Polygamy: An Early American History (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780300226843)

A groundbreaking examination of polygamy showing that monogamy was not the only form marriage took in early America

"A richly sourced, elegantly written, and strikingly original interdisciplinary study of the diverse practices of polygamy in American from ca. 1500 to 1900."--John Witte Jr., Journal of Law and Religion

Today we tend to think of polygamy as an unnatural marital arrangement characteristic of fringe sects or uncivilized peoples. Historian Sarah Pearsall shows us that polygamy's surprising history encompasses numerous colonies, Indigenous communities, and segments of the American nation. Polygamy--as well as the fight against it--illuminates many touchstones of American history: the Pueblo Revolt and other uprisings against the Spanish; Catholic missions in New France; New England settlements and King Philip's War; the entrenchment of African slavery in the Chesapeake; the Atlantic Enlightenment; the American Revolution; missions and settlement in the West; and the rise of Mormonism.

Pearsall expertly opens up broader questions about monogamy's emergence as the only marital option, tracing the impact of colonial events on property, theology, feminism, imperialism, and the regulation of sexuality. She shows that heterosexual monogamy was never the only model of marriage in North America.

Published in cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University

Author: Sarah M. S. Pearsall
ISBN-10: 0300226845
ISBN-13: 9780300226843
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 08/20/2019
Pages: 416
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.60lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.40w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 07/26/2019 pg. 1
Choice 01/01/2020