George A. Smith - Plural Marriage

Plural Marriage

Like many Mormon leaders in the nineteenth century, George A. Smith practiced plural marriage. Known for his somewhat bombastic speaking style, Smith once said: We breathe the free air, we have the best looking men and handsomest women, and if they (Non-Mormons) envy us our position, well they may, for they are a poor, narrow-minded, pinch-backed race of men, who chain themselves down to the law of monogamy, and live all their days under the dominion of one wife. They ought to be ashamed of such conduct, and the still fouler channel which flows from their practices; and it is not to be wondered at that they should envy those who so much better understand the social relations. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 3, p. 291)

In addition to his first wife Bathsheba, Smith married Lucy Smith, Nancy Clement, Sarah Ann Libby, Hannah Maria Libby, Zilpha Stark and Susan E. West. His wives bore him twenty children, eleven of whom were still living when Smith died.