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Explaining The Stigma: Emma Smith's Reputation Among Latter-Day Saints, 1860 To Present, Dallan Petersen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In 1874 Brigham Young declared that Emma Smith, the widow of Joseph Smith, would "be damned as sure as she is a living woman. " Few people have ever elicited enough controversy to be publicly condemn by an LDS Church President, but Emma Smith is among them. Today, Emma Smith is a controversial figure among Mormons, but the reason she became so is less well known. Since the 1980s, LOS books and magazines have claimed her reputation is a product of her refusal to follow her husband's church to Utah in 1846. However, there is no evidence that Emma's reputation …