Joseph Smith/Polygamy/Women locked in a room

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Were women "locked in a room" in order to convince them to accept plural marriage?

Important introductory material on plural marriage available here

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Questions

"…both Nancy [Rigdon] and Martha [Brotherton] were…isolated in a locked room during the...effort" to persuade them to practice plural marriage.

To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, click here

Answer

The claims about being "locked in a room," while dramatic, seem unlikely. Much of the evidence hinges on the unreliable and vindictive John C. Bennett.

Detailed Analysis

• While Nancy and Martha were likely approached about plural marriage in private, it is unlikely that they were locked in rooms or confined against their will. One RLDS author argues:

• "The records show that Martha changed her story. As Hyrum reported to the Conference, at first she had told that she was locked in a room for days. But since that was such a ridiculous, unbelievable story, she changed it in her St. Louis affidavit to read that Brigham locked her in Joseph's office for only "about ten minutes."
• "It would have been impossible for Martha to have been imprisoned in any room in the Red Brick Store without it being detected. In fact, she could not have gone up and down the stairs and from room to room without being observed by many. The store was a small, two-story building, and Joseph's office was only about ten feet square. Since dozens of people came to the store daily, her calls for help would have been heard. Martha had but one witness—John Bennett, who asserted in the Sangamo Journal for July 15, 1842, "She was locked up ... I saw her taken into the accursed room."
• "If Martha's story had been true, there would have been many witnesses, because Joseph' s store was the hub of activity in Nauvoo. People came to the store to buy everything from food to footwear. The store building also housed the headquarters for the Church and the city. There, the people paid their tithing and taxes, and conducted banking and real estate business. The store was alive with people by day and by night, for it was also in constant use as a civic and religious center…."

One suspects Bennett's influence in this part of the story, since Bennett would likewise claim Joseph locked him in a room. In Bennett's case, the story is absurd and contradicted by a non-LDS eyewitnesses.

See also Brian Hales' discussion

Joseph Smith’s Pre-Nauvoo Reputation--Nancy Rigdon and Athalia Rigdon

Notes

Further reading and additional sources responding to these claims