A Brief History of Polygyny in the United States

I wanted to know more about the history of polygyny, maybe by understanding how this culture originated I can better understand its practice as a whole. In 1841 the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), Joseph Smith, first introduced the practice of polygyny to his followers (Christiansen, 1963). There is evidence that he may have preached informally of polygyny before this date, but this isn’t clear. Smith reported that plural marriage was a divine revelation from God. In order for his followers to achieve the highest possible position in death, one must follow the command of God and practice polygyny so as to populate the earth with the faithful.

Polygyny was practiced by the Mormon Church following this declaration, though it was strongly opposed by the non-Mormon public. In 1862 the Morrill Act was passed by Congress and prohibited plural marriage in the United States territories (Embry, 1987). A number of bills concerning the prohibition of polygamy in the United States followed the Morrill Act, including the Cullom Bill in 1870 which called for greater federal control concerning plural marriage, but was not successfully passed by Congress (Embry, 1987).

Mormons continued to practice plural marriage, believing that they were protected by the Bill of Rights and its Freedom of Religion clause. When a case involving plural marriage was brought to trial the Supreme Court, in 1879, upheld the Morrill Act, stating: “Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices” (Embry, 1987). Since this decision there have been other legal rulings regarding polygyny. Today polygyny is still illegal in the United States, though it has an underground following.





Christiansen, John R. "Contemporary Mormons' Attidudes toward Polygynous Practices." May 1963. National Council on Family Relations. 18 Sept. 2008 http://www.jstor.org/stable/349176.

Embry, Jessie L. Mormon Polygamous Families. Vol. One. Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah P, 1987.