wilhelm Wyl, Mormon Portraits, 1886, pp. 62-63
“In his endeavors to ruin my [Sarah’s] character Joseph went so far as to publish an extra-sheet containing affidavits against my reputation. When this sheet was brought to me I discovered to my astonishment the names of two people on it, man and wife, with whom I had boarded for a certain time…. I went to their house; the man left the house hurriedly when he saw me coming. I found the wife and said to her rather excitedly: ‘What does it all mean?’ She began to sob. ‘It is not my fault’ said she. ‘Hyrum Smith came to our house, with the affidavits all written out, and forced us to sign them. ‘Joseph and the Church must be saved,’ said he. We saw that resistance was useless, they would have ruined us; so we signed the papers.”

- Apostle Jebediah M. Grant, Sunday Tabernacle Discourse, March 23, 1856, Journal History
“Br Orson Pratt is in trubble in consequence of his wife, hir feelings are so rought up that he dos not know whether his wife is wrong, or whether Josephs testimony and others are wrong and do lie and he deceived for 12 years or not; his is all but crazy about matters… we will not let Br. Orson go away from us he is too good a man to have a woman destroy him.”

New York Herald, September 14, 1877
“It is said that the Prophet admitted to [Orson] the attempt he made on his wife’s virtue, but that it was only done to see whether she was true to her absent husband.”

Jane Law and Joseph Smith
Apostle William Law, former counselor in the First Presidency, in Lyndon W. Cook, “William Law, Nauvoo Dissenter,” BYU Studies, v. 22, Winter 1982, p. 65
“[Joseph] ha[s] lately endeavored to seduce my wife, and ha[s] found her a virtuous woman.”

Apostle William Law, as quoted in Ann Eliza Young, Wife No. 9, 1876, p. 61
“The Prophet had made dishonorable proposals to [my] wife… under cover of his asserted ‘Revelation.’… [Smith told his wife Jane] the Lord had commanded that he should take plural wives, to add to his glory… [Joseph] asked her to give him half her love; she was at liberty to keep the other half for her husband.”

Apostle William Law, Salt Lake Tribune, January 20, 1887
“My wife would not speak evil of … anyone … without cause. Joseph is a liar and not she. That Smith admired and lusted after many men’s wives and daughters, is a fact, but they could not help that. They or most of them considered his admiration an insult, and treated him with scorn. In return for this scorn, he generally managed to blacken their reputations – see the case of… Mrs. Pratt, a good, virtuous woman.”


He really was a pig

Yup yet mormons still worship him. If you turn them on to something like what you wrote they claim it's anti-mormon lies. Even when using LDS sources.

Most of them barely know about the polygamy much less the polyandry. TBMs are the real apostates.

I thought Sarah Pratt actually did marry Joseph, and had a baby almost 10 months after Parley left to dedicate the holy land.

I think it was Orson Pratt that dedicated the Holy Land for the gathering of the Jews.

And the birth of the child? Those are the kind of things that historians can verify...

> Apostle William Law, as quoted in Ann Eliza Young, Wife No. 9,
> 1876, p. 61
> “The Prophet had made dishonorable proposals to [my] wife… under
> cover of his asserted ‘Revelation.’… [Smith told his wife Jane]
> the Lord had commanded that he should take plural wives, to add
> to his glory… [Joseph] asked her to give him half her love; she
> was at liberty to keep the other half for her husband.”

Wow. In modern times, this would be a revealing statement as to why Joe never fathered children in his polygamy. Perhaps he was taking the back-door half of the woman to love.

I need to get together my notes on Nancy Rigdon to add to this. Another woman he smeared when she refused him



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/2011 03:58PM by Jim Huston.

Don't forget Martha Brotherton, who refused B Young, while J SMith was also twisting her arm to marry old Brig, in a locked room.

IIRC.

The half he wanted was apparently her lower half.

Does that source trace back to letters that someone has in their posession?

Just curious.

If you are talking about wife #9, it is a typo. It should be Wife #19 by Ann Elizabeth Young, book by one of Brigham Young's estranged wives

History of the Saints, pp. 228-231
“Sister Pratt, the Lord has given you to me as one of my spiritual wives. I have the blessings of Jacob granted me, as God granted holy men of old, and as I have long looked upon you with favor, and an earnest desire of connubial bliss, I hope you will not repulse or deny me.”
SARAH PRATT REPLIED:
“And is that the great secret that I am not to utter? Am I called upon to break the marriage covenant, and prove recreant to my lawful husband! I never will…. I care not for the blessings of Jacob. I have one good husband, and that is enough for me….
“Joseph, if you ever attempt any thing of the kind with me again, I will make a full disclosure to Mr. Pratt on his return home. Depend upon it, I will certainly do it.”
JOSEPH SMITH RESPONDED:
“Sister Pratt, I hope you will not expose me, for if I suffer, all must suffer; so do not expose me. Will you promise me that you will not do it?”
SARAH PRATT:
“If you will never insult me again, I will not expose you unless strong circumstances should require it.”
SMITH:
“If you should tell, I will ruin your reputation, remember that.”


You give the reference of History of the Saints. Does this book have sources back to original letters that still exist today?

My round about point is can someone come back and say? "Well, there's no proof of that conversation ever happening." Or is it a case that original letters exist and this book was referencing those letters?

I hope that makes sense.

Then after Smith was dead he and Brigham Young went toe-to-toe over Adam-God (I think) and Eternal Progression. Young eventually bullied him down. Pratt took way too much crap from both Smith and Young.

Here it is

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=History+of+the+Saints+mormon+book&oe=utf-8&rls=com.google:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=6347507273842027516&sa=X&ei=zyiJTcaLA5Kw0QGoi7HfDQ&ved=0CHQQ8wIwCw#

Information is also available at Article "Sarah M. Pratt" by Richard A. Van Wagoner, Dialogue, Vol.19, No.2, p.72.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2011 07:26PM by Jim Huston.

from Deconstructor's site

"Sarah M. Pratt" by Richard A. Van Wagoner, Dialogue, Vol.19, No.2, p.72.
Sometime in late 1840 or early 1841, Joseph Smith confided to his friend that he was smitten by the "amiable and accomplished" Sarah Pratt and wanted her for "one of his spiritual wives, for the Lord had given her to him as a special favor for his faithfulness" (emphasis in original). Shortly afterward, the two men took some of Bennett's sewing to Sarah's house. During the visit, as Bennett describes it, Joseph said, "Sister Pratt, the Lord has given you to me as one of my spiritual wives. I have the blessings of Jacob granted me, as God granted holy men of old, and as I have long looked upon you with favor, and an earnest desire of connubial bliss, I hope you will not repulse or deny me." "And is that the great secret that I am not to utter," Sarah replied. "Am I called upon to break the marriage covenant, and prove recreant to my lawful husband! I never will." She added, "I care not for the blessings of Jacob. I have one good husband, and that is enough for me." But according to Bennett, the Prophet was persistent. Finally Sarah angrily told him on a subsequent visit, "Joseph, if you ever attempt any thing of the kind with me again, I will make a full disclosure to Mr. Pratt on his return home. Depend upon it, I will certainly do it." "Sister Pratt," the Prophet responded, "I hope you will not expose me, for if I suffer, all must suffer; so do not expose me. Will you promise me that you will not do it?" "If you will never insult me again," Sarah replied, "I will not expose you unless strong circumstances should require it." "If you should tell," the Prophet added, "I will ruin your reputation, remember that.

The Song of Sarah Pratt and Brother Joe

While Orson lingered in the nations,
Goodwife Sarah kept her stations,
guarding well her family and her home.

But Brother Joe upon her scryed
and lit within himself a pride
to take good Sarah for his spirit bride.

Joseph set himself to winnow
and bid poor Sarah to his minnow
but vanity is all that he would get.

Said good Sarah to that slackard:
“I'd sooner see myself a blackard!”
And stoutly she refused the hound his bay.

Joseph winced and flexed his gizzard
for he thought himself a wizard,
that up 'till then no one had overcome;

So Joseph spun himself a yarn
that he might take both house and barn,
but Sarah knew his barley layeth flat.

Against the Master and his Missus
Joseph stirred up awful hisses,
But truth turned Joseph's serpent into hay.

So rightly learn to sing this ballad
and let not lies make truth invalid
to keep our children from becoming prey.

I am glad Sarah stood up to Joe, but she had a bastard for husband in Orson Pratt. Orson Pratt goes on to thorougly embrace polygamy and treat his wives terribly, according to reports. I just finished reading Fanny Stenhouse's 1875 book "Tell It All." She tells a story Orson Pratt leaving one of his wives (and young children) to die of illness and starvation in Toelle while he's in SLC courting another women. I highly recommend the book. It certainly gives a different view of Brigham Young and polygamy than what I was taught growing up in the church.

and JS's attempt at "swapping" with William and Jane Law.

http://mormonstories.org/324-326-grant-palmer-returns-to-discuss-sexual-allegations-against-joseph-smith-william-and-jane-law-and-his-resignation/

Sarah Pratt was a fascinating woman. I wish there was a full length bio of her.

I read about her in a book called "Mormon Mavericks." She managed to raise her children in Utah, but taught them not to believe in Mormonism, even though they all had to go through the motions.

I think I have read that chapter on her in Mormon Mavericks about five times. About half of her many children died in infancy due to incredible hardships. She did all the work of raising the ones that did survive. Orson was no help whatsoever. Too busy courting other women he couldn't support. Either that or he was on a mission. Sometimes it amounted to the same thing.

I do not know why the LDS church is against working mothers. ALL women in the early church were working mothers. Whether your husband had one wife or twenty, he was REALLY married to the LDS church. Women were truly on their own.

Sarah finally had the courage to go public with her story and with her non-believing status.

To give Orson credit, he totally believed his wife when she first told him about being propositioned by JS.

But when it came down to choosing between Sarah and Mormonism, Orson chose Mormonism. Inside of Mormonism, he could be a man of great stature. Outside of Mormonism....well, who knows?

OP was the first to leak to the world that yes, the Mormons did practice polygamy. Orson TOTALLY believed in polygamy.

Sarah didn't, and that was one of the many reasons she left Orson.

Sarah wasn't afraid to take on Joseph Smith, or John Bennett or Brigham Young or Orson Pratt.

Sarah is truly a star heroine of early Mormonism, and I wish I knew more about her.

I recommend the book Mormon Mavericks to just about everyone.

It has a chapter in it about the Stenhouses, who are also my heros.

YOU GO FANNY!!!!

Some mormons think that anti-mormon literature is just made up stories, with no backup in historical records. They think that way because that's how they operate. They make stuff up, pull statistics out of their arses, and blithely go by feelings of confirmation from the Holy Ghost.

They have a hard time understanding that a person like Deconstructor would actually ground his conclusions in fact.

Remember, mormons are the ones who still repeat the canard that 14 years old was a common age to be married in Joseph's time, and that there were so many widows and single women that polygamy was the only answer.