Wife, No. 19 | Ann Eliza Young | A truly amazing story

Wife, No. 19 | Ann Eliza Young | 19th Century Expose of Polygamy

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Wife, No. 19

	Wife, No. 19 Ann Eliza Young Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2003 - 628 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

1876. The story of a life in bondage, being a complete expose of Mormonism, and revealing the sorrows, sacrifices and sufferings of women in polygamy, by Brigham Young's apostate wife. Born and reared in the midst of the Mormon people, it was inevitable that Mrs. Young would accept their practices and beliefs. After breaking away from the Mormon faith, she endeavored to expose everything, to show the sorrows of the women she left behind. This is her story, considered an important mission she had to carry out, as only could be written by one who spent her life immersed in Mormonism.

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A truly amazing story

If I ever had any warm and fuzzy feelings about the Mormon Church and especially its founders and early disciples, this very credible eyewitness account sent those feelings into the dustbin of history.

Though the writing is not perfect by today's standards, Ann Eliza Young's personal story is very believable (I believe it is authentic) and yet incomprehensible (I am astounded that so many people put up with the religion she describes) at the same time.

This is the quite detailed personal memoir of a girl who grew up in a Mormon family and became the 19th polygamous wife of Brigham Young. She finally became so disillusioned that she took the very dangerous and rare step of leaving him and divorcing him. Even more astounding for her day and age, she went on the lecture tour and exposed the Mormons and polygamy for what it was (from her point of view at least).

Anybody looking for details of the sex lives of polygamous spouses will be disappointed, as there is no information on that matter whatsoever. (At the very end of the book she hints that there were gross injustices and humiliations of a personal and private nature that she would not reveal.)

I enjoyed reading the book though I was appalled at the story it told. Any student of the history of the Latter-day Saints should read this book. I bet it isn't to be found in the bookstore of Brigham Young University.

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19th Century Expose of Polygamy

Ann Eliza Young was a 19th century LDS woman who was born into the second generation of Mormon polygamy. One of the most heart-wrenching parts of the book recounts how her mother heartbrokenly went from being her father's only wife for years before polygamy was introduced, to being only one of his wives, after church leaders pushed polygamy on their congregation.

Mrs. Young (she was married to Brigham Young himself) finally decided to escape and speak out against the polygamist lifestyle she and so many other women in her community found devastating. Although the book was written well over a century ago, it exposes many of the same problems as contemporary polygamy memoirs (such as Escape, Shattered Dreams and His Favorite Wife, all of which I recommend). These are:

1. The lower status of women in polygamist society;

2. Men (even wealthy men) who do not provide financially for their huge plural families;

3. Lack of education, and children pressured to quit school early and work to support and care for their father's plural families;

4. Pressure on women to marry against their will;

5. Physically and/or emotionally abusive behavior of husbands whose religion and community give them total power over their wives;

6. Husbands who dote on favorite wives while neglecting the others;

7. Unhappy households that feature intense jealousy and competition among plural wives;

8. Most of all, the profound and lasting pain felt by good, loving women whose religion and community compel them to share their husbands (they are told there is no way to heaven except through polygamy).

This is an excellent primary source about early Mormonism in general (it contains a first-generation family narrative that describes the church's history) and polygamy in particular. Highly recommended to anyone interested in either subject.

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What happened to Wife No. 19

The book is a haunting vision of how Brigham Young treated wife No.19. I cannot believe that to this day no one knows what happened to her or where she died. Ann Eliza has a honest and forthwith way of explaining her view of what happened to her. Anyone that has ever wondered how one of Brigham Young's wives lived and was treated, this book is for you.

An excellent primary source, but terrible history

I just ordered this book to add to my shelf of primary source materials of nineteenth century Mormon polygamy. It is a classic work. Ann Young made alot of money off of this book, as did she touring the united states on the same pulpit. For that it deserves five stars. It had a profound effect upon how non-Mormon AMericans perceived Utah Mormons. With that said, i was disappointed to see so many reviews tout this as "true" or valuable history in and of itself. Such reviewers need to step back and take some courses in both AMerican history and critical thinking and theory. You read this book to know what nineteenth-century Americans were being told about Utah polygamy, not as accurate history of what really happened. Such is identical and equally intellectually naive and embarrassing as saying Maria Monk's expose (written in the 1830s) of catholic convents was also true history. For literature on the historical placements of such nineteenth century novels and exposes see Terryl Givens, Viper on the Hearth; Sarah Gordon, The Mormon Question; Ann Douglass, The Feminization of American culture, and Franchot, Roads to Rome.

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wife no. 19: insight into how tough life could be for some in the 1800's

Gives a sense of life as a mormon in the 1800's. I am about half way thru this long book. It's interesting enough to get one past the slow read aspect/ repetitious points without further specific evidence. The illustrations are of very poor quality.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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