Brigham Young in defense of Enslavement and the curse of Cain

Brigham Young by Charles Roscoe Savage, 1855

I study Mormon, partly because it is a microcosm of U.S. history. The quotidian white supremacy in our lives, cultures, bodies, and doom scrolls is a foundational part of who we are. The idea that Peoples who lack melanin are superior is ubiquitously written into our founding documents and scriptures.

White supremacy is a death cult/ure. It overtly seeks to destroy / assimilate any body which deviates from its assigned place and covertly seeks to destroy those who wield its power. 

I think it’s important, for us Euro-settlers especially, to read these histories in their own words because these ideas live on in US. If you were raised in the US or consume/d US media – you’re indoctrinated into white-supremacy. It's destroying your body and every body we share it with. This truth is at the heart of calls for “accomplices, not allies.” 
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or the idea that: "If you have come here to help me, then you are wasting your time...But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." - Aboriginal activists group, 1970s.

Brigham is careful to say that while he does believe in the supposed divinity of the enslavement of African bodies he also believes those bodies should be treated as one would treat their children. This “nice whiteness” is the foundation of Mormon abuses. Their oppressive violences are always framed as paternalist generosity.

And the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, was no different. He made it clear that he believed as Young did that N. Euro settlers are inherently superior to Africans.
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“I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality…I…am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position.”
- Lincoln 1858 Presidential debate

Seven years after enslavement was legalized in UT Territory by the all mormon UT legislature, and 2 years before the Civil War, Brigham Young said, "We (this Church) consider it (enslavement) of divine institution and not to be abolished” (1859)

As the UT leg. discussed their Act to legalize enslavement, Prophet, Pres., Gov, Brigham Young spoke in their chambers two weeks before the Act passed. He introduced his argument saying, “Inasmuch as we believe in the Bible,…the Ordinances of God,...(and) the Priesthood, we must believe in Slavery.” 

Young went on “This colored race have been subjected to severe curses... And until the curse is removed by Him who placed it upon them, they must suffer under its consequences; I am not authorized to remove it. I am a firm believer in slavery…I know it is right, and there should be a law made to have the slaves serve their masters, because they are not capable of ruling themselves…The Black African…are a “servant of servants.”

On Feb 5, a day after the Act passed, Brigham Young again addressed the all Mormon legislature and expanded on his theories on the divinity of enslavement. There he prophesied: “The moment we (Mormons) consent to mingle with the seed of Cain (Africans & ppl of African descent) the Church must go to destruction.”

“What is that mark (of Cain)? You will see it on the countenance of every African you ever did see upon the face of the earth, or ever will see. If there never was a prophet, or apostle of Jesus Christ spoke it before, I tell you, this people that are commonly called negroes are the children of old Cain.”

- Brigham Young

“Let my seed mingle with the seed of Cain, that brings the curse upon me, and upon my generations, - - we will reap the same rewards with Cain.”

Brigham Young thought interracial relations with Africans was such grievous a sin that it was worth of Blood Atonement. He told his followers that if had a baby with an African woman, “it would be a blessing” if someone “would walk up and say cut off my head, and kill man, woman, and child it would do a great deal towards atoning for the sin. 

Brigham Young by Charles Roscoe Savage, ca. 1865-1877

​In 1866 Thomas Coleman, a Black Mormon employed by Young was lynched in Salt Lake after being "found in company of a white woman". His throat was cut from ear to ear as Mormons mimed in their temples for over 150 years. His killer/s pinned a note to his body which read: “Notice to all (redacted). Take warning. Leave white women alone.” The all Mormon jury concluded that those who committed “said murder to the jury are unknown” and no one was held accountable.

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Finally I want to compare 2 quotes to show how these supposedly disavowed doctrines perpetuate.

“That part of the Negro race that are in servile bondage, are much more comfortable and better provided for than the lower classes of the nations of Europe.”

​- Brigham Young, 1852

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do…And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do? They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy?”

​- Cliven Bundy (Far-right Mormon), 2014

Cliven Bundy