Todd Noall
Fact Checked by Kevin Prince
Last Updated: January 20, 2025
This blog draws from insights and information in the YouTube video titled ‘BOMBSHELL New Discoveries of Nauvoo Polygamy! (Feat. Don Bradley)’ by WARD RADIO.
When it comes to understanding the complex history of Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo-era marriages, the typical narrative is one of controversy and suspicion. This is especially true when it comes to Joseph Smith polygamy, which has often been criticized as predatory or even exploitative. However, a deeper look at the historical records and timelines can offer a radically different perspective on Smith’s motives and actions. Recently, scholars have shed new light on these marriages, challenging long-standing assumptions and revealing a pattern that has been overlooked for nearly two centuries. This exploration reframes Joseph Smith’s intentions and actions in a new, more thoughtful light, one that reveals a fascinating strategy with deeper social and spiritual implications.
Mormonism Explained: Joseph Smith’s Plural Marriage
The commonly accepted story about Joseph Smith’s plural marriages is often sensationalized, with anti-Mormon critics casting Smith as a leader who misused religious authority for self-serving purposes. Some even wonder, “Did Joseph Smith lie about practicing polygamy?” These narratives about him practicing polygamy tend to emphasize secrecy, exploitation, and sexual impropriety. However, recent studies, notably those by Gary Bergera and biographer Don Bradley, have uncovered patterns in Smith’s marriages that suggest his actions were more calculated and strategic than initially assumed.
Bergera, along with descendant biographers, worked through timelines and life events to situate Smith’s plural marriages in a historical framework. Through these efforts, they reveal an interesting trend: many of Joseph Smith wives were already pregnant with other men’s children at the time he married them. This discovery forces us to reconsider Smith’s intentions and raises intriguing questions. What could Smith’s purpose have been in marrying women who were already in committed relationships—and pregnant?
The Unusual Timing of Marriages: A Deliberate Pattern
To get to the core of this unusual behavior, let’s consider the first few plural wives in the corrected sequence. Traditionally, it was thought that Louisa Beaman was Joseph’s first Nauvoo plural wife, married in the spring of 1841. However, timelines reveal that Beaman’s marriage may have actually occurred in the spring of 1842. When we reorder the sequence, the first Nauvoo plural marriage would instead be with Zina Huntington Jacobs, who was already married to Henry Jacobs and seven months pregnant with his child when she married Smith in October 1841.
This corrected timeline opens up new insights. Many of the women who entered into plural marriages with Smith during this period were not only married but also advanced in pregnancy with their legal husbands’ children. This wasn’t an isolated case. After Zina Huntington Jacobs, Smith married her sister Presendia Huntington Buell, who also bore a child with her legal husband in early 1842. Similarly, Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, whom Smith married in January or February 1842, was seven or eight months pregnant and gave birth just a few months later.
Questioning Smith’s Intentions: A Strategic Move?
This consistent pattern of Joseph Smith Wives being pregnant women may seem peculiar at first. But examining the historical context and beliefs about sexuality during pregnancy can offer insight. In the 19th century, it was commonly believed that sexual relations during pregnancy, particularly later in pregnancy, posed health risks to both the mother and the unborn child. This means that marrying women in late pregnancy could be seen as a way for Smith to ensure there was no suspicion of intimacy in these plural marriages. If these relationships were meant to be romantic or sexual in nature, choosing women who were visibly pregnant and socially understood to be abstaining from intimate relations would be a counterintuitive choice.
A Protective Measure or Public Relations Strategy?
It’s possible that Smith strategically chose to marry these women for reasons beyond physical intimacy or conventional romance. One plausible interpretation is that he wanted to protect his reputation while still establishing a connection to these families through marriage. In the context of Nauvoo, a rapidly growing and often controversial religious community, Smith may have anticipated that he would face accusations of impropriety and wanted to preemptively counter those claims. By marrying women who were publicly understood to be abstinent due to pregnancy, Smith could demonstrate that Joseph Smith polygamy and his plural marriages weren’t intended for personal gratification but for religious or communal purposes.
This theory gains further credence when considering the broader narrative of Smith’s life and teachings. In an era when he faced growing accusations and opposition from within and outside of Nauvoo, Smith may have felt the need to build a network of familial and social alliances through marriage. His plural marriages could thus be interpreted as a protective measure, binding him to prominent families within the community.
Rewriting the Story of Joseph Smith’s Plural Marriages
This perspective fundamentally shifts how we might interpret Joseph Smith Polygomy motivations. Rather than an abuse of power, these marriages could represent a calculated, non-romantic, and largely symbolic effort to foster unity and legitimacy within his community. In choosing pregnant women, Smith appears to have deliberately avoided the appearance of impropriety, sending a message that his marriages were not driven by base motives but by higher, more complex social and spiritual purposes.
Moreover, this interpretation may explain why, in the historical record, we find minimal evidence of objections from the husbands of these women. Despite the unusual circumstances, most of these husbands remained loyal to Smith’s movement. This silent consent speaks to the possibility that these marriages were understood within the community as alliances rather than rivalries.
A New View of Nauvoo Polygamy: Legacy and Implications
The implications of this analysis reach beyond the question of Joseph Smith’s character to touch on the history of Mormon polygamy itself. By reframing Smith’s plural marriages in this way, we uncover a pattern that suggests these unions were not about personal gratification or possession. Instead, they appear to have been symbolic, strategic, and intended to protect both Smith and the community from scandal. Rather than engaging in clandestine romances, Smith may have been establishing an early form of communal security through these unions, offering protection and legitimacy to himself and to Nauvoo’s growing and embattled population.In today’s discourse, this interpretation challenges the notion of Joseph Smith as a rogue prophet using his position for personal gain. Instead, it places him in a more sympathetic light, as a leader whose actions—controversial as they were—reflected a unique approach to navigating the challenges of his time. This new perspective isn’t likely to erase all controversies surrounding Joseph Smith polygamy timeline, but it does add depth to our understanding of one of history’s most complex and debated figures. In the end, Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo marriages may be less about scandal and more about solidarity, driven not by desire but by duty.
By Todd Noall, Source Expert
Todd Noall is an author and religious scholar at Mormonism Explained with a focus on the history and theology of religion.
Fact Checked by Mr. Kevin Prince, Source Expert
Kevin Prince is a religious scholar and host of the Gospel Learning Youtube channel. His channel has garnered over 41,000 subscribers and accumulated over 4.5 million views. Mr. Prince also created the Gospel Learning App, a reliable platform where individuals seeking truth can access trustworthy answers to religious questions from top educators worldwide.
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