An Ambiguous Decision: The Implementation of Mormon Priesthood Denial for the Black Man - A Reexamination

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 46, 1978, No. 1

Ambiguous Decision: The Implementation of Mormon Priesthood Denial for the Black Man- A Reexamination

BY NEWELL G. BRINGHURST

THE BLACK MAN WAS NOT always barred from priesthood offices within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In recent years a number of writers and scholars have uncovered evidence showing that Black Mormon males (albeit few in number) were ordained and allowed to exercise priesthood authority. The most famous Black Mormon priesthood holder was undoubtedly Elijah Abel, an early member of the church ordained an elder in 1836 during the Mormon sojourn in Kirtland, Ohio. That same year Abel was promoted to the office of seventy and listed in the official church newspaper as a "Minister of the Gospel." After the church moved its headquarters to Nauvoo, Illinois, Abel became the town mortician and, according to various accounts, was "intimately acquainted" with Joseph Smith, living in the home of the Mormon prophet. Following Smith's assassination in 1844, Abel cast his lot with Brigham Young and the Twelve. On one occasion, Abel defended Young and the Twelve. At an assembled conference of the church in Cincinnati, "Elder Elijah Able" [sic] was instrumental in securing the expulsion "from the church" of several individuals who spoke "disrespectfully of the heads of the church." Abel subsequently migrated west in 1847 and was among the first to arrive in Mormonism's new center in the Great Basin. Here he lived for the remainder of his life, with the exception of a short period in 1883 when he traveled to the eastern United States and Canada on a mission for the church. Abel died that same year after his return to Utah with "full faith in the Gospel."

Another "colored elder" during this period was Walker Lewis, a barber in Lowell, Massachusetts. Lewis apparently received his priesthood ordination at the hands of William Smith, a younger brother of the Mormon prophet. Various Mormon apostles visiting Lowell in 1844- 45 did not question, or even consider extraordinary, Lewis's standing as a priesthood holder. One of these, Wilford Woodruff, merely observed that "a Coloured Brother who was an Elder," presumably Lewis, manifested his support for the established church leadership during this time of great internal division within Mormonism." In addition to Abel and Lewis, it is possible that other Black Mormons held the priesthood prior to the Mormon migration west.

Less known to those interested in early Mormon-Black practices and attitudes is that Blacks were not "officially" barred from Latter-day Saint priesthood offices until after the Mormon migration and settlement of the Great Basin during the late 1840s. This fact has been borne out by the recent research of Lester E. Bush, Jr., which suggests that the first church pronouncement upholding Black priesthood denial was not issued until February 1849. Therefore, Brigham Young in the western setting of Utah, and not Joseph Smith responding to conditions in Missouri (or even in Illinois), issued the initial church prohibitions on Black priesthood ordination. The fact that Blacks were not denied the priesthood until that late date runs counter to earlier suggestions made by scholars such as Dennis L. Lythgoe, Stephen G. Taggart, and Fawn M. Brodie.

Although Lester Bush has performed a great service in demonstrating that the Saints did not arrive at their decision to deny the Black man the priesthood until 1849, the central question of why church officials implemented the negative practice remains unanswered. This is the case despite the less than convincing efforts by Bush to prove that Black priesthood denial was primarily the product of certain racial concepts and prejudices promoted by Brigham Young and other church leaders following the death of Joseph Smith." Although Bush does not provide an adequate explanation of the origins of Black priesthood denial, his carefully researched and written account does bring to light a very significant fact: the basic confusion and ambiguity as to the roots of this controversial Mormon practice. Indeed, it is possible that an examination of the tangled and ambiguous situation within the church during the period 1844-49 can provide clues concerning the origins of Mormon Black priesthood denial.

The Saints did not arrive at their decision to deny the Black man the priesthood in a direct, clear-cut manner. It is true that this decision was, to some extent, the product of church concern with several Mormon- Black questions. But Mormon Black priesthood denial was as much (if not more) the by-product of a number of less related trends affecting the larger Latter-day Saint movement, especially following the Mormon migration west during the late 1840s.

To some extent, the Black man's status within Mormonism in the post-Joseph Smith period was undermined by the emergence of Mormon proslavery tendencies. Following the Mormon migration west Brigham Young and other Saints became more tolerant toward the Black slavery that existed among church members as well as that in the larger American society. This was in contrast to earlier antislavery tendencies manifested by Joseph Smith and other Saints, especially during the last years of the Mormon prophet's life. A number of Latter-day Saints, in the process of migrating from the South to the W r est, brought their Black slaves with them into the Great Basin. This gave added support to these changing attitudes. By 1852 church leaders gave legal recognition to the holding of Black slaves within Utah. This movement to a proslavery stance after 1846 made it easier to accept the Black man's inferior position in other areas. For example, Brigham Young referred to the Black man's limited "capability and natural rights" in asking for the 1852 Act in Relation to Service legalizing Black slavery in Utah.

During this same period a second development, an increased willingness of Latter-day Saint leaders to enact secular anti-Black regulations and statutes, undermined the Black man's Mormon position. Although the Saints during their sojourn in Nauvoo had enacted statutes limiting the right of Blacks to vote, hold municipal office, belong to the militia— the famed Nauvoo Legion—or to intermarry with whites, the Mormon tendency to enact such legislation intensified following the Latter-day Saint migration west. This affirmation of an inferior status for those Blacks living in areas under Latter-day Saint control made it easier for church leaders to adopt a subordinate position for the Black man within the Mormon church itself. The Mormon tendency to blur over and interrelate secular and ecclesiastical matters has been perceptively noted by Leonard Arlington. In this regard Brigham Young in 1852 explained that the Black or "the seed of Canaan cannot hold any office, civil or ecclesiastical. They have not the wisdom to act like white men.'"

A third somewhat more subtle factor also facilitated the Mormon trend toward Black priesthood denial. This involved a shift in Latter-day Saint racial values and perceptions. An increased Mormon tendency to establish and impose on their enemies an inferior, negative, often Black racial identification influenced this change. This Mormon inclination, although present before 1844, was especially evident following Joseph Smith's assassination. Increased Latter-day Saint conflicts with their non-Mormon neighbors caused the Saints to project unfavorable racial characteristics on them. Thus when the Nauvoo-based Saints found themselves contending with anti-Mormons in the nearby town of Carthage, they seized upon what they perceived as the metaphoric significance of the name Carthage and compared the contemporary Illinois community with its ancient African namesake. Thus, this rival community, led by a modern Hannibal, was plotting "to swallow up Nauvoo." The Saints used their interpretation of the biblical-Hamitic racial origins of ancient Carthage to assign figurative Black racial characteristics to the anti- Mormons of Carthage, Illinois. Consequently, an anti-Mormon gathering in Carthage was labeled a "Nigger meeting" and its proceedings given in terms of a "Sambo story."

In the wake of Joseph Smith's assassination, the Saints further refined the practice of assigning unfavorable racial characteristics. A number of Latter-day Saints expressed the hope and belief that their opponents would actually assume an unfavorable racial identification through divine intervention. Apostle Parley P. Pratt saw a racial significance in the fact that the prophet's assassins had blackened their faces prior to committing their violent deed. He characterized these killers as "artificial black men." Another church spokesman explained:

He went on to warn that "God will paint these murderers by and by with a color that soap will not wash off." Certain Saints also characterized as "artificial black men" not only those who "paint" and "murder" but also those anti-Mormon sympathizers who approved of such acts.

Speaking in somewhat more general terms, Apostle Orson Hyde expressed his belief that racial blackness would be assigned to other non-Mormon adversaries as well. He warned that although current anti-Mormon persecutions were "bringing grey hairs upon the Saints," in due course "the Heads of the persecutors will be covered with blackness."

A modification of the Saints own racial self-image also contributed to the Black man's deteriorating position within Mormonism. This change, which invoked an increased tendency of Mormons to view themselves as a racially "chosen" people, resulted in large part from growing Latter-day Saint anxiety over their own status and identification as white men. This Mormon concern developed as a by-product of their conflicts with non-Mormon adversaries. Ironically, various anti-Mormon observers found it easy to draw parallels between the Saints and the Black man in a manner similar to that employed by the Saints themselves against their enemies. Reflecting Latter-day Saint anxiety over this anti- Mormon practice, Apostle William Smith tried to discount the

By 1845, when it became evident that the Saints would have to leave Illinois, Apostle Heber C. Kimball sarcastically pointed out that the Saints were "not considered suitable to live among 'white folks' " and "not accounted as white people."

In an apparent attempt to alleviate themselves of such racial anxieties the Saints emphasized their identification with the chosen peoples of the Old Testament—the Hebrews, the children of Israel, and the seed of Abraham. Church spokesmen suggested that a spiritual link existed between the Saints and the seed of Abraham.

Apostle Orson Pratt believed that an individual could become "a citizen of the Church" or kingdom of God, and by implication the seed of Abraham, through the "law of adoption."

Physical suffering at the hands of non-Mormon enemies strengthened the Mormon desire to identify with Old Testament chosen peoples. After 1844 as the Saints engaged in increased hostilities with their non-Mormon Illinois neighbors, they expected the Lord to lead them "out of Egypt into some new Canaan." Following their exodus from Illinois and the establishment of a temporary Mormon camp at Winter Quarters, in present-day Nebraska, the Saints designated themselves as the "Camp of Israel."' The persecutions and difficulties faced first by Joseph Smith and then by Brigham Young were compared to those endured by Moses and other Old Testament figures.

Another realm of Latter-day Saint concern—the growing divisions within Mormonism following the death of Joseph Smith—caused the Saints to assign unfavorable biblical-racial characteristics to these rivals and become even more aware of their own racial-biblical identity. These two Mormon developments helped to further undermine the Black man's Mormon position.

The followers of Brigham Young and the Twelve Apostles, the largest Mormon group, found themselves forced to deal with a number of rival claims to Mormon authority. These opponents fell into two main categories: those who claimed that only the actual, literal descendants or family of Joseph Smith could assume leadership and control over the church; and those rivals who maintained that they had received their authority from the hands of Joseph Smith prior to his death or through divine providence or a combination of the two. Included in the first category were people like the former Mormon apostle, Lyman Wight, who led his small group of dissident Saints to Texas; and Sidney Rigdon, a former counselor and assistant to Joseph Smith, who established his Mormon group in western Pennsylvania in 1845. Neither Wight nor Rigdon claimed church authority or control for himself; each acted as a temporary guardian or protector for Joseph Smith III—the eldest son of the slain Mormon prophet. In the wake of Smith's murder, they argued that legitimate Mormon authority had passed from the elder Smith to young Joseph, who at this time was an adolescent and therefore unable to assume active control over church affairs. Both of these claimants asserted that once the younger Smith reached adulthood, he could assume actual church leadership and their self-appointed guardianship would end.

The second set of rival claimants included individuals such as James J. Strang, who stated that he had received specific authority from Joseph Smith prior to his death designating him to be the new Mormon leader. Strang discounted kinship to Joseph Smith as a prerequisite to church authority or leadership. By exercising his alleged powers as prophet, seer, and revelator in a manner reminiscent of Joseph Smith, Strang, by the late 1840s, established himself as Brigham Young's most effective rival for Mormon authority.

Brigham Young and the Twelve responded to such rival claims to Mormon authority by projecting upon Ridgon, Strang, and others unfavorable biblical and racial characteristics. Young described his opponents as "faltered and . . . darkened" individuals. Another writer compared Rigdon with Cain, denouncing him as a false prophet or "Kind of god" that would trouble none but "the Ethiopians, Egyptians, Lybians, etc. . . ." Other Young loyalists collectively condemned all Mormon rivals as "the daring Sons of Pharaoh, Cain and Judas" and described them as a "deteriorated" people who had become "an inferior race of beings." In the most famous condemnation of dissident Mormons written during this period, Apostle Orson Hyde not only specifically rejected the rival claims of Rigdon, who was compared with the devil, but also issued a warning to those Saints who were halting or unsure as to who had the right to govern the church. Such doubting individuals, declared Hyde, should learn a lesson from "the accursed lineage of Canaan . . . the negro or African race." According to Hyde the Blacks were suffering from the consequences of a dark skin because of their reluctance to determine between the forces of good and evil during a premortal war in Heaven.

In turn, Brigham Young and his followers attempted to bolster their own claims to Mormon authority over those of their rivals by asserting a literal identification w ith the seed of Abraham. This helped to further undermine the Black man's Mormon position. This Mormon assertion of a literal Abrahamic racial identification represented an effort to undermine the rival efforts by Rigdon, Wight, and others to protect and reserve Latter-day Saint authority for the lineage of Joseph Smith, an acknowledged descendant of the seed of Abraham. Young and his followers were also anxious to counter the appeal of James J. Strang who claimed powers of supernatural revelation reminiscent of those earlier asserted by Joseph Smith. Young, however, was different in his approach to religion from either Strang or Smith and did not tend to assert supernatural powers as a prophet, seer, and revelator. It was logical, therefore, for Young and his followers to emphasize the existence of a literal link between themselves and the chosen lineage of Abraham in an effort to accentuate their own claims to Mormon authority, while at the same time discounting the literal lineage claims of Wight and Rigdon and the supernatural arguments of Strang.

Brigham Young and his followers further strengthened their claims to Mormon authority by making literal Abrahamic descent an essential prerequisite for priesthood authority. Therefore, "the honors and power of the priesthood are not obtained, by money or craft. They are handed down by lineage from father to son, according to the order of the Son of God." Throughout the late 1840s Mormon leaders described the Saints as the pure and unmixed seed of Abraham or Ephraim, asserting their right to the priesthood by virtue of this "royal lineage." Brigham Young, in advancing his own rights to the mantle of Joseph Smith, declared that he, like the slain Mormon prophet, was "entitled to the Priesthood according to lineage and blood." Likewise, Young explained that members of the Council of Twelve Apostles and "many others" in the church were also entitled to the "keys and powers" of priesthood authority by virtue of their "lineage & blood."

The efforts of Brigham Young and his followers to assert their literal descent from the seed of Abraham and link it to church membership and priesthood authority could not help but have a negative effect on the status of the Black man within Mormonism. The Blacks, unlike the white Saints, could not trace their lineage back to the chosen seed of Abraham because, according to Mormon belief, they were direct descendants of Ham, the accursed son of Noah. By making Abrahamic lineage a prerequisite for the Mormon priesthood, the Saints weakened all actual and potential Black claims to such power and authority. By drawing parallels between rival claimants to Mormon authority and biblical counterparts the Saints further accentuated the negative aspects of blackness or a dark skin.

In addition to changing Latter-day Saint racial perceptions resulting from conflicts with anti-Mormon neighbors and internal struggles with Latter-day Saint rivals, a number of general tendencies both within and outside of the church also adversely affected the Black man's place within Mormonism. One such tendency, Mormon millennialism, evident from the earliest days of the church, continued to play a prominent role in shaping church attitudes including those on race and the Black man. The Saints reflected this millennialism, as they had done from the earliest days of Mormonism, through a continuing, lively interest in Black, biblical counterparts. A group's millennialistic interest, such as the Mormons, in counterparts intensifies during times of "social disorientation." The period 1844-49 was certainly a time of acute social disorientation for the Saints. Following the traumatic experience of Joseph Smith's assassination in 1844, the Saints found themselves subjected to increased anti-Mormon persecution culminating in their forced expulsion from Illinois and migration to the Great Basin. The various divisions that emerged within Mormonism in the wake of Smith's death contributed to an identity crisis in which the Saints became increasingly concerned about just who and what they were, as well as what they were not. This situation facilitated the Mormon construction of, and emphasis on, eschatological enemies. An increased Mormon awareness of such counterparts dovetailed with shifting Latter-day Saint racial perceptions, as discussed above. It was, therefore, easy for the Saints to draw negative parallels with the contemporary Black man and view him in a less favorable light.

One particular aspect of this Mormon social disorientation—the Mormon migration to and settlement in the Great Basin—increased Latter-day Saint racial anxieties and thereby undermined the Black man's Mormon position. The Saints, like other Americans who had migrated westward, experienced concern over the uncivilized influence of the frontier. As a result, the Saints asserted their own white racial superiority in order to assure themselves, and others, that they would not lapse into a barbarian state like that symbolized by the frontier. Mormon apprehension about possible cultural degeneration on the frontier manifested itself in a speech given by Brigham Young during the Mormon migration west. The Latter-day Saint leader chastised some misbehaving Saints in the following manner.

One Latter-day Saint remarked that it "had made him shudder when he had seen the Elders of Israel descend to the lowest and dirtiest things imaginable—the last end of everything." One of the offending elders in confessing his shortcomings admitted that "he knew his mind had become darkened." It is interesting to note that the misbehaving elders of Israel were compared to the Black man rather than the Indian, whose presence and influence were more evident to the westward migrating Saints.

Latter-day Saint acceptance of Herrenvolk (master race belief) further undermined the Black man's status within Mormonism. According to this belief, widely held in American society during the middle third of the nineteenth century, political and social rights were to be extended to virtually all whites, at least to all adult white males, while at the same time they were withheld from various nonwhite racial groups. Herrenvolk democracy, it has been theorized, was especially prevalent among certain deprived, socially disoriented groups. Thus, it is possible that the Latter-day Saints, who were certainly a deprived, socially disoriented group, were influenced by this belief in extending to all free adult white males certain political privileges—the right to vote, hold public office, and belong to the militia—and at the same time denying these same rights to various nonwhites through their Nauvoo Charter and, later, their territorial laws. It appears, moreover, that the Saints, in extending proscriptions on the Black man from the secular to the ecclesiastical realm through Black priesthood denial, tried to prove that they were truer adherents to Herrenvolk democracy than Americans in general. Whatever the motive, such an extension was logical from a Mormon point of view because many Latter-day Saint church officials also held government positions, often corresponding in rank and responsibility with their ecclesiastical or priesthood offices. The Saints, as previously suggested, tended to interrelate or blur over secular and ecclesiastical matters and therefore saw priesthood holding in the same light as the franchise, a privilege open to virtually all adult white male members of the church but closed to the Black man.

Although it is evident that a number of crucial trends and developments during the period after Joseph Smith's death encouraged a deteriorating position for the Black man within Mormonism, the Saints, as suggested above, did not subscribe to the practice of Black priesthood denial until February 1849. As late as 1844 church officials recognized and upheld the priesthood status of Elijah Abel and Walker Lewis, both Mormon Blacks. During the period 1845-49, however, several Mormon incidents directly involving Blacks apparently pushed church leaders toward the acceptance of Black priesthood denial. The first involved William McCary, an Indian-Black man, referred to variously as the "Indian," "Lamanite," or "Nigger Prophet." The accounts describing McCary's activities, often vague and conflicting, make it difficult to determine his exact relationship to, or impact on, the Latter-day Saint movement. In 1846 a "colored man" living in Saint Louis, presumably McCary, traveled to Nauvoo to "gull the people" of the Mormon community. When he arrived there dressed "in the garb of, and professing to be an Indian Chief ... a great parade" was allegedly made over him. Later, McCary, according to other sources, was "baptised and ordained" and then "married ... to a white sister" by Apostle Orson Hyde, in charge at Nauvoo. Hyde allegedly sent this "Indian," who called himself a "Lamanite Prophet," out to deceive the non-Mormons and "destroy" those Mormon churches that Brigham Young and the Twelve could not control.

Later that same year, McCary shifted his base of operation to Cincinnati, Ohio. A local newspaper described the exploits of "a big, burley, half Indian, half Negro, formerly a Mormon" who built up a religious following of sixty members "solemnly enjoined to secrecy" concerning their rites and practices. McCary "proclaimed himself Jesus Christ" showing his disciples "the scars of wounds in his hands and limbs received on the cross" and performed "miracles with a golden rod." McCary's stay in Cincinnati was short-lived because by February 1847 a Cincinnati follower of James J. Strang noted that "the black Indian has blown out and all of his followers are ashamed."

McCary then shifted his activities west to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, where the main body of Saints, under the leadership of Brigham Young, was temporarily encamped. The Mormon leader, following a meeting with McCary in early 1847, seemed to feel that the Black Indian might be useful to the Saints. It is not clear how Young planned to utilize McCary's services. By late March 1847, however, McCary fell from Mormon favor. What he did to offend Brigham Young is not certain, but at a "meeting of the twelve and others" summoned to consider this matter

Then "the coolored [sic] man . . . showed his body to the company to see if he had a rib gone." According to another observer McCary also demonstrated his abilities as a ventriloquist. He tried to pass himself off as the ancient Apostle Thomas by throwing his voice and claiming that "God spoke unto him and called him Thomas."

Following this March 1847 meeting with church leaders, McCary was expelled from the Mormon camp at Winter Quarters. Subsequently, Apostle Orson Hyde preached a sermon "against his doctrine." That was not the end of McCary's Mormon involvement, however. According to one account, McCary associated himself with Charles B. Thompson, the leader of a minor Mormon schismatic sect based in Saint Louis. Another witness reported that McCary traveled "South to his own tribe." Other observers suggested that McCary remained or returned to the area around Winter Quarters and proceeded to set up his own rival Mormon group in opposition to the authority of Brigham Young. In doing this, it appears that the Black Indian drew a number of followers away from Brigham Young and the Twelve by the teaching and practice of his own form of plural marriage or polygamy. According to Nelson W. Whipple, McCary had a number of women

McCary's activities and this "sealing ordinance" caused a negative reaction among those Latter-day Saints in the surrounding community not involved with his sect — particularly the relatives of McCary's female disciples. One irate Mormon wanted "to shoot" McCary for trying "to kiss his girls." But McCary, who sensed the impending storm caused by the disclosure of his unorthodox practices "made his way to Missouri on a fast trot."

During 1847, about the same time that Brigham Young and others were dealing with William McCary and his disruptive behavior, Young received a letter from William L. Appleby, a church official in the eastern United States, asking if Walker Lewis, the Black elder from Lowell, Massachusetts, had the right to hold the priesthood.

Appleby's reference to Walker Lewis and his standing within the church appears to represent the first time that the Black man's priesthood status was questioned by any church official. The willingness of Appleby to question the status of Lewis and Black Mormons in general stands in sharp contrast to Apostle Wilford Woodruff's earlier simple description of "a Coloured Brother who was an Elder" in Lowell, relayed to Brigham Young in December 1844. The Latter-day Saints, therefore, became much more concerned about the role and the status of the Black man within Mormonism in the two-and-a-half-year period from late 1844 to mid-1847. This concern was possibly prompted by changing Latter-day Saint racial perceptions, as discussed above, or on a more immediate level by McCary's bizarre activities.

However, one should not overstate the historical significance of Appleby's observations. His tendency to question Black ordination could have resulted more from his own personal views of Mormon doctrine than from any churchwide practice. Moreover, aside from Black priesthood ordination, Appleby expressed in this same correspondence as much if not more concern about the question of "amalgamation" or racial intermixture. This problem bothered Appleby because Lewis's son was "married to a white girl."' Despite Appleby's direct appeal, Brigham Young did not give a written reply on the immediate issue of Walker Lewis's priesthood standing. As for the general question of the Black man's priesthood status, it seems that Brigham Young did not act on this issue in 1847 or even during 1848.

Other developments involving Mormon Black contacts during the crucial years 1846-49 appear to be of greater immediate importance in prompting the Mormon move toward Black priesthood denial. The Mormon migration to the Great Basin caused church leaders to come into contact with more Blacks, both slave and free, living in close proximity to the church headquarters than had been the case at any other time in Mormon history. A number of Saints, as previously indicated, brought Black slaves into the Great Basin during the period 1847-49. In fact, most of Utah's Black slave population entered the Great Basin during the summer and fall of 1848. It seems that the sudden appearance of this relatively large number of Blacks in Mormonism's new gathering place made church leaders more sensitive to the need to resolve questions revolving around the ecclesiastical and secular status of these newly arrived Blacks and the Black man in general. The first of these issues— the Black man's ecclesiastical status—was resolved in February 1849 when the First Presidency of the church and the Council of Twelve Apostles met as two complete bodies for the first time since Joseph Smith's death. Before these bodies Brigham Young expressed for the first time his belief that the Black man was ineligible for the priesthood. Young's declaration was prompted by a question posed by Apostle Lorenzo Snow concerning the "chance of redemption ... for the Africans." Young replied

Although Young's 1849 statement is very significant when viewed within the context of the larger and later history of Mormon-Black attitudes and practices, it appears that this initial declaration of Black priesthood denial had a limited impact when it was first made. Initial Mormon priesthood proscriptions on the Black man were not publicized by the church until 1852. Publicity at this later date came because of a Mormon desire to resolve the legal issues surrounding the Black man's secular status—both slave and free—following the organization of Utah into a territory and the election of a territorial legislature. This legislature met for the first time in 1851-52 and proceeded to enact those laws, previously discussed, that legalized slavery and limited the Black man's political and civil rights. This action in 1852, by Utah's Mormon-dominated territorial government, brought into sharper focus the anti-Black action taken by the church three years earlier.

What is clear, therefore, about Mormon Black priesthood denial is that it did not emerge in a direct, clear-cut manner. It was an ambiguous decision. It was a decision prompted by a number of incidents and trends affecting the church in the four-and-a-half-year period following Joseph Smith's death. On a direct level, increased contacts between the Saints and Blacks probably made church leaders sensitive to the fact that the Saints had (or at least could have) a "Black problem." During this same time the Black man's image in the white Mormon mind deteriorated as the result of a crucial shift in Latter-day Saint racial perceptions. These two sets of developments affected the Latter-day Saints, a religious group already acutely aware of the importance of race and racial images as expressed in the sacred writings of Joseph Smith, particularly the Book of Moses and the Book of Abraham. Despite all of these factors, Black priesthood denial did not emerge in a clear-cut fashion. The relationships between causes and effects are vague and hazy. But it is clear that by 1849 these various developments made church leaders very sensitive to the issue of the Black man's actual or at least potential status within Mormonism. It appears that this sensitivity caused Brigham Young to make his 1849 statement calling for Mormon Black priesthood denial— a statement made in an almost matter-of-fact way and accompanied by only a limited amount of early publicity. It was not until 1852 that this decision took on added significance. In that year Black priesthood denial was reinforced and utilized in Utah by Mormons to legalize slavery in their territory and to enact legislation limiting Black civil and political rights. From that time on, church spokesmen publicized Mormon Black priesthood denial and became committed to the practice, a commitment that has intensified from that time down to the present.

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