Criticism of Mormonism/Books/American Massacre/Chapter 8

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Chapter 7

A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books A work by author: Sally Denton

Chapter 9

Claims made in "Chapter 8: Deseret, August 3, 1857"

Page	Claim	Response	Author's sources
104	According to the author, deaths in the handcart companies caused "most Salt Lake Mormons" to lay the blame "squarely at Young's feet."	Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.	No source provided.
105	The book discusses the "Mormon Reformation."	Mormon Reformation	N/A
105	The author claims that Brigham said that "all backsliders should be 'hewn down'".		Josiah F. Gibbs, 'The Mountain Meadows Massacre, 8ff
105	A list of thirteen questions was "conceived by Young and expanded by Grant."	This list of questions sounds very much like a temple recommend interview today. A number of the same questions are still asked. This claim is also made in One Nation Under Gods: p. 234, 560n43 . Mormon Reformation Crime and violence in Utah Danites in anti-Mormon polemic.	Gustive O. Larson, "The Mormon Reformation," Utah Historical Society Quarterly 26 (January 1958). Hirshson, 155 David L. Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1998), 127. (bias and errors) Review.
106	Blood atonement	Blood atonement
106	Brigham is claimed to have said: "I want their cursed heads cut off that they may atone for their sins."	[needs work]	Juanita Brooks and Robert Glass Cleland, eds., A Mormon Chronicle, I:98-99.
106	The author claims that "those who dared to flee Zion were hunted down and killed."	Internal contradiction: This contradicts what the author said on page 59, where she claims that Brigham said that anyone was "free to leave."	Cannon and Knapp, 268.
106	The killing of William R. Parrish, "an elderly Mormon in high standing."	This claim is also made in One Nation Under Gods: p. 238, 562n60 (PB) Leaving Utah forbidden? Mormon Reformation Crime and violence in Utah Danites in anti-Mormon polemic	Cannon and Knapp, 268.
106	Castration of a man by Bishop Warren Snow who was "engaged to a woman Snow wanted to take for a plural wife."	Castration in Utah	David L. Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1998), 132. (bias and errors) Review
106	The author claims that the "bloody regime…ended with [Jedediah] Grant's sudden death, on December 1, 1856."	There is no evidence of Grant implementing "blood atonement." Blood atonement Mormon Reformation	David L. Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1998), 133. (bias and errors) Review
108	Surveyor General David Burr "fled for his life."	Surveyor general David H. Burr threatened with death?	House Exec. Doc. 71, 118-20.
110	Did Brigham accuse Parley P. Pratt of adultery, as the author claims? The author quotes Brigham's "great-granddaughter" as saying "He was not woman-crazy, but Gospel-crazy."	Misrepresentation of source: Page 163 of the cited work is a generic account of Pratt's death and the circumstances surrounding it, but there is no mention of the material listed here. Parley P. Pratt's murder	Reva Stanley, The Archer of Paradise: A Biography of Parley Pratt, 163.
110-112	It is claimed that Parley P. Pratt was killed because he married Elenore McLean when she was not divorced from her husband.	Murder of Parley P. Pratt	Reva Stanley, The Archer of Paradise: A Biography of Parley Pratt, 163. Steven Pratt, "Eleanor McLean," 227. Fielding, Unsolicited Chronicler, 382.
112-113	In Brigham's speech on July 24, 1857, he said that "This American Continent will be Zion...for it is so spoken of by the Prophets." The author interprets this to mean that the "godless American government's moving against them singaled the beginning of their Armageddon scenario" and would result in Brigham's "ascendancy" to rule the Kingdom of God on earth.	Brigham Zion speech on 24 July 1857	Fielding, Unsolicited Chronicler, 383.
115	The author claims that "Indian" massacres that occurred in Utah Territory were actually carried out by "white-faced Indians who used Mormon slang."	Absurd claim: the author needs evidence beside her assertion to prove this point.	No source provided.
115	Brigham instructed the people to "hoard their grain," according to the author. People were told to "report without delay any person in your District that disposes of a Kernel of grain to any Gentile merchant or temporary sojourner."	Orders to starve immigrants or not sell grain?	Brooks, Mountain Meadows Massacre, xvii-xviii.
120	The author claims that "it seem most likely that [Charles] Rich advised the Fancher train to take the Southern Trail."	Jacob Hamblin would testify that the Fancher train "being of southern people had preferred to take the southern route."[1]	Author's opinion.
120	Brigham is noted as having given a "current sermon" in which he vowed to "turn [the Indians] loose" on the emigrants.		Basil Parker's memoir, 7.
121	Will Bagley claims that "all information about the emigrants' conduct came from men involved in their murder or cover-up."	Junaita Brooks pointed out that accounts of provocation from the immigrants appeared within days as far away California, and from |multiple sources.  Double standard Double standard of skepticism	Will Bagley, Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows (University of Oklahoma Press, 2002), 99. Compare treatment in Blood of the Prophets: p. 99.

== Notes ==

1. [note]  Jacob Hamblin statement in James Henry Carleton, Report on the Subject of the Massacre at the Mountain Meadows, in Utah Territory, in September, 1857 of One Hundred and Twenty Men, women and Children, Who Were from Arkansas (Little Rock, AR: True Democrat Steam press, 1860), 6; cited by Turley, Walker and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 101.