“My Indignation Has Got the Better of My Intention”: A Case Study in Latter-day Saint and “Gentile” Female Family Correspondence in Nineteenth-Century America

Abstract

Although members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shared many values with their Christian neighbors, the differences between Mormons and non-Mormons during the nineteenth century were enough to estrange even beloved family members. Peculiar Mormon practices intensified divisions between the Saints and Americans at large, especially practices such as their loyalty to prophet-leaders and plural marriage arrangements, as well as the intimidating political bloc that the Saints created. By the time they established a western mountain theocracy under Brigham Young, Mormons and their community were seen as foreign bodies so much that, in the popular imagination, they were distinguishable not only by alien practices but physical appearance. For many Americans, Mormons were so wholly “other” that connecting deeply, or even casually, with them felt