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

I knew there had been a Mormon colony in San Bernardino, and I knew San Bernardino has had, at least since the beginnings of American times, a somewhat fraught history, but I had no idea that "later day" [intentional play on words] slavery was involved.

My mom's family were some of the first Mormon colonizers in Southern California. The helped settle San Bernadino and did very well there.

They were called back to Utah by Brigham Young due to the Utah War. The US Army was moving towards Utah under presidential order and Brigham called all the saints to Utah to protect it.

Yes, that was when the Mormon Reformation occurred and the Utah population was whipped into a fury that produced Mountain Meadows. It also marked a break in SoCal history because a lot of the Mormons there refused to go back to Utah, effectively breaking with the church.

How many 'Mormon Reformations' were there?

One involved the 'saints' being re-baptized, I believe that was adjunct to crossing the plains.

Just one.

1856-1857, when BY was trying to unify the church in part to prepare for possible war against the United States. Jedediah Grant and others went around Mormon territories, preached repentance and re-baptism, imposed the HT program, and really fired people up. As so often in history, an increase in violence both within Mormondom and against non-Mormons was one result of this virulent movement.

What saved Mormonism was the Carthage Greys making a Martyr out of Joseph Smith. Big mistake. If they would have let Joseph alone he would have self-destructed and taken the church with him.

James Strang was assassinated because he was out of control. The US Navy scattered his little group.

Brigham Young was able to keep it going because his group was larger and he was smart enough to isolate it and grow it bringing in naive European immigrants.

Probably what saved the Utah church was the Civil War. Of course the US Government re-visited Utah arresting those illegally practicing polygamy and ceasing church assets. Even at that Brigham had grown the church large enough it could hang on and the members were productive enough that cash tithing saved the church from financial ruin. In 1919 the church was incorporated and became the modern church we know today worth over $100 billion in assets.

Rubicon Wrote:
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> Brigham Young was able to keep it going because
> his group was larger and he was smart enough to
> isolate it and grow it bringing in naive European
> immigrants.

This says so much in one sentence. IT is so important. The genealogy of a cult. The kind of history that shows so much.

https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,2281145

I was already aware that mormons owned slaves in Utah, and also that mormons settled San Bernardino, but I had not previously known that the SB colonizers brought their slaves into California, it having been admitted into the US in 1850 as a free state.

Everything that mormonism touches turns to sh**.

You just explained some of the reasons the US Army was sent to Utah. The Utah War and Mountain Meadows Massacre are an interesting study. Some Democrat politicians supported the Mormons because they wanted the states to decide about slavery and not the federal government. They turned on the Mormons when they feared the feds would reject state's rights in order to stop polygamy in Utah.

Of course it all blew up in a civil war and the war bought time for Brigham to entrench even harder in Utah. They kept the women pregnant and brought in as many immigrants as possible.

I might add Colonel Johnston who marched on Utah died in the Civil War fighting for the Confederacy.