Early Mormon Patriarchy and the Paradoxes of Democratic Religiosity in Jacksonian America

Abstract

Following the death of Joseph Smith, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appropriated elements from their surrounding democratic culture, especially tensions of hierarchy and exclusion, in an attempt to consolidate the fledging Mormon movement through a vibrant patriarchal structure. In doing so, they echoed a powerful strain in antebellum society that feared the cultural changes taking place and worried that unfettered democracy led to societal instability and religious anarchy. This paper examines how early Mormon patriarchy directly engaged several of the central tensions in American antebellum culture: the democratization of religion, the empowerment of common people, the extension of racial rights, and the progression of female power. Combined, these debates emphasize how the notion of the “Kingdom of God” paradoxically dominated the Mormon image in the age of “the voice of the people,” and represent a part of a multivocal conversation about the meaning and extent of American democracy in the postrevolutionary era.