19th Century Legal Trials
A01=Janiece Johnson
American Violence
Arkansas Emigrants
Author_Janiece Johnson
Brigham Young
Category=NHK
Category=NHTB
Category=QRAM9
Category=QRMB5
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Execution of John D. Lee
gender ideals
John D. Lee
Latter-day Saints
Latter-day Saints Perceptions
Massacre
Mormon
Mormon Massacre
Mormon Problem
Mormon savagery
Mormon theocracy
Mormons and Race
Mormons in white civilization
Mountain Meadows Massacre Prosecution
Popular Perceptions of Mormons
Religious Violence
Violence in the West
Product details
- ISBN 9781469673530
- Weight: 166g
- Dimensions: 155 x 233mm
- Publication Date: 30 May 2023
- Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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On September 11, 1857, a small band of Mormons led by John D. Lee massacred an emigrant train of men, women, and children heading west at Mountain Meadows, Utah. News of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, as it became known, sent shockwaves through the western frontier of the United States, reaching the nation's capital and eventually crossing the Atlantic. In the years prior to the massacre, Americans dubbed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the "Mormon problem" as it garnered national attention for its "unusual" theocracy and practice of polygamy. In the aftermath of the massacre, many Americans viewed Mormonism as a real religious and physical threat to white civilization. Putting the Mormon Church on trial for its crimes against American purity became more important than prosecuting those responsible for the slaughter.
Religious historian Janiece Johnson analyzes how sensational media attention used the story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre to enflame public sentiment and provoke legal action against Latter-day Saints. Ministers, novelists, entertainers, cartoonists, and federal officials followed suit, spreading anti-Mormon sentiment to collectively convict the Mormon religion itself. This troubling episode in American religious history sheds important light on the role of media and popular culture in provoking religious intolerance that continues to resonate in the present.
Religious historian Janiece Johnson analyzes how sensational media attention used the story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre to enflame public sentiment and provoke legal action against Latter-day Saints. Ministers, novelists, entertainers, cartoonists, and federal officials followed suit, spreading anti-Mormon sentiment to collectively convict the Mormon religion itself. This troubling episode in American religious history sheds important light on the role of media and popular culture in provoking religious intolerance that continues to resonate in the present.
Janiece Johnson is lecturer at Brigham Young University.
