Polygamist History Lesson over at Merry Wives Blog

Our chat room attracts a good amount of folks searching as well as our share of anti-polygamists. This post at Merry Wives Blog needs to be bookmarked for anyone who is the least bit curious about Polygamy, Polygamists, and the laws against polygamy. Womens Suffrage was a hot topic the other evening, and this post covers it as well.

Pure Knowledge: The Ultimate Emancipator

How to thank these women at Merry Wives for sharing their stories? I don't know but click through, read, and leave your thoughts with them.

Some Quotes From The Blog:

"In the 1953 raid, he (the dad) was sent to jail for 2 years for defending his friends right to live their religion. He only had one wife at the time. He had been dealt an unjust hand by our government."

"In spite of the way government had treated him and his family during and after the raid, my father was a champion of freedom. He loved God, family, the constitution, and all that America stands for"

"The following are actual statements by (so called) professionals, over the years.

“I hear you don’t want to go out there without your guns or your bodyguard, you may never come back”,
“I hear they keep their women locked up and only let them out if their husband is with them.”,
“They all live off of the government.”,
“I’m tired of my taxes paying for their children’s education”.
“Why don’t they lock up all the polygamous, they should not be allowed on the streets”,
“If I had my way, they would all be rounded up on cattle cars and carried off”,

Just like me, these professionals are expected to check their biases at the door. And just like me, these professionals have had multiple Cultural diversity and Sensitivity training classes. Cultural diversity training is meant to apply to all people, all cultures!"

And finally this one - while there are so many to the point quotes in the blog... this Womens Suffrage topic was heatedly discussed in the chat room a couple of nights ago. Well written, and to the point, this sums it up!

The anti-polygamy laws have caused thousands of men, women and children over the last 130 years to lie and hide in order to protect their families. This is what I call abuse. So let us talk about real abuse!!

After the Reynolds Act in 1879 and the Edmunds Act in 1882 at least 12,000 polygamists and their wives were disenfranchised. It became a crime to cohabit with more than one woman.

They were denied jury duty, the right to vote or hold office, to own property. Women were imprisoned if they would not testify against their husband. Some of these were women were imprisoned with their babies less than six months old.

Plural children were declared illegitimate.

Women Suffrage in the Utah Territory was abolished and self defense options for these people were eliminated. During this time, there were around 2500 criminal cases in the Utah territory. This legislation, with the stroke of a pen, turned thousands of law abiding citizens into criminals. This was the beginning of the polygamous witch hunts that continue on today.