2016/02/29 by Spencer W. McBride · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #American Constitutional Law and Politics #Mormonism, Religion, and History #Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
paper · doi:10.1017/s0009640715001390
openalex publication_date 2016/02/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
In the nineteenth century, the Mormons were a minority religious group living on the fringes of the United States in both a geographic and social sense. Yet, in the twenty-first century, historians are increasingly realizing that the history of this marginal religious “other” sheds a great deal of light on the American past broadly conceived. This essay briefly describes an important moment in early Mormon history that illuminates our developing understanding of religious liberty in the early American republic, and the political obstacles Americans outside mainstream protestant Christianity faced in their efforts to obtain equal treatment under the law as American citizens.