Awful Disclosures of Mormonism

Abstract

Anti-Catholicism flourished alongside anti-Mormonism. Opposition to Mormonism largely focused on polygamy, something Protestant Americans felt threatened female sexual purity, traditional marriage, and the family. Just as convent narratives warned of the deception used to lure women into the cloister, Mormon captivity narratives detailed the deceptive ways Latter-day Saints enticed young, vulnerable women into the church and polygamous marriages. Awful Disclosures of Mormonism, a book that blatantly borrowed its title from Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery, described a young woman’s seduction by a charming Mormon man before being trapped in a miserable plural marriage. These and other Mormon captivity narratives presented polygamy as a threat to the purity and utility of a woman. This chapter examines the similarities among Mormon and convent captivity narratives, analyzing the way both focused on the alleged threats to female sexual purity, marriage, and the family.