Exploring Why the Mormons Settled in Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City is located in the west of North America. It was a
desolate wilderness, dry, and a place where many people assumed was
uninhabitable. So why did the Mormons ‘relocate’ to such an
unattractive and diverse place?
Brigham Young, in 1845 organised the mass movement of 15000 men, women
and children travelling on a journey of over 2250km from the USA to
Salt Lake City. But why do this?
Both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young believed that it was God’s will to
send the Mormons west, and because other Mormons believed that Young
was inspired by God they felt that they should fulfil God’s will.
Another reason why the Mormons emigrated west was to escape religious
persecution from other white Americans. Polygamy in America was seen
widely to be wrong in the eyes of most people. The Mormons practiced
this freely within their own homes, this angered a large proportion of
America, and as a result it wasn’t uncommon for Mormons homes to be
attacked and set on fire on a regular basis.
Furthermore, it was Young’s dream to establish ‘the holy city’
otherwise known as Zion. Which he also believed was God’s will. He
hoped that Mormons could eventually become self-sufficient, and live
in peace within Zion.
Finally, it was the Mormons’ intention to live independently of
Central America, and to establish their own state (now known as Utah).
By doing this it would allow them to create their own laws, and
practice what they believed in peace and harmony.
In my opinion the main reason for the Mormon’s migration was to escape
religious persecution from the rest of America, as they were unable to
lead normal lives in Central America.
What was the non-Mormons attitude towards Polygamy?
Polygamy (in a large proportion of American’s opinions) was seen to be
wrong in the eyes of God. This was because the bible says that a man
should only have one wife, so the attitude of most Americans was
The gentiles did not take kindly to polygamy, they thought it was wrong and that it was selfish and disloyal. This caused a fall out between the two groups and eventually this caused fighting and the Mormons were forced to move. The gentiles felt the new Mormon religion was imposing and that it was an insult to set up a new religion without some kind of miracle or great leader. The Mormon faith was set up by a normal man for normal people it had a new face on religion. Some of the gentiles accepted it others didn't there was a fall out and the Mormons were attacked.
The Mormon Church in the nineteenth century was considered strange and isolated by many Americans because of...
The colonists immigrated to the New World in search of religious freedom. Their entire early experience was a constant struggle for survival. To the colonists the New World was their way out of poverty and into the
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to be a place to avoid. Few considered it a place to traverse, to spread
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But the church did not see it that way. The church believed that the only way to
using the bible it will not tell you what is the correct thing to do.
In 1870, the women of Utah got the franchise; this was 50 years before the rest of the United States (Bushman 112). Later revoked in 1887, when all Utah citizens got disenfranchised by the U.S. Government during the crackdown on polygamy (112). This and the fact that Utah had a high rate of early female doctors, and women of the time had been encouraged to work for pay (112).This led people to believe that perhaps the church was at one time more responsive to females working out of the home. Brigham Young the second president of the church once said “We believe that women are useful not only to sweep houses, wash dishes, make the bed and raise babies, but they should stand behind the counter, study law or physics, or become good bookkeepers and ...
In the very first part of the bible, in Geneses, it says that man was
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The Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints is a radical sect that branched off from the Mormon church after the church renounced polygamy (ABC News). Roughly 10,000 people are part of the FLDS base located on the Arizona-Utah border (ABC News) The members of FLDS view Warren Jeffs their "prophet" and God even though he is currently serving a life sentence in prison for the sexual assault of two girls, one of whom was a 12-year-old he considered his wife (Farberov, Snejana). FLDS members constantly pray for Jeffs to break out of prison; they stop whatever they are doing every hour of every day to pray for his escape (ABC News). Jeffs believes that he has not escaped yet because the members do not have enough faith (ABC News). Jeffs decides
It is obvious times have changed over the years and values have become a major issue of concern but I have also found that early settlers dealt with this as well. With faith, family and teamwork being the source that holds this thought together, it is the belief “in god we trust” I find greatly to be most powerful when honesty demonstrated.
Pioneer living conditions for women are definitely not easy. Being a woman, you are expected to take care of the children of the family, feed the family, clothe the family, clean the home, and cook for the family and hired hands. To me, this seems like a full time job for sure, especially when dealing with limited resources. Social events that were available to pioneer women and their families included barn raisings, corn husking, political meetings for the area, school functions, and more such as church meetings.