Brigham Young

Personal Statement

• Born on June 1, 1801 in the city of Whitingham, VT.
• Formal education was minimal, was apprenticed to be a carpenter, painter, and glazier.
• American leader in the LDS movement, president of the LDS church, and governor of the Utah territory. Led foundings of the precursors to the University of Utah and Brigham Young University.
• Built many temples around the United States, expanded Mormonism, and helped settle much of the American Midwest.

Issue(s)

• Brigham Young was involved in the issue on Mormonism, and to be more specific Mormon polygamy.
• Brigham Young was all for Mormon polygamy as he practiced the belief himself.
• The source of Young’s motivation was mostly religious as the issue had to do, well, with religion.
• Fought for the freedom of practicing Mormon religion and setting up their churches.
• Lack of purification of the Mormon church and religion (in his opinion).

Solution(s)

• Blacks in the Mormon religion were treated as equals until Brigham Young. He announced a priesthood ban which prohibited all men of black African descent from holding the priesthood. He did this to purify the Mormon religion as “ if the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so”( Brigham Young). He believed in this so he set out to ban all blacks to purify the religion.
• Brigham Young was successful in banning blacks from priesthood up until 1978(which obviously happened after he died). In 1978 the new president of the church, Spencer W. Kimball, allowed blacks to enter priesthood again. He did not want to change anyone’s point of view, just purify the Mormon church as he wanted it to be.
• As Brigham Young did live at a time where racism and slavery existed, no one really contradicted him or gave him any criticisms on his first issue of purifying the church. He just got away with what he wanted to do, and it lasted 130 years without anyone doing anything about it.
• He took charge of the Mormon exodus in Illinois in the wake of the Church’s expulsion from Missouri.

Relationship to others

• Brigham Young had a strong connection with the issue on education. As he believed that all ( Probably meant white men) should be educated he led foundings to two schools. One of which was the University of Utah, and the other, named after himself, Brigham Young University.
• I would like to sit with Joseph Smith, as he was the founder of Mormonism and we would most likely get along and have an engaging conversation. I would not like to sit with a Quaker, an example of which would be Angelina Grimke.

Sidenote

Brigham Young was a decent businessmen as he engaged in a variety of enterprises, some of which included transportation and manufacturing. By the time of his death, his personal fortune was calculated at $600,000 making him the most successful Utah businessman up to that time.