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Polygamy : an early American history / Sarah M.S. Pearsall

Author
Pearsall, Sarah M. S.
Published
New Haven : Yale University Press, [2019]
Physical Description
1 online resource (xv, 397 pages) : illustrations, maps
Additional Creators
Yale University Press
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Contents
Part one. Colonial Clashes -- "Una Casa, Dos Mujeres" -- "Poligamie/Nintiouiouesaïn" -- "Christians Have Kept 3 Wives" -- "Negroe Mens Wifes" -- Part two. Enlightened Encounters -- "The Natural Violence of Our Passions" -- "Such a Revolution as This" -- "The Repugnance Inherent in Having Multiple Wives" -- "Defence of Polygamy by a Lady".
Summary
A groundbreaking examination of polygamy showing that monogamy was not the only form marriage took in early America Today we tend to think of polygamy as an unnatural marital arrangement characteristic of fringe sects or uncivilized peoples. Historian Sarah Pearsall shows us that polygamy's surprising history encompasses numerous colonies, Indigenous communities, and segments of the American nation. Polygamy--as well as the fight against it--illuminates many touchstones of American history: the Pueblo Revolt and other uprisings against the Spanish; Catholic missions in New France; New England settlements and King Philip's War; the entrenchment of African slavery in the Chesapeake; the Atlantic Enlightenment; the American Revolution; missions and settlement in the West; and the rise of Mormonism. Pearsall expertly opens up broader questions about monogamy's emergence as the only marital option, tracing the impact of colonial events on property, theology, feminism, imperialism, and the regulation of sexuality. She shows that heterosexual monogamy was never the only model of marriage in North America.
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Genre(s)
ISBN
9780300248982 (electronic bk.)
0300248989 (electronic bk.)
0300226845
9780300226843
Note
Published in cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University.
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-386) and index.
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