By AmandaJune 24, 2013
Note: This post is part of our series on International Mormonism. Russell Stevenson is a freelance writer born and raised south in rural western Wyoming. He received his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University and his master?s degree in history from the University of Kentucky. He has taught history and religion at Brigham Young University and Salt Lake Community College. He has a forthcoming biography on Elijah Ables, which will be available this afternoon.
In 1964, Abraham F. Mensah, a schoolmaster visiting Great Britain from Ghana, first came into contact with the Mormon church through literature given to him while he was visiting a Sufi friend living in St. Agnes, England.[1]
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By Edje JeterJune 23, 2013
Octopuses, squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids make up the class Cephalopoda (Greek: head-feet). Cephalopods appear in oceans, horror stories, nineteenth-century polemical literature, and—in their Mormon instantiations—in my next four posts. [1] I begin with the cuttlefish.
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By AmandaJune 19, 2013
The Mormon Temple in Surrey
One of the most significant discussions of religion and politics during 2012, was the dynamics of the US presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, and his religious affiliation to Mormonism. While the presidential race was watched globally, within the United Kingdom, it remained mainstream news throughout and Romney received close examination of his history, religion and policies. For many in the United Kingdom, they knew little of him except him being a Mormon, and a rich one at that, which seemingly concentrated their curiosity. However, during a goodwill visit to London, he successfully undermined his own standing with both the British political establishment and public at large by making ill-informed statements and swimming in blind ignorance.
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By AmandaJune 17, 2013
Grouard as a young man
Frank Grouard was something of an enigma in the nineteenth century. In 1876, he had become a Chief Indian Scout for the United States Army, helping General George Crook locate and fight bands of Sioux who were refusing to stay on their reservations. On June 25, 1876, he saw smoke signals rising from the Battle of Little Bighorn, rode to the scene of the battle where he discovered the bodies of the dead, and reported the death of Custer to the General Crook. He also interpreted during peace negotiations between Crazy Horse and the American government and was present at the Battle of Wounded Knee. For much of his life, Grouard lived in relative anonymity but a series of newspaper articles and the publication of an as-told-to biography in in 1894 catapulted the Indian scout to fame.
In spite of his newfound renown, however, certain parts of Grouard?s life remained mysterious. One of the most interesting and perplexing for those at the time was Grouard?s racial background. At various times, he was identified as a Lakota Indian, as a mulatto, as a French-Creole, and as a half-breed. Throughout his life, however, Grouard claimed to be the son of Benjamin F. Grouard, a Mormon missionary who had traveled to the South Pacific in the 1840s and had married an indigenous Maohi woman. It is the latter story that the archival record bears out.
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By Edje JeterJune 16, 2013
James G Duffin was released as Mission President of the Central States Mission (formerly the Southwestern States Mission) in 1906 after six-and-a-half years as President. Below are transcripts of the correspondence leading to his release. [1] The stated cause for the release was Duffin?s recurring malaria: his ?constitution and temperament demand[ed] a cool climate.? Health was an imminently plausible cause for release in general and Duffin?s in particular. However, it was 1906, and Duffin was a (secret) polygamist, and a post-1890 polygamist at that. After the ?Second Manifesto? (1904) and its fallout, many leaders who were polygamists were quietly released from their positions. I have zero documentary evidence to contradict the ?medical release,? but I suspect Duffin?s polygamy might have been a silent factor in the decision.
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By AmandaJune 13, 2013
One of the questions that emerged out of this year?s Mormon History Association Conference was how we should think about Mormonism in colonial spaces. I had the pleasure of commenting on a session with Gina Colvin, Chad Emmett, and Russell Stevenson. Colvin began the session by exploring what it would mean to write Mormon history in a way that would take seriously the perspectives and lives of indigenous people such as the Maori. Emmett then detailed the lives of Mormon men and women living in Dutch Indonesia in the early- to mid-twentieth century. Stevenson rounded out the panel by exploring the meanings of conversion in British colonial India through the lens of the life of Mizra Khan, a wealthy Indian convert who wrote letters to church leaders about the legal and social status of his polygamous wives.
Taken together,
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By Ben PJune 10, 2013
First, this link will take you to a storified post that includes a majority of the tweets from the conference. The format is obviously brief, but it helps capture immidiate reactions and poignant ideas. I have tried to both keep them chronological as well as organize them whenever they get too populated. And as you can see, the tweets slow down rather quickly after the first day.
I’m not offering any cogent thoughts on the conference—on the best papers, the biggest ideas, the common themes—mostly because my brain is still recovering from lots of great discussions and brilliant presentations. (Hopefully we’ll have more reflective posts in due time.) But for now, I can share pictures with brief captions. We sadly don’t have pictures of every JIer—but we came close. And all the great quality pictures come from Andrea RM; the crappy quality pictures come from my phone.
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By Edje JeterJune 9, 2013
The Southwestern States Mission during the time of this study included significant populations of French-, German-, and Spanish-speaking citizens. A variety of other languages were also spoken. For the missionaries in this study (mostly in Texas), German was the most common non-English language encountered, followed by Polish. [1]
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By ChristopherJune 7, 2013
JIers clean house.
As announced at this evening’s Awards Banquet in Layton, Utah:
Best Undergraduate Paper
? Joseph R. Stuart, “The Time Has Come: The Context and Post Script of the 1890 Woodruff Manifesto.” Brigham Young University
Best Graduate Paper
? Benjamin Park, “Early Mormonism and the Paradoxes of Democratic Religiosity in Jacksonian America,” University of Cambridge
Best Thesis Award
? Matthew Lund, ?The Vox Populi is the Vox Dei: American Localism and the Mormon Expulsion from Jackson County, Missouri,? Utah State University
Best Dissertation Award
? Richard D. Ouellette, ?The Mormon Temple Lot Case: Space, Memory, and Identity in a Divided New Religion,? University of Texas at Austin
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By AmandaJune 5, 2013
One of my advisor?s favorite questions to ask during our preliminary exams is whether Mormonism should be considered an American religion, given the number of British converts to Mormonism and their emigration to the United States. Because I work on Mormonism, I wasn?t asked the question and instead had to field questions on the role of violence in the American Revolution and Puritan ideas about the family. Apparently, most students hem-and-haw in response to the question about the Americanness of Mormonism. One of my friends asked jokingly if she could use her lifeline and phone a friend ? me. The question is supposed to force students to think about what it means for something to be an American religion, what the potential effects of early Mormon missionary work may have been on the church?s theology, and how Mormon was perceived outside of the confines of the United States.
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