Convicting the Mormons

The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture

By Janiece Johnson

Convicting the Mormons View Inside

234 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 27 halftones

  • Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-7353-0
    Published: May 2023
  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-7352-3
    Published: May 2023
  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-7354-7
    Published: April 2023
  • E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-6213-6
    Published: April 2023

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Awards & distinctions

2023 Best First Book Award, Mormon History Association

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.

About the Author

Janiece Johnson is lecturer at Brigham Young University.
For more information about Janiece Johnson, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"An engaging account of the narrative people in the nineteenth century created about the Mountain Meadows Massacre and how this narrative both drew on and influenced people’s perceptions of Mormons . . . . Anyone interested in Mormon history, nineteenth century U.S. history, and religious history, will find this book to be excellent reading."—The Civil War Monitor/i>

"Johnson's authorial voice and absolute command of the primary sources make this book an indispensable resource for historians examining the aftermath and American cultural perception of Mountain Meadows."—Patrick Mason, Utah State University

"This book is fantastic! Rather than retreading the specifics of the Mountain Meadows Massacre itself, Johnson is concerned with what the event became in popular consciousness—making her study unique and refreshing. It makes a significant contribution to the fields of Mormon studies, nineteenth-century American history, and American religious studies."—Elizabeth Fenton, University of Vermont

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Religion: US

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