NOTES

¹Deseret News, June 9, 1978, p. 1A; quoted in Salt Lake City Messenger,
no. 39 (July, 1978), p. 1.

²Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft,
1966), p. 527; cf. "Cain," p. 109; "Egyptus," p. 214; "Ham," p. 343; "Lamanite
Curse," pp. 428-429; "Nephites and Lamanites," pp. 528-529; "Races of Men,"
p. 616. Non-Mormons may not be struck, at first, with the full significance
of barring blacks from the L.D.S. priesthood. Within the Mormon Church,
ordination to the priesthood is conferred upon virtually every adult male
member of the Church, and is the sine qua non for advancement to the highest
level of celestial exaltation in the life-to-come. Hence, not possessing the
priesthood relegates one to an inferior position not only for the present but
for eternity as well.

³A popular defense is found in John J. Stewart, Mormonism and the Negro:
An explanation and Defense of the Doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints in Regard to Negroes and Others of Negroid Blood, 4th ed.
(Provo, Utah: Bookmark Division of Community Press Publishing Company, 1973),
pp. 20-51.

⁴Perhaps the best account of the pressures on the Church is found in
Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Mormons and Negroes (Salt Lake City: Modern Microfilm
Company, 1970), pp. 40ff.

⁵The text of President Wilford Woodruff's Official Declaration, dated
September 24, 1890 and approved by the Church's General Conference on October 6,
1890, is found at the conclusion of the Doctrine and Covenants. The parallels
between the "Manifesto" and President Spencer Kimball's 1978 revelation are striking,
both in the way they served to extricate the Church from a corner into which it
found itself painted, and in the way they altered sensitive policies without
repudiating the theological underpinnings of those policies.

⁶Whitney R. Cross, The Burned-over District: The Social and Intellectual
History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800-1850 (New York:
Harper & Row, Publishers, 1965), pp. 3-109 & 138-150. Cf. Mario S. De Pillis,
"The Social Sources of Mormonism," Church History, XXXVII (March, 1968), pp.
50-79; David Brion Davis, "The New England Origins of Mormonism," New England
Quarterly, XXVI (June, 1953), pp. 147-168; and Mario S. De Pillis, "The Quest
for Religious Authority and the Rise of Mormonism," Dialogue: A Journal of
Mormon Thought, I (Fall, 1966), pp. 68-88.

⁷The question of whether or not the canon was closed was a hotly debated
issue in early 19th century America. Mormonism combined two 19th century
tendencies, by insisting on both restoration of primitive Christianity and on
contemporary revelation. They held that the original revelation to the primitive
Church had been corrupted, many plain and precious truths having been lost, and
hence that new and ongoing revelation was needed to recover the truth Faith and
to restore the true Church. Cf. Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. by B. H. Roberts, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book Company, 1957), I, 6, 12, 39ff. This fundamental source is henceforth
cited by the common abbreviation, "DHC," standing for "Documentary History of the
Church."

⁸The revelatory documents of Mormonism (the "standard works" of the Church)
are four in number: the Bible (as far as it is translated correctly); the Book
of Mormon (first published at Palmyra, N.Y. in 1830); the Doctrine and Covenants
(first published at Kirtland, Ohio, in 1835, incorporating much material from the
1833 Book of Commandments); and the Pearl of Great Price (a collection of Joseph
Smith's shorter scriptural productions, including the Book of Moses, the Book of
Abraham, a portion of his new translation of the Bible, his testimony, and the
Articles of Faith). Cf. George Bartholomew Arbaugh, Revelation in Mormonism:
Its Character and Changing Forms (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1932).

⁹Alexander Campbell, in the Millennial Harbinger, vol. II (February, 1831),
p. 85.

¹⁰Norman Douglas, "The Sons of Lehi and the Seed of Cain: Racial Myths in
Mormon Scripture and their Relevance to the Pacific Islands," Journal of Religious
History, VIII (1974-1975), 90-93; Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The
Life of Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet, 2nd ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974)
pp. 44-49.

¹¹Mormon 6. Popular legend had it that western New York and Ohio had been
the site of a great slaughter and that the burial mounds were the cemeteries of
an entire race; cf. Brodie, No Man Knows My History, p. 34.

¹² I Nephi 12:23.

¹³Alma 3:6-10.

¹⁴Cf. Jacob 3:5, 8, 9; II Nephi 5:21-23.

¹⁵Ill Nephi 2:14-16 and IV Nephi 10. In June 1834, Joseph Smith declared an
Indian skeleton to be the remains of a white Lamanite, named Zeiph, who was a
man of God; DHC, II, 79. Similarly, the white skin of the Nephites was no
permanent inheritance; certain rebels among them were cursed by God with a "skin
of blackness," to make them "loathsome" and thereby prevent mixing of righteous
and unrighteous seed; II Nephi 5:21-23; cf. Jacob 3:8.

¹⁶II Nephi 30:6, emphasis added.

¹⁷The basic prerequisites for celestial exaltation in the hereafter.

¹⁸The title page read in part: "... Written to the Lamanites, who are a
remnant of the house of Israel; and also to Jew and Gentile ... to show unto
the House of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that
they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever—And
also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile . . . ." Prophecies of the latter-
day conversion of the Indians are found in Helaman 15:12-13 and D & C 49:24.

¹⁹Joseph Fielding Smith, Essentials in Church History, 13th ed. (Salt Lake
Cith: Deseret Book Company, 1953), pp. 117-118 and passim.

²⁰In the lexicon of 19th Century revivalism, Joseph Smith was adopting an
"Arminian" view of human nature, with an emphasis upon human freedom and
responsibility in salvation, as opposed to a Calvinist emphasis upon divine
sovereignty. Questions such as the extent of human freedom in determining
salvation and the effect of Adam's sin upon his posterity were hotly debated in
Joseph Smith's day. Cf. Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American
People (Garden City, N.Y.: Image Books, 1975), I, 532, 536, 509-510.

²¹The Articles of Faith are found at the conclusion of the Pearl of Great Price.

²²II Nephi 26:33; cf. verse 24.

²³Alma 27:9. A sampling of Joseph Smith's egalitarian and republican
sentiments can be found in Alma 16:16 & 46:10-36, Mosiah 27:3 & 29:32-40, and
II Nephi 1:7.

²⁴Jan Shipps, "Second Class Saints," Colorado Quarterly, XI (Autumn, 1962), 184.
See John A Price's attempt to contextualize Joseph Smith's treatment of the Indians,
"The Book of Mormon vs. Anthropological Prehistory," Indian Historian, VII (Summer,
1974), 35-40.

²⁵The thesis of Stephen G. Taggart, Mormonism's Negro Policy: Social and
Historical Origins (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1970) emphasizes
the importance of the Missouri troubles in spawning Mormon racial doctrine and
policy. However, Taggart's conclusions are seriously weakened because he ignores
this early statement.

²⁶DHC, I, 133; now incorporated into the Book of Moses as chapter 7.

²⁷Moses 7:22.

²⁸For an account of such racist speculations among defenders of slavery, see
H. Shelton Smith, In His Image, But . .. : Racism in Southern Religion, 1780-1910
(Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1972), pp. 129-165.

²⁹Moses 7:8,12.


³⁰Brigham H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1965), I, 238-240,
247-249, 271-272. Cf. Arbaugh, Revelation in Mormonism, pp. 69-85.

³¹DHC, I, 324, 341.

³²Genesis 9:29-30. Found in Robert J. Matthews, "A Plainer Translation":
Joseph Smith's Translation of the Bible, A History and Commentary (Provo, Utah:
Brigham Young University Press, 1975), pp. 381-382. This work exhaustively treats
the history and textual problems surrounding Joseph Smith's translation of the
Bible.

³³Cf. Smith, In His Image, But . . ., pp. 137ff for an account of how racist
exegesis was employed to justify the institution of slavery.

³⁴Tanner, Mormons and Negroes, pp. 14 & 31. Pratt is quoted in Taggart,
Mormonism's Negro Policy, p. 22.

³⁵A fact emphasized by Davis, "The New England Origins of Mormonism."
Andrew Jenson, Church Chronology: A Record of Important Events Pertaining to the
History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake
City: Deseret News, 1899), pp. xxiii-xxviii & p. 1 gives the birth places of
most of the early Mormon leaders. Examination of these locations strongly
supports Davis's thesis.

³⁶ Cf. Klaus J. Hansen, Quest for Empire: The Political Kingdom of God and
the Council of Fifty in Mormon History (n.p.: Michigan State University Press,
1967), pp. 3-23; Ernest Lee Tuveson, Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America's
Millennial Role (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), pp. 175-186.

³⁷DHC, I, 110-115, 152, 163, 177-179.

³⁸Pearl G. Wilcox, The Latter Day Saints on the Missouri Frontier
(Independence, Missouri: n.p., 1972), pp. 16, 29.

³⁹Roberts, Comprehensive History, I, 321-323. R. J. Robertson, Jr.,
"The Mormon Experience in Missouri, 1830-1839, Part II," Missouri Historical
Review, LXVIII (July, 1974), 393-415, traces some of the underlying social
sources of the conflict, while Richard L. Bushman, "Mormon Persecutions in
Missouri, 1833," Brigham Young University Studies, III (Autumn, 1960), 11-20,
sees the underlying religious factors.

⁴⁰Taggart, Mormonism's Negro Policy, pp. 17-18; Evening and Morning Star,
vol. II, no. 16 (January, 1834), "The Outrage in Jackson County, Missouri,"
p. 243. (References to this newspaper cite the Kirtland reprint pagination.)

⁴¹D & C 87; DHC, I, 301 (see pp. 312ff on Joseph's apocalyptic expectations).

⁴²D & C 87:4.

⁴³Taggart, Mormonism's Negro Policy, pp. 19-20.

⁴⁴Evening and Morning Star (July, 1833), pp. 218-219.

⁴⁵Ibid., p. 221.

⁴⁶Brodie, No Man Knows My History, p. 132.

⁴⁷DHC, I, 378-379.

⁴⁸Warren A. Jennings, "The Expulsion of the Mormons from Jackson County,
Missouri," Missouri Historical Review, LXIV (October, 1969), 41-63.

⁴⁹The apt phrase is Shipps's, "Second Class Saints," pp. 185-186.

⁵⁰D & C 101:78.

⁵¹Shipps, "Second Class Saints," p. 186.

⁵²Donna Hill, Joseph Smith: The First Mormon (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday
& Company, Inc.: 1977), pp. 168-194.

⁵³Quoted in William E. Berrett, The Church and the Negroid People: Historical
Information Concerning the Doctrine of the Church toward the Negroid People
(Provo, Utah: Bookmark Division of Community Press Publishing Company, 1973) ,
pp. 8-11; taken from the Journal History, Church Historical Department, May 31, 1879,
"Negro Priesthood Not to be Conferred upon Negro, 1879." Coltrin's racist remarks
about Elijah Abel and the account of his temple endowments render this account
somewhat suspect.

⁵⁴D & C 134:12; cf. the account of the General Assembly in DHC, II, 243-251.

⁵⁵See Joseph's claims made to Josiah Quincy, most readily available in
William Muldern and A. Russell Mortensen, Among the Mormons: Historic Accounts
by Contemporary Observers (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967), pp. 136-137.

⁵⁶Roberts, Comprehensive History, II, 126-127; Brodie, No Man Knows My History,
pp. 168ff; Wesley P. Walters, "Joseph Smith Among the Egyptians," Journal of the
Evangelical Theological Society, XVI (Winter, 1973), 25-29.

⁵⁷Taggart, Mormonism's Negro Policy, pp. 57-58.

⁵⁸Abraham 1:21-27.

⁵⁹Smith, In His Image, But . . ., p. 131. Cf. Gene Rice, "The Curse That
Never Was (Genesis 9:18-27)," Journal of Religious Thought, XXIX (Spring-Summer,
1972), 17, on the historical roots of this racist exegesis.

⁶⁰DHC, IV, 501. The contention of Armand L. Mauss, "Mormonism and the
Negro: Faith, Folklore, and Civil Rights," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought,
II (Winter, 1967), 21, that there is no connection between Joseph's "mark of
Cain"/"curse on Canaan" doctrine and the denial of priesthood to Negroes is thus
shown to be a case of special pleading.

⁶¹Northern Times, October 9, 1835, p. 2; quoted by Taggart, Mormonism's Negro
Policy, pp. 36-37.

⁶²DHC, III, 29.

⁶³DHC, II, 436-440.

⁶⁴Taggart, Mormonism's Negro Policy, p. 51, n. 49.

⁶⁵DHC, II, 450.

⁶⁶Ibid., pp. 453, 458.

⁶⁷R. J. Robertson, Jr., "The Mormon Experience in Missouri, 1830-1839,
Part I," Missouri Historical Review, LXVIII (April, 1974), 287ff.

⁶⁸For a full treatment of Elijah Abel, see Tanner, Mormons and Negroes, pp. 11ff.

⁶⁹DHC, IV, 519-534.

⁷⁰DHC, V, 217-218.
⁷¹DHC, VI, 205. See Roberts, Comprehensive History, II, 202-208, for an
account of Joseph Smith's presidential candidacy.

⁷²Mulder and Mortensen, Among the Mormons, p. 141.

⁷³ David Leslie Brewer, Utah Elites and Utah Racial Norms (Unpublished Ph.D.
thesis. University of Utah, 1966), pp. 25ff; William J. Whalen, The Latter-day
Saints in the Modern World: An Account of Contemporary Mormonism (New York: John
Day Company, 1964), pp. 250ff; and Taggart, Mormonism's Negro Policy, pp. 64ff,
discuss the development of this doctrine after the death of Joseph Smith.

⁷⁴ Kendall White, Jr., "Mormonism's Anti-Black Policy and Prospects for
Change," Journal of Religious Thought, XXIX (Autumn-Winter, 1972), 39-60;
Tanner, Mormonism and Negroes, pp. 40-57, 69-78.