Description

From publisher website:

Originally published shortly after the LDS Church lifted its priesthood and temple restriction on black Latter-day Saints, Newell G. Bringhurst’s landmark work remains ever-relevant as both the first comprehensive study on race within the Mormon religion and the basis by which contemporary discussions on race and Mormonism have since been framed. Approaching the topic from a social history perspective, with a keen understanding of antebellum and post-bellum religious shifts, Saints, Slaves, and Blacks examines both early Mormonism in the context of early American attitudes towards slavery and race, and the inherited racial traditions it maintained for over a century. While Mormons may have drawn from a distinct theology to support and defend racial views, their attitudes towards blacks were deeply-embedded in the national contestation over slavery and anticipation of the last days.

This second edition of Saints, Slaves, and Blacks offers an updated edit, as well as an additional foreword and postscripts by Edward J. Blum, W. Paul Reeve, and Darron T. Smith. Bringhurst further adds a new preface and appendix detailing his experience publishing Saints, Slaves, and Blacks at a time when many Mormons felt the rescinded ban was best left ignored, and reflecting on the wealth of research done on this topic since its publication.

Table of Contents

Foreword to Second Edition, by Edward J. Blum
Foreword to First Edition, by Henry Bowen
Preface to Second Edition
Preface to First Edition
Acknowledgements
Introduction

1. Initial Latter-day Saint Racist and Antislavery Attitudes, 1820–1830
2. The Origins of Mormon Antiabolitionism, 1830–1839
3. Black Mormons and Mormon Racist Theories, 1830–1839
4. The Climax of Mormonism's Antislavery Implulse, 1839–1852
5. The Beginnings of Black Priesthood Denial, 1839–1852
6. Concurrent Anti-abolitionist and Antislavery Rhetoric, 1852–1865
7. Black Priesthood Denial Publicized and Reinforced, 1852–1865
8. The Perpetuation of Black Priesthood Denial, 1865–1918
9. Segregation, Civil Rights, and Black Priesthood Denial, 1918–1978

Epilogue: The Abandonment of Black Priesthood Denial
Postscript, by W. Paul Reeve
Postscript, by Darron T. Smith

Appendices:

1. Membership Totals and the Shifting Geographic-Ethnic Focus of the Latter-day Saint Movement, 1830–1980
2. A Brief Essay on Mormon Socioeconomic Origins and Their Possible Relationship to Latter-day Saint Racial Attitudes
3. Mormon Slaveholders, Black Slaves, Free Blacks, and Census Information on Utah's Black Population, 1830–1980
4. Official LDS Church Statements on Blacks and the Priesthood and Civil Rights
5. An Unintended and Difficult Odyssey

Bibliographic Essay
Index