Mormonism Unveiled
Mormonism Unveiled

Author: John Doyle Lee

Publisher: UNM Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 428

ISBN-13: 9780826345677

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A reprint of John Doyle Lee's 1891 autobiography, this edition includes the story of Brigham Young, early Mormonism, and the Mountain Meadows massacre.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre
The Mountain Meadows Massacre

Author: Juanita Brooks

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2012-09-06

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 0806185384

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In the Fall of 1857, some 120 California-bound emigrants were killed in lonely Mountain Meadows in southern Utah; only eighteen young children were spared. The men on the ground after the bloody deed took an oath that they would never mention the event again, either in public or in private. The leaders of the Mormon church also counseled silence. The first report, soon after the massacre, described it as an Indian onslaught at which a few white men were present, only one of whom, John D. Lee, was actually named. With admirable scholarship, Mrs. Brooks has traced the background of conflict, analyzed the emotional climate at the time, pointed up the social and military organization in Utah, and revealed the forces which culminated in the great tragedy at Mountain Meadows. The result is a near-classic treatment which neither smears nor clears the participants as individuals. It portrays an atmosphere of war hysteria, whipped up by recitals of past persecutions and the vision of an approaching "army" coming to drive the Mormons from their homes.

Mormonism Unveiled
Mormonism Unveiled

Author: John D. Lee

Publisher:

Published: 1877

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781789874273

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Mormonism Unveiled is John Doyle Lee's confessional exposé of malpractices in the Mormon Church, including his own role as an assassin responsible for several murders. In chronicling his years as a member of the church, Lee discusses how he came to meet and associate with Joseph Smith; the founder and prophet of Mormonism. The processes by which the charismatic Smith drew in followers is cataloged, while personal habits including the notorious practice of polygamy - the taking of multiple wives - are also mentioned. Lee himself partook enthusiastically in polygamy, taking a total of nineteen wives and siring some fifty-six children. After the death of Joseph Smith by the hands of an angry mob in 1844, Brigham Young assumed control of the Mormon Church. It was under Young that several of the most controversial schemes associated with Mormonism entailed. For his part John D. Lee became an enforcer, carrying out orders from Brigham Young in appropriating the belongings of fellow Mormons, such as cattle from impoverished ranchers. Most controversially, Mormonism Unveiled contains confessions by John D. Lee regarding assassinations he was ordered to carry out by Brigham Young. The veracity of these and other claims are disputed to this day. It was however Lee's role in the Mountain Meadows massacre of 1857 that would eventually see him tried, convicted and hung for murder in 1877. This edition includes all of the original appendices, as well as the complete text.

A Mormon Chronicle
A Mormon Chronicle

Author: John Doyle Lee

Publisher:

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13:

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John Doyle Lee (1812-1877) was one of the most controversial figures of early Mormon history. A fervent convert, he was adopted by Brigham Young and rose to become a leading member of the church's hierarchy. Lee left behind a number of colorful diaries that reveal in fascinating clarity and detail the everyday life of Utah's pioneer settlers. In them, he describes his close relationship with Brigham Young, his experiences in converting Native Americans to Mormonism, his trials with farming and livestock, his encounters with his 19 wives, and his eventual exile to the barren wastelands of Lee's Ferry. In the 1950s, five of Lee's diaries in the Huntington collections were meticulously edited and annotated by historians Robert Glass Cleland and Juanita Brooks and published in two volumes by the Huntington Library in 1955 to great acclaim as A Mormon Chronicle, The Diaries of John D. Lee, 1848-1876. The University of Utah Press kept the book in print until the 1990s; it has now been reprinted as a Huntington Library Classic with a new foreword by Andrew Rolle, a Huntington research fellow and retired Cleland Professor of History from Occidental College. In his foreword, Rolle discusses the collaboration between Cleland, a leading historian of the Southwest, and Brooks, a notable scholar of Mormon history.

Massacre at Mountain Meadows
Massacre at Mountain Meadows

Author: Ronald W. Walker

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011-02-09

Total Pages: 447

ISBN-13: 0199830975

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On September 11, 1857, a band of Mormon militia, under a flag of truce, lured unarmed members of a party of emigrants from their fortified encampment and, with their Paiute allies, killed them. More than 120 men, women, and children perished in the slaughter. Massacre at Mountain Meadows offers the most thoroughly researched account of the massacre ever written. Drawn from documents previously not available to scholars and a careful re-reading of traditional sources, this gripping narrative offers fascinating new insight into why Mormons settlers in isolated southern Utah deceived the emigrant party with a promise of safety and then killed the adults and all but seventeen of the youngest children. The book sheds light on factors contributing to the tragic event, including the war hysteria that overcame the Mormons after President James Buchanan dispatched federal troops to Utah Territory to put down a supposed rebellion, the suspicion and conflicts that polarized the perpetrators and victims, and the reminders of attacks on Mormons in earlier settlements in Missouri and Illinois. It also analyzes the influence of Brigham Young's rhetoric and military strategy during the infamous "Utah War" and the role of local Mormon militia leaders in enticing Paiute Indians to join in the attack. Throughout the book, the authors paint finely drawn portraits of the key players in the drama, their backgrounds, personalities, and roles in the unfolding story of misunderstanding, misinformation, indecision, and personal vendettas. The Mountain Meadows Massacre stands as one of the darkest events in Mormon history. Neither a whitewash nor an exposé, Massacre at Mountain Meadows provides the clearest and most accurate account of a key event in American religious history.