The Mormon Prophet and His Harem

In Short

This non-fiction work offers an early, critical account of Mormonism under Brigham Young in mid-nineteenth-century Utah. It details the intricate network of absolute religious and political power built around the church hierarchy, the economic extraction practiced against everyday settlers, and the socio-theological structure of plural marriage. Blending official territorial documents, judicial filings, eyewitness testimony, and detailed floor plans of the leader’s personal residence, the narrative warns the post-Civil War American public that a dangerous, non-republican absolute monarchy has taken root in the West, directly defying the federal government and human nature alike.

The Story

The narrative opens by framing Mormonism under Brigham Young not merely as a distinct religious movement, but as an aggressive, anti-republican absolute monarchy flourishing within the borders of the United States. Following the migration of the Latter-day Saints to the Great Basin, Young establishes a totalizing theocracy that consolidates spiritual authority and physical resources. The legislative assembly grants him exclusive control over vital natural assets, such as City Creek Canyon, allowing him to enforce tolls and restrict access to essential public thoroughfares. He uses his position as "the Lion of the Lord" to extract heavy tithing and exact economic monopolies, operating city distilleries while penalizing competitors and profiting off land resales to impoverished European converts.

As federal authorities attempt to assert baseline legal jurisdiction over the Utah Territory, escalating hostility turns into violent friction. Federal officials—including Territorial Governor Cumming, Governor Harding, and Judges Waite and Drake—find their authority systematically undermined. When federal measures or anti-polygamy legislation threaten church autonomy, inflammatory rallies at the Salt Lake Tabernacle incite public resistance against federal judges and territorial governors. Church leaders explicitly reject federal laws, demanding absolute submission to their local theocratic system.

This conflict turns deadly in incidents like the Mountain Meadows massacre, where local church leaders and settlers orchestrate the destruction of an emigrant train. Internal dissent is suppressed with equal severity; when the splinter group known as the Morrisites resists exorbitant fines and property seizures by local law enforcement, a militarized posse besieges their settlement with heavy artillery, resulting in violent casualties. Federal judges, lacking the requested military support of five thousand troops, find themselves functionally powerless to enforce civil law or hold trials, leaving the territory under Young’s unyielding dominance.

The book moves deep into the private and structural mechanics of polygamy, examining both its theological contradictions and its personal toll. The author cross-examines early Mormon texts, pointing out that foundational works explicitly restrict men to a single wife, contradicting later doctrines invented to justify the practice. Demographics from national census data and local school reports prove there is no natural excess of women to justify plural marriage. Instead, polygamy serves as an instrument of social control and hierarchy. Detailed accounts show women suffering in isolation, coercion, and jealousy inside the Lion House, where Young’s favorite wives receive preferential living quarters and attention. The narrative culminates in legal and personal crises, such as the assassination attempt and court battles surrounding non-Mormons who attempt to marry women seeking to escape polygamous unions. Ultimately, the work warns that peace between this theocracy and the United States remains impossible without decisive federal intervention.

How It Unfolds

Theocratic consolidation in Salt Lake Brigham Young secures absolute spiritual and economic control over Utah Territory, acquiring valuable natural resources, canyons, and monopolies through a compliant local legislature while enforcing heavy tithing and strict obedience upon incoming converts.

Federal authority challenged and defied Presidential appointees and federal judges face fierce open resistance, inflammatory speeches at the Tabernacle, and organized harassment from church leaders whenever federal courts attempt to enforce anti-polygamy laws or assert federal jurisdiction.

Atrocities and violent dissent Local church officers orchestrate the annihilation of an emigrant train at Mountain Meadows, while internal dissenters like the Morrisites face armed artillery bombardments and lethal force when resisting church-sanctioned tax executions.

Anatomizing the harem system A microscopic examination of Young's residential Lion House exposes the internal social hierarchy, preferential treatment of favorite wives, and systemic degradation experienced by women trapped in plural marriages.

Theological and statistical debunking The narrative analyzes Mormon scripture alongside territorial census and school figures to demonstrate that polygamy lacks both genuine foundational authority and natural demographic justification.

Escalation and the demand for intervention Attempts by non-Mormons to rescue women from plural marriages end in arrest, violent retribution, and systemic intimidation, leading federal judges to suspend proceedings and demand military enforcement from Washington.

The People

• Brigham Young: The supreme temporal and spiritual leader of the Mormon church, known as "the Lion of the Lord." He seeks total political, economic, and religious dominion over Utah Territory, operating an absolute theocracy and maintaining a vast polygamous household while defying federal laws.
• Emeline Free: The acknowledged favorite wife of Brigham Young, known as "the Light of the Harem." Living in the best-appointed room of the Lion House with a private hallway connecting directly to Young's office, she holds immense influence over him, sparking deep jealousy among the other wives.
• Governor A. Cumming: A territorial governor of Utah who attempts to assert federal authority over the population using civil possea and executive proclamations, seeking to dismantle illegal armed resistance without provoking full-scale military conflict.
• Judge Waite and Judge Drake: Federal district judges sent to Utah to establish constitutional courts. Constantly thwarted by local resistance and lacking military protection, they eventually refuse to hold court without federal troop backing, with Waite resigning in total frustration.
• Dr. Sprague: An Eastern convert and long-time temple worker who acts as family physician to Young's household. After being "adopted" into Young's spiritual lineage, his newly built private home and property are brought under Young's absolute material control.
• Mr. Brassfield: A non-Mormon man who marries the second wife of an absent missionary. His attempt to retrieve her personal property and children leads to his arrest by local police and a high-stakes legal battle over the legitimacy of plural marriage.

In Its Own Voice

"The elements of a second rebellion are in active progress in Utah, and, as in the case of the slavery rebellion, the great danger lies in failing to place a proper estimate upon the power of those elements for mischief, and to take the proper precautions in time."

Writing in the immediate wake of the American Civil War, the author warns her readers that theocratic defiance in the West poses a direct threat to the fragile integrity of the Union.

"There has always been, in this Territory, as there is in every new country, a scarcity of females. No person, therefore, could take more than one wife, without, as a necessary consequence, compelling some other person to live without any."

Using hard statistics from the 1850 and 1860 U.S. Census, the narrative demonstrates that plural marriage is mathematically unsustainable and socially destructive.

"He dressed his artificial curls, petted and caressed him, and worshipped him alternately as her God."

This description of Emeline Free inside her private quarters illustrates the combination of personal affection, devotion, and psychological isolation that defined life within Young's inner circle.

What It's Really About

The book is an argument against the compatibility of absolute religious theocracy with constitutional democracy. Beyond its sensational title, the text examines how concentrated authority uses religious ideology to build monopolies, extract wealth, and insulate itself from state and federal law. It addresses fundamental questions of human rights, specifically the systemic oppression of women under institutionalized polygamy, which the author argues strips women of social equality and reduces them to property. Ultimately, it frames the Mormon leadership in Utah as a feudal entity operating within a secular republic, arguing that a nation cannot long tolerate a closed political monarchy operating along its vital national thoroughfares.

Why Read It Today

Readers drawn to nineteenth-century American history, religious studies, and investigative early journalism will find this text compelling. It provides a raw, unfiltered look at the intense political and cultural anxieties that gripped the United States following the Civil War. Reading it offers an unvarnished view of how federal authority was contested on the Western frontier, alongside vivid social observations of early Salt Lake City.

The reading experience is intense, sharp, and rigorously argued, driven by a tone of urgent civic duty rather than cheap sensationalism. While modern readers must navigate period-specific biases, long excerpted court filings, and formal legal prose, the book retains its power through its incredible detail—down to the carpet patterns, room numbers, and financial transactions of Brigham Young's inner sanctum. What stays with you is the author's meticulous effort to dismantle a powerful institution using its own recorded words, official documents, and basic arithmetic.