House Full of Females by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

genre: nonfiction/history/women's history

This book uses primary source material to tell the story of women in the early years of the Mormon church. We learn how they thought, reacted, the choices they made (or didn’t) and most especially their experiences within the context of polygamy and the women’s suffrage movement (far less of this). We follow these women from their homes in the East or in Europe to Nauvoo, where the “principle” was first taught and then the journey to Winter Quarters and across the plains to Salt Lake City. Their suffering and rejoicing, their relationships and heartbreaks - the way they managed on their own or with a house full of sister wives - it’s here, in their own words. We get context and can extrapolate through men’s diaries as well and I loved how letters could give glimpses of individual personalities.

This book felt important for me to read, not just because I am interested in it as a cultural history but also because it is truly MY family’s history as well. At least five different direct relatives of mine are mentioned in this book, people whose names and stories are familiar to me, in fact, I'm even related to the author through one of these pioneer lines. My feelings about these men and women are complicated because polygamy is deeply upsetting and complicated to me. So much of my family participated in this phenomenon - a fact I had no idea about until last summer. I liked that this book didn’t make judgements or defend the practice, it just explained what happened and how different people at that time handled it.

It’s long and not for everyone. I wish I'd gotten to learn a little bit more about life for women AFTER the Manifesto.  But in my quest this year to learn more about historical women’s true lived stories, this was an excellent choice for Women’s History Month.