https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-01-19/san-bernardino-mormon-slavery

Devastating (or, at the very least, extremely uncomfortable for mormons) account of mormons importing black and native slaves from Utah when they settled San Bernardino.

Some highlights:

"In 1851, some 450 Latter-day Saints — Mormons — were sent by their church from Utah to establish a colony in what we call the Inland Empire. Within several years, the settlement's population skyrocketed to more than 3,000 — at least as big as, if not bigger, than Los Angeles. …To transform arid land into a thriving agricultural settlement, the Saints exploited dozens of enslaved African Americans that they had brought with them from Utah, as well as an untold number of coerced Native American laborers.

"Slaveholders occupied the upper echelons of the Mormon hierarchy in San Bernardino. According to U.S. census data and the records of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the colony's co-founder and its bishop owned slaves. One of San Bernardino's high counselors, Robert Mays Smith, did too. In fact, Smith claimed 14 enslaved women and children, making him the largest slaveholder in the continent's Far West.

"To supplement their African American workforce, Mormons purchased and 'adopted' Indian children. By the early 1850s, both California and Utah had legalized Native American servitude. …According to LDS custom, church leaders exercised a monopoly on religious and civil offices alike. All San Bernardino County officials were Mormons.

"Robert Mays Smith was among the dissenters. When he attempted to leave for Texas with his slaves in late 1855, he was served with a writ of habeas corpus. The court required him to establish that he had a right to remove his bondspeople from the state. He fled instead of appearing in court, and 14 African American women and children finally walked free, six years after California technically outlawed slavery."

----------

Racist? The church? Oh no, never!

Alexander B. Morrison ("No More Strangers," Sept. 2000 Ensign, p. 16):

"[R]acism is an offense against God and a tool in the devil's hands… How grateful I am that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has from its beginnings stood strongly against racism in any of its malignant manifestations."

> Alexander B. Morrison
> ("No More Strangers,"
> Sept. 2000 Ensign, p. 16):

> "[R]acism is an offense
> against God and a tool in
> the devil's hands… How
> grateful I am that The
> Church of Jesus Christ of
> Latter-day Saints has from
> its beginnings stood strongly
> against racism in any of its
> malignant manifestations."
    Ah, the sweet life of a mormon apologist...

I wonder if Bro. Morrison ever recognized how wrong he was?

Because of the Civil Rights push in the late 60s and into the 70s, the LDS Church was under enormous political pressure with regard to the Black issue. On June 8, 1978 Spencer W. Kimball, claimed that ghawd had removed the curse. All worthy Black men could now receive the Priesthood.

This was a complete doctrinal 180 degree change! There was never any hint that the curse would be removed, unlike the curse on me and all the other Lamanites!

All the old racist White dudes thought along the same lines as Brigham Young, who said,

    "How long is that race to endure the
    dreadful curse that is upon them?
    That curse will remain upon them, and
    they never can hold the Priesthood or
    share in it until all the other
    descendants of Adam [white men] have
    received the promises and enjoyed the
    blessings of the Priesthood and the
    keys thereof. Until the last ones of
    the residue of Adam’s children are
    brought up to that favorable position,
    the children of Cain cannot receive
    the first ordinances of the Priesthood.

    "They were the first that were cursed,
    and they will be the last from whom the
    curse will be removed. When the residue
    of the family of Adam come up and receive
    their blessings, then the curse will be
    removed from the seed of Cain, and they
    will receive blessings in like proportion."
    --(Journal of Discourses, 7:290-91).

BY was quite definitive:

    “they [blacks] never can hold the Priest-
    hood . . . until all the other descendants
    of Adam have received the promises and
    enjoyed the blessings of the Priesthood
    and the keys thereof.” The time when the
    descendants of Adam (white men) are
    redeemed is at the resurrection, not in
    this life. According to Mormonism that has
    not happened yet.

And here's an associated quote of some importance from BY:
    “I have never yet preached a sermon and sent
    it out to the children of man, that they may
    not call Scripture
    --(ibid., 13:95).    

LDS Apostle Mark E. Peterson agreed!:

    “And it is the decree of God that [the] mark
    should remain upon the seed of Cain, until
    the seed of Able shall be redeemed, and Cain
    shall not receive the Priesthood until the
    time of that redemption."
    --(Race Problems– As They Affect the Church
    address by Mark E. Peterson at BYU; see above)

And here's Bruce R. McClunkie on the issue:

    "Negroes in this life are denied the Priest-
    hood; under no circumstances can they hold
    this delegation of authority from the Almighty…
    The gospel message of salvation is not carried
    affirmatively to them…. (Mormon Doctrine, 477,
    527-28; 1966 org. ed. changed in later editions)



    "Power and prestige ... then throw in a whole
    bunch of money! And all you have to do to main-
    tain the status quo you've achieved is to employ
    selective hearing, have a blindside, lie, cheat,
    bully, gaslight and completely misrepresent your
    past!"    
    --Anyone who uses common sense and winds up rolling his/her eyes at the very existence of the modern mormon church.

        

Joseph Smith :

Pharoh was of that lineage denied the priesthood.

Egyptus a descendant of Cain and wife of Ham the son of Noah "preserved the curse" in the land.

The church loves to say it was the times, or blames Brigham or denies it was ever scripture, but their lies fall apart when anyone can clearly read Joseph's own writings in the book of Abraham.

That's very interesting. I was reading a book called "Leadership in Turbulent times" and Utah was admitted into the Union as a territory in the compromise of 1850. The bill put before congress authored by Henry Clay (one of America's greatest and most influential politicians who managed to keep the Union together decade after decade) had in the bill that Utah could decide for itself whether they would allow slavery. The Kansas Nebraska act was especially troublesome because it allowed states above the 1820 Missouri Compromise line decide about slavery, where as before the North had hoped to keep it confined to the Old South. Now the bobcat was out of the cage.

But thinking back to those times I don't see that the mormons were exactly racist. I mean what were they suppose to do? there were all these Southerners with their property that had joined this new church and come to Utah. And despite all the bad stuff we hear today about the horrible South, there were many slaves who liked their masters. In fact most even went back to the plantation after the war. In California everybody was poor, no body had it good. There aren't easy answers to difficult questions especially what to do with people that aren't literate, and have no skills, Today we have welfare, but it wasn't there in those days. I certainly am not going to judge them by 21 century standards... Just my opinion.

Mac: that's the WORST piece of GARBAGE I've seen in a LONG TIME!

- How ChurchCo decides/announces/determines Right & Wrong:
Whichever way the wind blows, That's How.

- In a literal sense, we don't judge Anyone, let alone dead folks.

- It's ChurchCo policies & procedures that are held to view here, not non-leaders, not individuals who don't make policy

- One would think that slavery cuts to the core of human values, priorities, Right?

- ChurchCo, overall, has a TERRIBLE record of standing up for individual rights, privileges. Abysmal. ChurchCo FIRST, everyone else pick up scraps

- What about everyone being responsible for their own actions/choices/decisions?

- ChurchCo 'prophets' job is to be conduits of 'god's mind & will', Right? Then why so many Core changes? really.

Crap, 'friend'



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2020 07:01PM by GNPE.

> That's very interesting. I was reading a book
> called "Leadership in Turbulent times" and Utah
> was admitted into the Union as a territory in the
> compromise of 1850. The bill put before congress
> authored by Henry Clay (one of America's greatest
> and most influential politicians who managed to
> keep the Union together decade after decade) had
> in the bill that Utah could decide for itself
> whether they would allow slavery. The Kansas
> Nebraska act was especially troublesome because it
> allowed states above the 1820 Missouri Compromise
> line decide about slavery, where as before the
> North had hoped to keep it confined to the Old
> South. Now the bobcat was out of the cage.

Not really. Slavery was tied to climate and agriculture. It never established a significant presence outside of the cotton and tobacco belt. It was well known in the North that in any other territories to the West and North some people might introduce slavery but the vast majority of new settlers would never adopt it and hence that the abolitionist sentiment would result in its prohibition in the new territories and states simply with the passage of time. That is why the South was not content with the MO Compromise or the Kansas-Nebraska Act. They needed official recognition that 1) slavery and 2) the right to secede as implicit in the constitution.

Conrad Black's The Flight of the Eagle explains all of this in several excellent chapters.


---------------------
> But thinking back to those times I don't see that
> the mormons were exactly racist.

Yes, they were explicitly racist as evidenced by their scriptures, the "scriptural" statements of their prophet, and their prohibition on black priesthood.


---------------
> I mean what were
> they suppose to do? there were all these
> Southerners with their property that had joined
> this new church and come to Utah.

That's the beauty of the situation. The Mormons didn't have to make a choice since slavery was entirely compatible with LDS doctrine. It was a racist church and allowed racist practices. The scandal is that the issue never even arose.


--------------
> And despite all
> the bad stuff we hear today about the horrible
> South, there were many slaves who liked their
> masters. In fact most even went back to the
> plantation after the war.

Right. Black people who had their families and friendships in the plantation communities and knew nothing but a particular sort of farming were supposed to move to New England and start fishing, or move to the Oregon Territory and become trappers, or relocate to Washington and seek ambassadorships in Europe.

The point is that they couldn't do that. They went back to their homes, where they had a right to live and work as full citizens. It wasn't up to them to go somewhere else and begin anew: it was incumbent upon the United States to start over.


---------------------
> In California everybody
> was poor, no body had it good.

Incorrect. The Gold Rush had occurred a decade before and there were huge fortunes in San Francisco and Sacramento; the Mormons in San Bernardino were also thriving. California was better off than much of the United States.


-------------------
> I certainly am not going to judge
> them by 21 century standards... Just my opinion.

By all means, let's judge 1850s and 1860s behavior by the standards of that day. Britain and other European countries had abolished slavery decades before and looked down on the benighted Americans. The growing majority of US citizens lived in states that were profoundly hostile to slavery; and the Republicans had won majorities in presidential elections on the bipartite platform of eliminating the "barbaric" phenomena of slavery and polygamy.

In short, the standards of the day condemned slavery in all its forms. The South knew that, also that economic conditions meant that the population of the slave-holding states could not possibly expand as the anti-slavery states. That's why they kept pleading that slavery and secession were constitutionally recognized institutions--their only recourse given that slavery was a widely despised practice in an increasingly isolated region.


---------------
Mormons were, from start to finish, racists. And by the standards of the day slavery was a "barbaric" institution that scandalized the Western world.

You can't get beyond those facts.

Read it this way:

"And despite all the bad stuff we
hear today about (Wife Beaters),
there were many (wives) who liked
their (abusers). In fact most even
went back to the (abusive husbands)
after the (beatings).


Cut wife-beaters a break!! With the right twist to it, it's really okay!

Thank you, ElderOldDog, for making it just that clear.

Abuse is not suddenly Okay just because the victim can't figure out how to change their life.

In reference to elderolddog's post on wife beaters, it's the old rule of thumb. Anyone here know where that expression came from? Many of us innocently use that term these days without knowing its dark beginnings. There was a time when it was legal for men to beat their wives (a terrible thing). But there was a debate about how big of a stick could be used to beat her with. The men in that society agreed on a rule of thumb. Any stick as big around as the man's thumb or smaller was legal to use and thus 'rule of thumb'.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2020 08:26AM by azsteve.

Another reason to no longer attend

ChurchCo leaders from Joey forward had a clear-cut choice of what to say & do about polygamy, divorce, slavery, & every other life decision that people look to them for guidance for, didn't they? Yes, they did.


It seems like MacaRomney is defending ChurchCo; I thought trolls & defenders - apologists aren't allowed to post here.

Surely s/he's in the final stages of being Church Broke...


just sayin'



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2020 08:09PM by GNPE.

Thank you for posting this. The fact LDS leaders owned slaves is yet another point the church lied to me about.

Thanks for the info. None of the history really surprises me at this point. If they had women and children pulling their wagons when a horse died and were whipped and harnessed like a horse would be I would not be surprised. If the children were kept in dog kennels or fed with dog food i wouldn't be surprised either.

I wonder if this has anything to do with that hoard someone buried in California.

The gold, it's in the...