page_title: Mormonism and polygamy
section_title: Underage plural marriages
hierarchical_section_title: Mormonism and polygamy / Criticism of plural marriage / Underage plural marriages
caption_attribution_description: English: Bar chart showing age differences at the time of polygamous marriage between teenage brides and early Mormon church leaders.
context_page_description: Polygamy was practiced by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890 by between 20 and 30 percent of Latter-day Saint families. Today, various denominations of fundamentalist Mormonism continue to practice polygamy.
  The Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy has been controversial, both within Western society and the LDS Church itself. The U.S. was both fascinated and horrified by the practice of polygamy, with the Republican platform at one time referencing "the twin relics of barbarism—polygamy and slavery." The private practice of polygamy was instituted in the 1830s by founder Joseph Smith. The public practice of plural marriage by the church was announced and defended in 1852 by a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Orson Pratt, by the request of church president Brigham Young.
  For over 60 years, the LDS Church and the United States were at odds over the issue: the church defended the practice as a matter of religious freedom, while the federal government aggressively sought to eradicate it, consistent with prevailing public opinion.
context_section_description: Critics of polygamy in the early LDS Church claim that church leaders sometimes used polygamy to take advantage of young girls for immoral purposes. Historian George D. Smith studied 153 men who took plural wives in the early years of the Latter Day Saint movement, and found that two of the girls were thirteen years old, 13 girls were fourteen years old, 21 were fifteen years old, and 53 were sixteen years old. Historian Todd Compton documented that Joseph Smith married girls of age 13 or 14. Historian Stanly Hirshon documented cases of girls aged 10 and 11 being married to old men.
  However, it seems that Brigham Young attempted to stamp out the practice of men being sealed to excessively young girls. In 1857, he stated, "I shall not seal the people as I have done. Old Father Alread brought three young girls 12 & 13 years old. I would not seal them to him. They would not be equally yoked together . ... Many get their endowments who are not worthy and this is the way that devils are made."
caption: Bar chart showing age differences at the time of polygamous marriage between teenage brides and early Mormon church leaders.[96][97][98][99] The average age of first marriage for white US women from 1850–1880 was 23.[100]
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