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The Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners, which was passed on March 7, 1852 in the Utah Territory, dealt with Indian slavery. [1] A similar law, the Act in Relation to Service, which had made slavery legal in the territory, had been passed on February 4, 1852.
Although illegal throughout Mexico, the Indian slave trade was well-established when the Mormon pioneers arrived in Utah. At the encouragement of Mormon leaders, the Mormon pioneers began buying Indian slaves. [2] They also acquired other prisoners through wars such as Battle at Fort Utah. At the end of the Mexican–American War, Utah became a part of the United States, and the issue of slavery in the new territories became a highly-political subject. Finally, Congress passed the Compromise of 1850, which allowed the Territories of Utah and New Mexico to choose by popular sovereignty whether to make slavery legal in those territories. Brigham Young began seeking to stop the Mexican slave trade but to encourage the local market, and he notified the Mexicans. [3]
Many of Walker's Band were upset by the interruption with the Mexican slave trade. In one graphic incident, Ute Indian Chief Arrapine, a brother of Chief Walkara, insisted that because the Mormons had stopped the Mexicans from buying the children, the Mormons were obligated to purchase them. In his book, Forty Years Among the Indians , Daniel Jones wrote, "Several of us were present when he took one of these children by the heels and dashed its brains out on the hard ground, after which he threw the body towards us, telling us we had no hearts, or we would have bought it and saved its life." [3]
In 1851, Don Pedro Leon Lujan, who had been trading slaves with a New Mexico license, sought a Utah license from Brigham Young but was refused. Later, Lujan was discovered with Indian slaves and charged with trading with Indians without a license. The trial was in progress, and the ambiguous status of slavery had become an issue during the trial.
The Mormons were not opposed to using the slaves for their own purposes, but they opposed the harsh conditions of Mexican slavery. [4] : 272
On January 5, 1852, Brigham Young addressed the joint session of the Utah Territory legislature. He discussed the ongoing trial of Don Pedro Leon Lujan and the importance of explicitly indicating the true policy for slavery in Utah. He explained that although he did not think people should be treated as property, he felt that Indians were so low and degraded that transferring them to "the more favored portions of the human race" would be a benefit and relief. He argued that it was proper for persons thus purchased to owe a debt to the man or woman who saved them, [5] and that it was "necessary that some law should provide for the suitable regulations under which all such indebtedness should be defrayed." He said that was superior to drudgery of Mexican slavery, because the Mexicans were "scarcely superior" to the Indians. He argued that type of service was necessary and honorable to improve the condition of Indians. [6]
The Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah legalized slavery in February 1852 and dealt with Indian slavery in March 1852. The act was divided into four sections.
The first section required an Indian slave to be in possession of a white person and to be a prisoner, woman, or child. The prospective slave owner would bring the slave to the probate judge, who was then required to verify the slave owner was "properly qualified to raise or retain said Indian." If approved, the slave was then bound for up to twenty years, [1] which could be renewed. [7]
The second section mandated the probate officer to record the slave's name, age, place of birth, name of parents, tribe, name of slave owner, name of slave trader, and date of being bound. [1]
The third section gave the probate officer power to obtain additional Indian prisoners and find slave owners for them. [1]
The fourth section required the master to send children between the ages of seven and sixteen years to school for a period of three months each year if a school was available. Masters were also required to clothe them "in a comfortable and becoming manner, according to his, said master’s, condition in life." Masters were answerable to the probate judge for the treatment of these slaves. [1]
The total education requirement was significantly greater than for blacks and slightly less than white indentured servants, whose masters were required to send them to school at age six. [8]
As a result of the act, many Mormon families took small Indian children into their homes to protect them from Mexican slavery or from being left destitute. John D. Lee, for example, wrote in his journal about a group of Indians who "brought me two more girls for which I gave them two horses. I named the girls Annette and Elnora." [9]
The act concerned the Republican Party, which had made anti-slavery one of the pillars of its platform. While considering appropriations for Utah Territory, US Representative Justin Smith Morrill criticized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its laws on Indian slavery. He said that the laws were unconcerned about the way the Indian slaves were captured and noted that the only requirement was for the Indian to be owned by a white person through purchase or otherwise. He said that Utah was the only American government to enslave Indians and that state-sanctioned slavery was "a dreg placed at the bottom of the cup by Utah alone." [7] The Republicans' abhorrence of slavery delayed Utah's entrance as a state into the Union.
In 1857, Representative Morrill estimated that there were 400 Indian slaves in Utah. [7] Richard Kitchen has identified at least 400 Indian slaves taken into Mormon homes, but estimates are that even more went unrecorded because of the high mortality rate of Indian slaves. Many of them tried to escape. [4]
On the following day, March 8, 1852, the Act in relation to the assembling of Indians was passed, which prohibited the assembling of Indians near white settlements. [1]
Brigham Young was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from 1847 until his death in 1877. During his time as church president, Young led his followers, the Mormon pioneers, west from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Salt Lake Valley. He founded Salt Lake City and served as the first governor of the Utah Territory. Young also worked to establish the learning institutions that would later become the University of Utah and Brigham Young University. A polygamist, Young had at least 56 wives and 57 children. He instituted a ban prohibiting conferring the priesthood on men of black African descent, and led the church in the Utah War against the United States.
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that temporarily defused tensions between slave and free states in the years leading up to the American Civil War. Designed by Whig senator Henry Clay and Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas, with the support of President Millard Fillmore, the compromise centered on how to handle slavery in recently acquired territories from the Mexican–American War (1846–48).
The Utah War (1857–1858), also known as the Utah Expedition, the Utah Campaign, Buchanan's Blunder, the Mormon War, or the Mormon Rebellion, was an armed confrontation between Mormon settlers in the Utah Territory and the armed forces of the US government. The confrontation lasted from May 1857 to July 1858. There were some casualties, most of which were non-Mormon civilians. The war had no notable military battles.
The State of Deseret was a proposed state of the United States, proposed in 1849 by settlers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years and was never recognized by the United States government. The name derives from the word for "honeybee" in the Book of Mormon.
In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were prohibited. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave states to be politically imperative that the number of free states not exceed the number of slave states, so new states were admitted in slave–free pairs. There were, nonetheless, some slaves in most free states up to the 1840 census, and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 specifically stated that a slave did not become free by entering a free state.
Christian views on slavery are varied regionally, historically and spiritually. Slavery in various forms has been a part of the social environment for much of Christianity's history, spanning well over eighteen centuries. In the early years of Christianity, slavery was an established feature of the economy and society in the Roman Empire, and this persisted in different forms and with regional differences well into the Middle Ages. Saint Augustine described slavery as being against God's intention and resulting from sin. In the eighteenth century the abolition movement took shape among Christians across the globe.
Chief Walkara was a Shoshone leader of the Utah Indians known as the Timpanogo and Sanpete Band. It is not completely clear what cultural group the Utah or Timpanogo Indians belonged to, but they are listed as Shoshone. He had a reputation as a diplomat, horseman and warrior, and a military leader of raiding parties, and in the Wakara War.
The Poland Act of 1874 was an act of the US Congress that sought to facilitate prosecutions under the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act by eliminating the control members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints exerted over the justice system of Utah Territory. Sponsored by US Representative Luke P. Poland of Vermont, the Act redefined the jurisdiction of Utah courts by giving U.S. district courts exclusive jurisdiction in Utah Territory over all civil and criminal cases. The Act also eliminated the territorial marshal and attorney and gave their duties to a U.S. Marshal and a U.S. Attorney. The Act also altered petit and grand jury empaneling rules to keep polygamists off juries. By removing Latter-day Saints from positions of authority in the Utah justice system, the Act was intended to allow for successful prosecutions of Mormon polygamists.
The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.
The history of slavery in California began with the enslavement of Indigenous Californians under Spanish colonial rule. The arrival of the Spanish colonists introduced chattel slavery and involuntary servitude to the area. Over 90,000 Indigenous peoples were forced to stay at the Spanish missions in California between 1770 and 1834, being kept in well-guarded mission compounds. This has been described as de facto slavery, as they were forced to work on the mission's grounds amid abuse, malnourishment, overworking, and a high death rate. Indigenous girls were taken from their parents to be housed in guarded dormitories known as monjeríos for conversion to Catholicism and control over their sexuality.
Mormons have both used and been subjected to significant violence throughout much of the religion's history. In the early history of the United States, violence was used as a form of control. Mormons were violently persecuted and pushed from Ohio to Missouri, from Missouri to Illinois and from Illinois, they were pushed west to the Utah Territory. There were incidents of massacre, home burning and pillaging, followed by the death of their prophet, Joseph Smith. Smith died from multiple gunshot wounds from a lynch mob at a jail in Carthage, Illinois; Smith had defended himself with a small pistol smuggled to him by church leader Cyrus Wheelock and he was then shot while trying to flee from a window. There were also notable incidents in which Mormons perpetrated violence. Under the direction of Mormon prophets and apostles, the Mormon burned and looted Davies County, attacked and killed a member of the Missouri state militia, and carried out an extermination order on the Timpanogos. Other Mormon leaders led the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Battle Creek massacre, and Circleville Massacre. Mormons have also been a major part in several wars, including the 1838 Mormon War, Walker War and Black Hawk War.
The presidency of Millard Fillmore began on July 9, 1850, when Millard Fillmore became President of the United States upon the death of Zachary Taylor, and ended on March 4, 1853. Fillmore had been Vice President of the United States for 1 year, 4 months when he became the 13th United States president. Fillmore was the second president to succeed to the office without being elected to it, after John Tyler. He was the last Whig president. His presidency ended after losing the Whig nomination at the 1852 Whig National Convention. Fillmore was succeeded by Democrat Franklin Pierce.
Slavery among the Indigenous peoples of the Americas refers to slavery of and by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The history of slavery spans all regions of the world; during the pre-Columbian era, many societies in the Americas enslaved prisoners of war or instituted systems of forced labor. Contact with Europeans transformed these practices, as the Spanish introduced chattel slavery through warfare and the cooption of existing systems. A number of other European powers followed suit, and from the 15th through the 19th centuries, between two and five million Indigenous people were enslaved, which had a devastating impact on many Indigenous societies, contributing to the overwhelming population decline of Indigenous peoples in the Americas.
The Act in Relation to Service, which was passed on Feb 4, 1852 in the Utah Territory, made slavery legal in the territory. A similar law, Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners was passed on March 7, 1852, and specifically dealt with Indian slavery.
The Battle at Fort Utah was a violent attack in 1850 in which 90 Mormon militiamen surrounded an encampment of Timpanogos families on the Provo River one winter morning, and laid siege for two days, eventually shooting between 40 and 100 Native American men and one woman with guns and a cannon during the attack as well as during the pursuit and capture of the two groups that fled the last night. One militiaman died from return fire during the siege. Of the Timpanogos people who fled in the night, one group escaped southward, and the other ran east to Rock Canyon. Both groups were captured, however, and the men were executed. Over 40 Timpanogos children, women, and a few men were taken as prisoners to nearby Fort Utah. They were later taken northward to the Salt Lake Valley and sold as slaves to church members there. The bodies of up to 50 Timpanogos men were beheaded by some of the settlers and their heads put on display at the fort as a warning to the mostly women and children prisoners inside.
Chief Peteetneet, or more precisely Pah-ti't-ni't, was a clan leader of a band of Timpanogos that lived near Peteetneet Creek, which was named for him, in what is now known as Payson, Utah, United States.
Slavery as it occurred in the borders of what is now the state of Utah has a complicated history. Under Spanish and Mexican rule, Utah was a major source of illegal slave raids by Mexican, Ute and Navajo slave traders, particularly on Paiute tribes. When Mormon pioneers entered Utah, they introduced African slavery and provided a local market for Indian slavery. After the Mexican–American War, Utah became part of the United States and slavery was officially legalized in Utah Territory on February 4, 1852, with the passing of the Act in Relation to Service. It was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.
The Latter Day Saint movement has had varying and conflicting teachings on slavery. Early converts were initially from the Northern United States and opposed slavery, believing that their opposition was supported by Mormon scripture. After the church base moved to the slave state of Missouri and gained Southern converts, church leaders began to own slaves. New scriptures instructing Latter-Day Saints not to intervene in the lives of the slaves of others were revealed. A few slave owners joined the church, and when they moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, they took their slaves with them, even though Illinois was a free state.
Civil rights and Mormonism have been intertwined since the religion's start, with founder Joseph Smith writing on slavery in 1836. Initial Mormon converts were from the north of the United States and opposed slavery. This caused contention in the slave state of Missouri, and the church began distancing itself from abolitionism and justifying slavery based on the Bible. During this time, several slave owners joined the church, and brought their slaves with them when they moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. The church adopted scriptures which teaches against influencing slaves to be "dissatisfied with their condition" as well as scriptures which teaches that "all are alike unto God." As mayor of Nauvoo, Smith prohibited blacks from holding office, joining the Nauvoo Legion, voting or marrying whites; but, as president of the church blacks became members and several black men were ordained to the priesthood. Also during this time, Smith began his presidential campaign on a platform for the government to buy slaves into freedom over several years. He was killed during his presidential campaign.
Over the past two centuries, the relationship between Native American people and Mormonism has included friendly ties, displacement, battles, slavery, education placement programs, and official and unofficial discrimination. Native American people were historically considered a special group by adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement (Mormons) since they were believed to be the descendants of the Lamanite people described in The Book of Mormon. There is no support from genetic studies and archaeology for the historicity of the Book of Mormon or Middle Eastern origins for any Native American peoples. Today there are many Native American members of Mormon denominations as well as many people who are critical of Mormonism and its teachings and actions around Native American people.
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