11. Emma Never Consented for the Majority of Joseph’s marriages

Emma approved, at least for a time, of four of Joseph Smith’s plural marriages in Nauvoo, and she accepted all four of those wives into her household. She may have approved of other marriages as well. But Emma likely did not know about all of Joseph’s sealings.

- Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo

“Throughout 1842 Emma was unaware of Joseph Smith’s plural marriages.”

- Brian Hales, from Chapter 11 “Joseph Smith’s Practice of Plural Marriage” available at BYU.edu.

This is also evident when Emma chooses Emily and Eliza to have Joseph marry, as she was unaware that Joseph had already married both of them:

Emily recalls, “I do not know why she gave us to him, unless she thought we were where she could watch us better...” Emily continued, “To save the family trouble Brother Joseph thought it best to have another ceremony performed...[Emma] had her feelings, and so we thought there was no use in saying anything about it so long as she had chosen us herself...Accordingly...we were sealed to JS a second time, in Emma’s presence.”

Online reference: http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/2021-EmilyandElizaPartridge.htm

Note: As discussed later, Emma was blocked from participating in the endowment until she agreed to plural marriage.

“Until Emma could be obedient to Joseph and give him plural wives, she could not participate in the endowment ceremonies, yet he taught her that the endowment was essential for exaltation–as opposed to salvation, which Joseph taught was available to all through the atonement of Christ. Joseph wanted Emma to serve as the example, the Elect Lady, the ‘disseminator of the endowment blessing,’ to other women. Thus her rejection of plural marriage would have blocked her admittance into the Endowment Council, because she had not obeyed her husband, and therefore prevented other women from entering as well.”

Mormon Enigma by Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippeth Avery, p. 140

Note: The earliest documentable date for Emma’s awareness of eternal plural marriage is May of 1843, when she participated in four of her husband’s polygamous sealings (to Emily and Eliza Partridge and Sarah and Maria Lawrence).

- Source: Emily Dow Partridge Young, “Incidents in the life of a Mormon girl,” n.d., Ms 5220, 186, LDS Church History Library.

Quoted online here:http://www.withoutend.org/emmas-awareness-response-brian-hales-jmh-letter-editor/

This is also evidence that Emma was unaware with Emma teaching the Relief Society on March 30, 1842 against polygamy, unaware that many sisters in the Relief Society who were married polygamous, including her counselors to her husband.

“It is impossible to definitively determine when Emma learned of Joseph’s plural marriages. However, many historical clues help to create a possible timeline. Several authors have written that by March 1842, Emma Smith had learned the celestial marriage doctrines and that she then used her position as Relief Society President to oppose the practice in her speeches in their meetings. This is simply not documentable. Emma was clearly opposed to John C. Bennett and his “spiritual wifery,” but she, along with a vast majority of Relief Society members, may have possessed no firsthand knowledge of plural marriage throughout 1842….The only solid dating for when Emma undeniably knew of Joseph’s plural marriage teachings is May of 1843. That month, Emma Smith participated in Joseph’s marriages to four plural brides, Eliza and Emily Partridge and Sarah and Maria Lawrence.”

- Brian Hales, https://josephsmithspolygamy.org/common-questions/emma-smith-plural-marriage/

“Late in April 1843 Emma boarded a riverboat bound for St. Louis. Because Joseph feared arrest he sent her to purchase store goods and supplies for the hotel wing under construction on the back of their house. Lorin Walker, who lived with the Smiths, traveled with her. His sister Lucy helped Emma with the housework and attended school with the Smith children. Young Joseph remembered her ‘marshalling’ them to and from school like an elder sister. A second brother, William, reported that the prophet asked him for permission to marry Lucy. Joseph married seventeen-year-old Lucy Walker on May 1 with William Clayton officiating, while Emma and Lorin Walker were in St. Louis. Lucy said about her marriage, ‘Emma Smith was not present and she did not consent to the marriage; she did not know anything about it at all.'”

Mormon Enigma by Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippeth Avery, p. 139

“The issues accompanying plural marriage seemed to disappear from Emma’s life during the late summer, fall, and winter of 1842 and 1843. Joseph quietly solemnized at least two more marriages without her knowledge. But the peace was not destined to last. Whether the new quarters created a false sense of security for Eliza (Roxy Snow) and Joseph, or whether it simply was beyond their power to remain discreet indefinitely, Emma somehow discovered the liaison between the two, probably in February 1843. When the full realization to the relationship between her friend Eliza and her husband Joseph came to her, Emma was stunned. She unquestionably reacted strongly, but the incident is so shrouded in Mormon folk tale and legend that it becomes difficult to determine what actually happened. Although no contemporary account of the incident between Emma and Eliza remains extant, evidence leads to the conclusion that some sort of physical confrontation occurred between the two women.”

Mormon Enigma by Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippeth Avery, p. 134

“While the historical record is incomplete, it seems that Joseph entered his first plural marriage without informing his legal wife, Emma Hale Smith.”

- Brian Hales, from Chapter 11 “Joseph Smith’s Practice of Plural Marriage” available at BYU.edu.