Description

"From the Mormon Church's public announcement of its sanction of polygamy in 1852 until its formal decision to abandon the practice in 1890, people on both sides of the "Mormon Question" debated central questions of constitutional law. Did principles of religious freedom and local self-government protect Mormons' claim to a distinct, religiously based legal order? Or was polygamy, as its opponents claimed, a new form of slavery—this time for white women in Utah? And did constitutional principles dictate that democracy and true liberty were founded on separation of church and state?

"The answers to these questions finally yielded an apparent victory for antipolygamists in the late nineteenth century, but only after decades of argument, litigation, and open conflict. Victory came at a price; as attention and national resources poured into Utah in the late 1870s and 1880s, antipolygamists turned more and more to coercion and punishment in the name of freedom. They also left a legacy in constitutional law and political theory that still governs our treatment of religious life: Americans are free to believe, but they may well not be free to act on their beliefs.

"Sarah Barringer Gordon holds degrees in religion, law, and history. She teaches in the Law School and the History Department at the University of Pennsylvania." (From back cover.)

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction: Faith and the Contested Constitution

Part One: The Laws of God and the Laws of Man
    Chapter 1: The Power of the Word(s)
    Chapter 2: The Twin Relic of Barbarism
    Chapter 3: The Logic of Resistance

Part Two: Days of Judgment
    Chapter 5: The Erosion of Sympathy
    Chapter 6: The Marital Economy

Epilogue: The (Un)Faithful Constitution