Question about early missionaries to England/Scandinavia:

[Charlotte]

I try to think about ways to illustrate the horrors of polygamy while talking to my spouse/friends who just aren’t bothered by it. Lately I’m wondering about the when early converts from England and Scandinavia were told about polygamy. I just read that by 1890, about 91,000 British and Scandinavian converts had emigrated to the intermountain west. (I don’t know if those numbers are right.) I wonder how many came knowing nothing. The first missionaries to England arrived in 1837. The church went public with it in 1852, so I’m assuming (?) they were aware after that, or not really?

[moksha]

Mormon Stories and Mormonism Live have both discussed aspects of your question. Most immigrants were women. This makes sense since the Mormons were harvesting the women for polygamous brides. Wives would be taken from their husbands and then become the 4th wife of some old goat polygamist.

This of course was kept secret not to frighten away converts lured to Utah with high-minded religious talk. No one would agree to be sexually trafficked.

This practice was not completely unknown to some. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, was about being trafficked by the Mormons.

[Angel]

I try to think about ways to illustrate the horrors of polygamy

Orchestrate a thought experiment in which they imagine sharing their own spouse with someone else.

We rationalize/downplay what we have not experienced. Trick someone into thinking their spouse was unfaithful - then let them know it was just a thought experiment, then talk with them about polygamy.

[Red Ryder]

Carolyn Pearson’s book the ghost of polygamy is a good read that illustrates the continuous harm and horrors of polygamy.

I think I once read that the early converts that came over from England and Europe were often surprised to learn the real doctrines of the church. At that point they already sacrificed to move west and then were left to struggle when they didn’t buy in and left the church.

[deacon blues]

Good Comments. Another good book about emigrants from Europe is Tell It All by Fanny Stenhouse. It is quite long, but her account of learning about polygamy little by little, in the face of official denials by Church leaders and Missionaries is first hand. It's $1 on kindle.

[Charlotte]

Thanks for these suggestions.

The deception is for me a sure-fire indication that this was a sinful enterprise. But people find mind boggling justifications.