Polygamy in North America - Early Latter Day Saint Practice

Early Latter Day Saint Practice

The Mormon practice of plural marriage was officially introduced by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, on July 12, 1843. As polygamy was illegal in the state of Illinois, it was practiced privately. Though during the 1839–44 Nauvoo era several Mormon leaders including Smith, Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball took plural wives, Mormon elders who publicly taught that all men were commanded to enter plural marriage were subject to discipline; for example, the February 1, 1844 excommunication of Hyram Brown. In May 1844 Smith declared, "What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one."

After the death of Joseph Smith, the practice of polygamy was carried to the West by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, then led by Brigham Young. In what is today Utah and some surrounding areas, the principle of plural marriage was openly practiced. In 1852, Young felt the Church in Utah was secure enough to announce the practice of polygamy to the world. However the opposition by the U.S. government threatened the legal standing of the church. President Wilford Woodruff announced the church's official abandonment of the practice on September 25, 1890. Woodruff's declaration was formally accepted in a church general conference on October 6, 1890. The Church's stand on the practice of polygamy was reinforced by a second formal statement in 1904, renouncing the practice in all areas of the world. Although the largest part of the Mormon population accepted the prohibition on plural marriage, various splinter groups left the mainline LDS Church to continue the open practice of plural marriage.