A house full of females : plural marriage and women's rights in early Mormonism, 1835-1870 / Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.

Presents a revelatory and deeply intimate exploration of the world of early Mormon women that draws on nineteenth-century diaries, letters, albums, minute-books, and quilts created by first-generation Latter-Day Saints.

"A stunning and sure-to-be controversial book that pieces together, through more than two dozen nineteenth-century diaries, letters, albums, minute-books, and quilts left by first-generation Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, the never-before-told story of the earliest days of the women of Mormon "plural marriage," whose right to vote in the state of Utah was given to them by a Mormon-dominated legislature as an outgrowth of polygamy in 1870, fifty years ahead of the vote nationally ratified by Congress, and who became political actors in spite of, or because of, their marital arrangements. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, writing of this small group of Mormon women who've previously been seen as mere names and dates, has brilliantly reconstructed these textured, complex lives to give us a fulsome portrait of who these women were and of their "sex radicalism"--The idea that a woman should choose when and with whom to bear children."--Publisher's description.

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2017.

xxv, 484 pages : black and white illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm

First edition.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 400-463) and index.

Introduction: An indignation meeting : Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, 1870 -- "Wonder on wonder strikes my sense" : Ohio, Connecticut, and Maine, 1836-1838 -- "There was many Sick among the Saints" : from the Half-Breed Tract to the British Mission, 1839-1841 -- "I now turn the key to you" : Nauvoo, Illinois, 1842 -- "a favor which I have long desired" : Nauvoo, Illinois, and a journey East, 1843 -- "Menny feemales was recieved in to the Holy Order" : Nauvoo and beyond, 1844-1845 -- "Mud aplenty" : crossing Iowa, 1846 -- "Wrote some in my earley Biography" : Camp of Israel, Winter Quarters, Omaha Nation, 1847-1848 -- "All are busy preparing to go either East or West" : Mormon Trails, 1847-1850 -- "My pen is my only weapon" : The Log Row, Salt Lake City, 1850-1851 -- "the revelation on plurality of wives was read" : Salt Lake City, Hong Kong, Hindoostan, Liverpool, 1852 -- "Synopsis of my labors" : Wilford Woodruff household, 1853 -- "we now must look after the poor" : Utah Territory, 1852-1855 -- "What a life of wandering" : San Bernardino, California, 1856-1857 -- "The house was full of females" : The Fourteenth Ward, 1857-1858 -- "The records of this House" : Utah Territory, 1858-1872.