History of slavery in Utah

Last updated

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 It was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories. [1]

Contents

Indian slavery

Slave raids were common along the Old Spanish Trail. OldSpanishTrailmap.png
Slave raids were common along the Old Spanish Trail.

From 1824 to 1848, Utah was part of the Mexican province of Alta California (Upper California). Mexican trading parties would often travel the Old Spanish Trail, which went through modern day Utah, and buy Indian slaves to sell in the neighboring territory of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico or other places in Alta California. Mexicans, Utes, and Navajos would raid Paiute and sometimes Ute villages for slaves. Slavery had been made illegal in Santa Fe de Nuevo México in 1812 and in Alta California Territory in 1824, but lax enforcement and high profits kept it going. [2] Boys would sell for $100 and girls between $150 and $200. Indigenous girls could demand a higher price because they had a reputation for making the best house servants. [3] In addition, Mexican laws allowed for an aggressive debt bondage in the form of the peonage system.[ citation needed ]

Shortly after the Mormon pioneers arrived in Salt Lake Valley, they began expanding into Indian territory, which often resulted in conflict. After expanding into the Utah Valley, Brigham Young issued an extermination order against the Timpanogos, resulting in the Battle at Fort Utah, where many Timpanogo women and children were taken into slavery. Some were able to escape, but many died in slavery. [4] [ page needed ] In the winter of 1849–1850, after expanding into Parowan, Mormons attacked a group of Indians, killing around 25 men and taking the women and children as slaves. [5] : 274  News of the enslavement reached the US government, who appointed Edward Cooper as Indian agent in September 1850. [6] Edward Cooper made the issue of Indian slavery one of his first efforts. [7]

At the encouragement of Mormon leaders, the Mormon pioneers started participating in the Indian slave trade. [8] [9] In 1851, Apostle George A. Smith gave Chief Peteetneet and Walkara talking papers that certified "it is my desire that they should be treated as friends, and as they wish to Trade horses, Buckskins and Piede children, we hope them success and prosperity and good bargain." [10] In May 1851 Brigham Young met with settlers in the Parawon region and encouraged them to "buy up the Lamanite children as fast as they could" so as to "educate them, and teach them the gospel." [11]

However, the Mormons strongly opposed the New Mexican slave trade.[ citation needed ] In November 1851, Don Pedro León Luján, a New Mexican slave trader who had been operating in Utah with a New Mexico license, asked Young as the newly appointed governor of Utah for a license to trade with the Indians, including slaves. Young refused to given Luján a license to conduct any trade with the Indians. On the way home to New Mexico, Luján's party was attacked by Ute Indians, who stole his horses. Luján retaliated by kidnapping some of their children to sell in New Mexico. He and his party were caught in Manti and charged with violating the Nonintercourse Act, which prohibited trading with the Indians without a valid license.[ citation needed ] His property was seized and the children were sold into slavery to families in Manti. He contested, claiming it was hypocritical to not allow him to have slaves, but allow the Mormon families to have slaves.[ citation needed ]

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 these children, the Mormons were obligated to purchase them. In his book, Forty Years Among the Indians , Daniel Jones wrote, "[s]everal 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]

A month after legalizing slavery with the Act in Relation to Service, Utah passed the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners, which officially legalized Indian Slavery in Utah. The bill provided several protections for the Indian slaves, including a requirement to educate and clothe the Indians, and a limit of twenty years, which was greater than the New Mexican limit of ten years.

Mormons continued taking children from their families long after the slave traders left and even began to actively solicit children from Paiute parents. They also began selling Indian slaves to each other. [12] : 56  By 1853, each of the hundred households in Parowan had one or more Paiute children. [12] : 57  Indian slaves were used for both domestic and manual labor. [7] : 240  In 1857, Representative Justin Smith Morrill estimated that there were 400 Indian slaves in Utah. [9] Richard Kitchen has identified at least 400 Indian slaves taken into Mormon homes, but estimates even more went unrecorded because of the high mortality rate of Indian slaves. Many of them tried to escape. [5]

Historians Sarah Barringer Gordon and Kevin Waite have identified that over half of the Indian adoptees died by their early 20s. Those who survived and were released generally found themselves without a community, full members of neither their original tribes nor the white communities in which they were raised. [13]

African slavery

In 1847, the Mormon pioneers arrived with African slaves, which was the first time African slavery was in the area. [2] Three blacks who arrived in Utah with Brigham Young's party were slaves. [14] Mormons arrived in the middle of the Mexican–American War and ignored the Mexican ban on slavery. Instead, slavery was recognized by custom, which has been seen as naturally coming from the Mormon view on blacks. [15] Like many Christians of the day, Mormons believed in the Curse of Cain and Curse of Ham. Early Mormon leaders taught that God decreed that blacks should be "servants of servants" and that governments did not have the power to reverse God's decree. [16] Three slaves arrived in the first company of pioneers, but more arrived in later companies. [17] [18]

After Utah territory passed to American rule following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, the issue of slavery in the newly acquired territories became a major issue, with the Whigs wanting to keep Mexico's ban on slavery and the Democrats wanting to introduce slavery. During discussions, Utah lobbyist John Milton Bernhisel hid Utah slavery from members of Congress. [19] With the Compromise of 1850, Utah was granted the right to decide by popular sovereignty whether it wanted to allow slavery. By 1850, there were around 100 blacks, the majority of whom were slaves. [20] It is difficult to know the exact numbers, because Utah continued to hide slaves. The 1850 census of Utah territory was taken without the certification of Territorial Secretary Broughton Harris, who complained that the census was done in his absence and that it had several irregularities. [21] The census only reported 26 slaves, with a note that all of them were heading to California, making it seem like there would not be any slaves in Utah. It did not include any of the slaves held in Bountiful, Utah. [22] [23]

In January 1852, Brigham Young, then Territorial Governor of Utah, addressed the Joint Session of the Legislature and advocated for slavery. [24] On February 4, 1852, Utah passed the Act in Relation to Service, which officially legalized slavery in Utah territory. Like in the slave states, slaves tried to escape, were sold or donated, [14] wanted their freedoms and were often treated similar to the slaves in other states. [25] However, there were several unique characteristics to Utah slavery laws. The slave could be released for abuse or sexual relationships. Masters were required to clothe, educate and punish their slaves. [26]

Orson Pratt was a vocal opponent of legalizing slavery in Utah. He stated that slavery is "a great evil" and that “for us to bind the African because he is different from us in color [is] enough to cause the angels in heaven to blush!” While the legislation that allowed slavery passed in 1852, Pratt continued to argue against slavery. For example, in 1856, Pratt stated: “We have no proof that the Africans are the descendants of old Cain who was cursed, and even if we had that evidence we have not been ordered to inflict that [curse] upon that race.” [27]

When the Civil War broke out, there is some indication that some slave owners returned to the South because they were thought they were more likely to keep their slaves. [28] On June 19, 1862, Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brigham Young</span> American religious leader (1801–1877)

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 formalized the prohibition of black men attaining priesthood, and led the church in the Utah War against the United States.

Antonga, or Black Hawk, was a nineteenth-century war chief of the Timpanogos tribe in what is the present-day state of Utah. He led the Timpanogos against Mormon settlers and gained alliances with Paiute and Navajo bands in the territory against them during what became known as the Black Hawk War in Utah (1865–1872). Although Black Hawk made peace in 1867, other bands continued raiding until the US intervened with about 200 troops in 1872. Black Hawk died in 1870 from a gunshot wound he received while trying to rescue a fallen warrior, White Horse, at Gravely Ford Richfield, Utah, June 10, 1866. The wound never healed and complications set in.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George A. Smith</span> Early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement

George Albert Smith was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement. He served in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and as a member of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walkara</span> Native American chief

Chief Walkara was a Northern Ute leader of the Utah Indians known as the Timpanogo and Sanpete Band. He had a reputation as a diplomat, horseman and warrior, and a military leader of raiding parties in Wakara's War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacob Hamblin</span> American diplomat (1819–1886)

Jacob Hamblin was a Western pioneer, a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a diplomat to various Native American tribes of the Southwest and Great Basin. He aided European-American settlement of large areas of southern Utah and northern Arizona, where he was seen as an honest broker between Latter-day Saint settlers and the Natives. He is sometimes referred to as the "Buckskin Apostle", or the "Apostle to the Lamanites". In 1958, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Utah</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Hawk War (1865–1872)</span> Part of the Ute, Apache, and Navajo Wars

The Black Hawk War, or Black Hawk's War, is the name of the estimated 150 battles, skirmishes, raids, and military engagements taking place from 1865 to 1872, primarily between Mormon settlers in Sanpete County, Sevier County and other parts of central and southern Utah, and members of 16 Ute, Southern Paiute, Apache and Navajo tribes, led by a local Ute war chief, Antonga Black Hawk. The conflict resulted in the abandonment of some settlements and hindered Mormon expansion in the region.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre was caused in part by events relating to the Utah War, an armed confrontation in Utah Territory between the United States Army and Mormon pioneers. In the summer of 1857, however, Mormons experienced a wave of war hysteria, expecting an all-out invasion of apocalyptic significance. From July to September 1857, Mormon leaders prepared Mormons for a seven-year siege predicted by Brigham Young. Mormons were to stockpile grain, and were prevented from selling grain to emigrants for use as cattle feed. As far-off Mormon colonies retreated, Parowan and Cedar City became isolated and vulnerable outposts. Brigham Young sought to enlist the help of Indian tribes in fighting the "Americans", encouraging them to steal cattle from emigrant trains, and to join Mormons in fighting the approaching army.

The conspiracy and siege of the Mountain Meadows Massacre was initially planned by its Mormon perpetrators to be a short "Indian" attack, against the Baker–Fancher party. But the planned attack was repulsed and soon turned into a siege, which later culminated in the massacre of the remaining emigrants, on September 11, 1857.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pahvant</span> Extinct band of Ute people of modern Utah, US

The Pahvant or Pahvants were a band of Ute people that lived in present-day Utah. Called the "Water People", they fished and hunted waterfowl. They were also farmers and hunter-gatherers. In the 18th century they were known to be friendly and attentive, but after a chief's father was killed by emigrating white settlers, a group of Pahvant Utes killed John Williams Gunnison and seven of his men during his exploration of the area. The bodies of water of their homeland were dried up after Mormons had diverted the water for irrigation. Having intermarried with the Paiutes, they were absorbed into the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah and relocated to reservations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European enslavement of Indigenous Americans</span>

During and after the European colonization of the Americas, European settlers practiced widespread enslavement of Indigenous peoples. In the 15th century, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Act in Relation to Service</span> 1852 law making slavery legal in the Utah Territory

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle at Fort Utah</span> 1850 killing of over 40 Native Americans by Mormon settlers

The Battle at Fort Utah was a violent attack and massacre 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 and eighteen were wounded 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chief Peteetneet</span> Native American clan leader and slave trader

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners</span>

The Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners, which was passed on March 7, 1852, in the Utah Territory, dealt with Native American slavery. A similar law, the Act in Relation to Service, which had made slavery legal in the territory, had been passed on February 4, 1852.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mormonism and slavery</span>

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 enslave people. New scriptures instructing Latter-Day Saints not to intervene in the lives of the enslaved people were revealed. A few enslavers joined the church, and when they moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, they illegally took their enslaved people with them, even though Illinois was a free state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civil rights and Mormonism</span>

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 enslaved people with them when they moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. The church adopted scriptures which teach against influencing slaves to be "dissatisfied with their condition" as well as scriptures which teach that "all are alike unto God." As mayor of Nauvoo, Smith prohibited Black people from holding office, joining the Nauvoo Legion, voting or marrying whites; but, as president of the church Black people 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wakara's War</span> Series of violent raids between Mormons and Native Americans

Wakara's War, also known as Walker's War was a dispute between the Ute people and the Mormon settlers in Utah Valley and surrounding areas. This war is characterized as a string of disputes and skirmishes over property and the land from July 1853 to May 1854. This war was influenced by factors such as religious differences, the slave trade, and the division of the Salt Lake Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native American people and Mormonism</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hark Lay Wales</span>

Hark Lay Wales, born in Monroe County Mississippi, was one of the few African Americans to cross the Mormon Trail as a pioneer with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Hark Lay Wales was a hardworking man who helped the Saints cross the Mormon Trail and arrive in Utah. He acquired his freedom and lived a peaceful life in California until he later returned to Utah. Not much is known about the life of Hark Lay Wales but he was a historic figure for the history of African Americans in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

References

  1. 1 2 An Act to Secure Freedom to All Persons Within the Territories of the United States, ch. 112, 12 Stat. 432 (1862).
  2. 1 2 Jeffrey D. Nichols (April 1995). "Slavery in Utah". History Blazer. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  3. 1 2 Jones, Daniel Webster (1890), "Chapter VIII", Forty Years Among the Indians, Salt Lake City, Utah: Juvenile Instructor Office, p. 53, OCLC   3427232 , retrieved May 24, 2021
  4. ↑ Farmer, Jared (2008). On Zion's Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape. Harvard University Press. ISBN   9780674027671.
  5. 1 2 Reséndez, Andrés (April 12, 2016). The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN   978-0-544-60267-0 . Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  6. ↑ Congressional Series of United States Public Documents, Volume 688. 1853. p. 7.
  7. 1 2 Blackhawk, Ned (June 30, 2009). Violence over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West. Harvard University Press. pp. 239–240. ISBN   978-0-674-02099-3 . Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  8. ↑ Holt, Ronald L. (July 31, 2006). Beneath These Red Cliffs: An Ethnohistory of the Utah Paiutes. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. p. 25. ISBN   0874216370 . Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  9. 1 2 United States. Congress (1857). The Congressional Globe, Part 2. Blair & Rives. pp. 287–288.
  10. ↑ Richard S. Van Wagoner & Steven C. Walker. A Book of Mormons.
  11. ↑ American Historical Company, American Historical Society (1913). Americana, Volume 8. New York: National Americana Society. p. 83. I spoke upon the importance of the Iron county mission and the advantages of the brethren fulfilling it. I advised them to buy up the Lamanite children as fast as they could, and educate them, and teach them the gospel, so that not many generations would pass ere they would become a white and delightsome people, and said that the Lord could not have devised a better plan than to have put us where we were, in order to accomplish that thing. I knew the Indians would dwindle away, but let a remnant of the seed of Joseph be saved. I told the brethren to have the logs or pickets of their fort so close that the Indians could not shoot arrows through. I recommended the adoption of the Indian name Parowan for the city.
  12. 1 2 Knack, Martha C. (November 1, 2004). Boundaries Between: The Southern Paiutes, 1775-1995. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN   978-0-8032-7818-9 . Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  13. ↑ Gordon, Sarah Barringer; Waite, Kevin (May 30, 2020). "'The other slavery' a part of Utah history". The Salt Lake Tribune . Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  14. 1 2 Rogers-Iversen, Kristen (September 2, 2007). "Utah settlers' black slaves caught in 'new wilderness'". The Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City. Retrieved July 4, 2021.
  15. ↑ John Williams Gunnison (1852). The Mormons: Or, Latter-day Saints, in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake: a History of Their Rise and Progress, Peculiar Doctrines, Present Condition, and Prospects, Derived from Personal Observation, During a Residence Among Them. Lippincott, Grambo & Company. p. 143. Involuntary labor by negroes is recognized by custom; those holding slaves keep them as part of their family, as they would their wives, without any law on the subject. Negro caste springs naturally from their doctrine of blacks being ineligible to the priesthood
  16. ↑ Young, Brigham (1863). Journal of Discourses/Volume 10/Necessity for Watchfulness, etc.  . pp. 248–250 – via Wikisource.
  17. ↑ Beller, Jack (October 1929). "Negro Slaves in Utah". Utah Historical Quarterly . 2 (4): 122–126. doi:10.2307/45057482. JSTOR   45057482. S2CID   254430655 . Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  18. ↑ Lythgoe, Dennis L. (1971). "Negro Slavery in Utah". Utah Historical Quarterly . 39 (1): 40–54. doi:10.2307/45059556. JSTOR   45059556. S2CID   160051695 . Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  19. ↑ Ricks, Nathaniel R. (2007). A Peculiar Place for the Peculiar Institution: Slavery and Sovereignty in Early Territorial Utah (MA thesis). Brigham Young University. hdl:1877/etd1909.
  20. ↑ John David Smith (1997). Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN   9780275957995.
  21. ↑ W. Paul Reeve; Ardis E. Parshall (2010). Mormonism: A Historical Encyclopedia. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 26. ISBN   9781598841077.
  22. ↑ Ronald G. Coleman. Blacks in Utah History: An Unknown Legacy (PDF).
  23. ↑ Coleman, Ronald G. (1976). "Blacks in Utah History: An Unknown Legacy". In Papanikolas, Helen (ed.). The Peoples of Utah. Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society. ISBN   9780913738269 . Retrieved May 6, 2020.
  24. ↑ Young, Brigham (1987), Collier, Fred C. (ed.), The Teachings of President Brigham Young: Vol. 3 1852–1854, Salt Lake City, Utah: Colliers Publishing Company, ISBN   0934964017, OCLC   18192348
  25. ↑ "Brief History Alex Bankhead and Marinda Redd Bankhead (mention of Dr Pinney of Salem)". The Broad Ax. March 25, 1899.
  26. ↑ "Utah Slave Code 1852". June 27, 2007.
  27. ↑ Reeve, W. Paul (2023). Let's Talk About Race and Priesthood. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book. pp. 61, 64–69. ISBN   978-1-63993-119-4.
  28. ↑ "Brief History Alex Bankhead and Marinda Redd Bankhead (mention of Dr Pinney of Salem)". The Broad Ax. March 25, 1899. When the war broke out, many slaveholders left this Territory with their slaves, and returned to the Southern States; because they believed by so doing, the risk of losing them would not be so great.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.