Audacious Women: Early British Mormon Immigrants

Amazon.com Price: $18.95 (as of 16/04/2019 09:35 PST- Details)

Categories: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Description

Victorians loved to hear stories about the name of the game lives of Mormon women. Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Joaquin Miller, A. Conan Doyle, and others fed the public’s curiosity with tale after tale. Naive Manchester shopgirls seduced by lecherous missionaries, illiterate Liverpudlian fishwives shanghaied into domestic slavery in Utah–these were the stories that shaped public opinion. What was once the truth in the back of such stereotypes? If truth be told, most female immigrants to Utah were former shopgirls, factory workers, and home pieceworkers in London and Manchester, and lots of were illiterate. Were they also naive adventuresses? Bartholomew fleshes out real-life profiles of these pioneering women through to be had letters, diaries, and public documents. They were by-and-large devout, and most of them approached their uncertain future with their eyes wide open. At minimum, they were least vaguely acutely aware of what their religious commitment would entail. So if they didn’t fulfill Victorian fantasies of young concubines who had been abducted into desert harems, what about the romanticized icons of Mormon inspirational literature? Writes Rebecca Bartholomew: “These women made mistakes. But when they were not angels, neither were they fools. They’re likable. Their lives had meaning. They demonstrated that virtue has unlikely habitats and could even sprout in that spiritual chamber of horrors, that Eden betrayed, that whited sepulchre, Mormondom.”

Related products

Home » Shop » Books » Subjects » Arts and Photography » History and Criticism » History » Americas » United States » State and Local » Audacious Women: Early British Mormon Immigrants

Recent Products