steve benson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One such Mormon-"owned" slave was Jane Elizabeth
> Manning James--otherwise known among her Mormon
> friends and White overseers as "Aunt Jane."
>
> Aunt Jane was a faithful Black Mormon convert who
> worked in the household of Joseph and Emma Smith.
> After years of faithful belief and devotion to
> clean-up duty, she had the audacity to repeatedly
> petition the leaders of the Mormon Church to be
> sealed via temple endowment to her husband, but
> was denied her request by the Quorum of the
> Twelve.
>
> Instead, she was made to settle for her White
> "owner," Joseph Smith--as his slave for time and
> all eternity:
>
> "The Territory of Utah gave up the practice of
> slavery along with the slave-holding states;
> however, the fact that they countenanced it when
> it was being practiced shows how insensitive they
> were to the feelings of black people. Even after
> the slaves were set free the Mormons continued to
> talk against blacks. In the year 1884, Angus M.
> Cannon said that 'a colored man . . . is not
> capable of receiving the Priesthood, and can never
> reach the highest Celestial glory of the Kingdom
> of God.' ('The Salt Lake Tribune,' October 5,
> 1884)
>
> "The idea that blacks were inferior and should
> only be servants to the whites persisted in Mormon
> theology. In fact, Mormon leaders seemed to feel
> that blacks would still be servants in heaven. On
> August 26, 1908, President Joseph F. Smith related
> that a black woman was sealed as a servant to
> Joseph Smith:
>
> "'The same efforts he said had been made by Aunt
> Jane to receive her endowments and be sealed to
> her husband and have her children sealed to their
> parents and her appeal was made to all the
> Presidents from President Young down to the
> present First Presidency. But President Cannon
> conceived the idea that, under the circumstances,
> it would be proper to permit her to go to the
> temple to be adopted to the Prophet Joseph Smith
> as his servant and this was done. This seemed to
> ease her mind for a little while but did not
> satisfy her, and she still pleaded for her
> endowments.' ('Excerpts From The Weekly Council
> Meetings Of The Quorum Of The Twelve Apostles,' as
> printed in 'Mormonism-Shadow or Reality?,' p.
> 584).
>
> "The idea that a black is only worthy of the
> position of a servant has deep roots in Mormon
> theology. Mark E. Petersen, . . . Apostle in the
> church, once said that if a 'Negro is faithful all
> his days, he can and will enter the celestial
> kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he
> will get celestial glory.' ('Race Problems-As They
> Affect The Church,' a speech delivered at Brigham
> Young University, August 27, 1954)."
>
> (Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "Changing the
> Anti-Black Doctrine," Chapter 10, Part 1, in "The
> Changing World of Mormonism," Utah Lighthouse
> Ministry, at:
>
http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changech10a.htm)
>
>
> Jane Elizabeth Manning James (1813-1908)--even in
> faith, a victim of Mormon bigotry, RIP:
>
> "Jane Elizabeth Manning was born in Wilton,
> Connecticut, one of five children of Isaac and
> Phyllis Manning, a free black family. Although
> Jane was a member of the local Presbyterian
> Church, she remained spiritually unfulfilled until
> 1842 when she heard the message of a missionary
> for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
> Saints . . . .
>
> "Soon afterwards she joined the Mormon Church. One
> year following her conversion, Jane Elizabeth and
> several family members who had also converted
> decided to move to Nauvoo, Illinois, the
> headquarters of the Mormon Church. After traveling
> by boat to Buffalo, New York, the African American
> Mormons, unable to pay additional fares, began an
> eight-hundred-mile journey by foot to Nauvoo. In
> Nauvoo, Jane lived and worked in the home of
> Joseph Smith, Jr. the founder of the LDS Church
> and his wife, Emma.
>
> "Following the 1844 murder of Joseph Smith, Jr.
> and his brother Hyrum in Carthage, Illinois,
> Mormon leaders under Brigham Young decided to
> abandon Nauvoo and look for a safe haven in the
> West away from forces hostile to the LDS Church.
>
> "In the fall of 1847, Jane, her husband Isaac
> James whom she married in 1841, and two sons
> traveled across the plains to the new home of the
> LDS Church in the Salt Lake Valley. They were the
> first free black pioneers in the Mormon settlement
> and Jane would spend the remaining fifty-one years
> of her life in Utah. They shared the hardships of
> their fellow Mormons and engaged in the spirit of
> mutual aid and cooperation that characterized LDS
> pioneer life.
>
> "By the 1880s Jane became increasingly concerned
> about her place in the afterlife. Well aware of
> the LDS Church's proscriptions that prohibited
> blacks from full participation in the rituals that
> were prerequisite to being eligible for a place in
> the celestial kingdom, she nonetheless argued for
> an exemption because of her faith.
>
> "'Is there no blessing for me?' she asked Church
> leaders for more than a decade. Those leaders
> refused her requests. They attempted to pacify her
> by authorizing her limited participation in LDS
> rituals.
>
> "Through it all, Jane Manning James remained a
> devout Mormon and is generally recognized in LDS
> history for her unwavering faith. Jane Manning
> James died in Salt Lake City in 1908.
>
> "A special monument to her is located in the Salt
> Lake City Cemetery, close to her gravesite, to
> commemorate her life and faith."
>
> (Ronald G. Coleman, "'Is There No Blessing for
> Me?': Jane Elizabeth Manning James, A Mormon
> African American Woman," in Quintard Taylor and
> Shirley Ann Moore Wilson, eds., "African American
> Women Confront the West," 1600-2000 , at:
>
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aaw/james-jane-elizabe> th-manning-1813-1908)
>
>
> Ahhhhh, how sweetly described--and deceptively
> presented.
>
> That "limited participation in LDS rituals," as it
> is euphemistically described above, is more fully
> laid out on pp. 152-157 of Coleman's biography of
> "Aunt Jane." There it is painfully detailed how,
> despite her faithfulness--and only because of her
> so-called "cursed" race--she was relentlessly
> denied her personal plea for access to the Mormon
> temple for her own family sealing endowment.
>
> The First Presidency also rejected her request to
> be adopted, via temple sealing, into the family of
> Joseph and Emma Smith, in whose home she
> faithfully worked as a servant.
>
> The First Presidency eventually, out of the
> kindness of their white-and-delightsome hearts,
> did permit her to be eternally sealed to Joseph
> Smith as his servant.
>
> (Tracking note: Google search "Ronald G. Coleman
> Manning." Up will come "African American Women
> Confront the West, 1600-2000 -Google Books
> Result." Click on that and Coleman's article will
> appear).
>
>
> More on the patronizing treatment she received
> from the Mormon Church:
>
> " . . . ave you wondered why Jane walked to
> Nauvoo? It was because white Mormons would not
> allow her to ride with them or assist her in
> paying for passage. And once she arrived in Nauvoo
> the Beautiful, that 'Zion on the Mississippi,' she
> was either rebuffed or ignored by her fellow
> Saints, until finally someone pointed out Joseph
> Smith's home to her.
>
> "Once she finally did meet Smith, he made Jane his
> house servant, and when Smith was murdered in
> 1844, Brigham Young then took in Jane James as his
> servant as well. Despite her faithful service to
> the church and its wealthy presidents, she lived
> most of her life in abject poverty.
>
> "She arrived in the new Zion of Utah among the
> first of the Saints in September 1847, the first
> free black woman in the territory, only to find
> that slavery was already being practiced there.
> Mormon Apostle Charles C. Rich owned slaves in
> Utah, which must have been a great trial of her
> faith. The only Western State or Territory to
> practice slavery was Utah.
>
> "She wished to be 'sealed' to her loved ones for
> all eternity just like the white-skinned members
> of the congregation were allowed to be. For all of
> her sacrifice, the highest eternal blessing the
> Mormon church could offer Joseph Smith's former
> house servant was to 'seal' her to Joseph Smith as
> his servant forever.
>
> "The words recited at this ceremony were that she
> was 'to be attached as a Servitor for eternity to
> the prophet Joseph Smith and in this capacity be
> connected with his family and be obedient to him
> in all things in the Lord as a faithful
> Servitor.'
>
> "In essence, an eternal slave, bound to service a
> white master for eternity."
>
> (For more on this final above account, along with
> a photograph of Jane Manning, see: "Nauvoo Pageant
> 2007: Just Who is Jane Manning?," in "Mormon Home
> Evening: Official Blog of Mormon Missions Midwest
> Outreach," 17 July 2007, at:
>
http://mormonhomeevening.blogspot.com/2007/07/nauv> oo-pageant-2007just-who-is-jane.html)