Sarah M. S. Pearsall, Polygamy: An Early American History

Abstract

Reviewed by: Polygamy: An Early American History by Sarah M. S. Pearsall Cristina Rosetti Sarah M. S. Pearsall, Polygamy: An Early American History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019) American polygamy is usually associated with Mormonism, whether the nineteenth-century practice among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the various fundamentalist sects of the religion that continue the practice into the present. However, as Pearsall notes in her ground-breaking history on the practice in early America, polygamy was a “matter of public concern” long before Joseph Smith instituted the practice among his closest associates (7). By offering an overview of plural marriage systems, both by its proponents and detractors, within indigenous communities, colonial New Spain, eighteenth-century colonies, and Mormons, Pearsall demonstrates how polygamy was never simply about the familial choices of practitioners. Rather, polygamy was about “the organization and governance not just of households but of societies, nations, and empires” (1). Pearsall’s analysis spans an ambitious timeline to demonstrate how polygamy manifested at various points in American history and successfully shows that “Monogamous heterosexual marriage as the only form of allowable marriage was one of the legacies of colonial conquest” (291). Monogamy was never a given. It was constructed as correct, to the detriment of other kinship networks. This began with indigenous communities struggling to retain their societal structures in light [End Page 136] of colonial and religious conquest in both New Spain and New France. Within this context, polygamy was not about forged alliances and avenues for resources, as understood by many indigenous communities, but as deviant and counter to a Christian civilization that “depended on getting marriage right” (155). This struggle over “correct” marriage extended to the marriage systems that were both broken and reclaimed among enslaved Africans. In both instances, marriage became a simplified way of marking the “other” in colonial America. Throughout her work, Pearsall artfully demonstrates how religion, gender, sexuality, and race are entangled. Polygamy, as a structure deemed deviant and outside of European norms, marked people as not white. In addition to interaction with indigenous communities, the interplay between polygamy and race continued into the eighteenth century, with fictional accounts of polygamy circulating to delineate between those deemed civilized or not. This included portrayals of “barbarism” and women in need of liberation. In these instances, monogamy was a powerful identity marker tied to the state. The civilization narrative within the polygamy debate is only further complicated in Pearsall’s history of Mormonism, a majority white religious tradition. Pearsall ends where many histories of polygamy begin: Mormons in the nineteenth-century United States. Unlike some accounts of polygamy that focus on the challenges that practitioners faced, Pearsall pursues her early observation that “Defiant defenses of plural marriage are worth taking seriously,” and this includes polygamy’s defense by women (3). The woman at the center of this story is Belinda Hilton Pratt, a plural wife of Parley Pratt who fled an abusive husband and ended up sealed to the LDS Apostle in Nauvoo, Illinois. Belinda, author of A Defence of Polygamy by a Lady, offered a necessary view of the practice that countered others who sought to deride the marriage system as oppressive. According to Pratt, there were many reasons to choose polygamy. To make the matter more complex, Pearsall concludes with a juxtaposition of polygamy that brings together many of the questions raised by the book. Homing in on Provo, Utah, Pearsall contextualizes the polygamous Mormons entering the Utah territory with the residents already occupying the land, the polygamous Utes and Paiutes. Multiple polygamous groups were cast as Other and racialized as non-white, with one group becoming a colonizer. This single moment reflects the generation-long battle over marriage and power that shaped the nation and the “great deal of vital political work” that ideas of kinship had on the construction of both the “American” family and “American” religion, complicating what scholars mean when they discuss both. Polygamy’s broad overview makes the text a significant contribution for historians working across multiple fields. Most notably, this book will serve as a vital text for scholars of colonial America and the history of kinship...