BOMBSHELL New Discoveries of Nauvoo Polygamy! (feat. Don Bradley)

Key Concepts

• Nauvoo Polygamy
• Joseph Smith's motives for polygamy
• Zina Huntington Jacobs as the first Nauvoo plural wife in Nauvoo
• Pregnancy as a factor in Joseph Smith's plural marriages
• Angel with a drawn sword
• Orionid meteor shower as a potential sign in the heavens
• Religious sincerity vs. opportunism

I. Challenging the Traditional Narrative of Joseph Smith's Polygamy

• The prevailing narrative: Joseph Smith's polygamy was opportunistic and driven by sexual desire.
• Don Bradley's counter-argument: Evidence suggests a more complex and potentially religiously motivated rationale behind Joseph Smith's polygamy in Nauvoo.
• Refutation of the "conman" theory: The speaker argues that the evidence presented refutes the idea that Joseph Smith was simply a conman exploiting religious doctrine for sexual gain.

II. Louisa Beeman's Misplaced Position in Polygamy History

• Traditional view: Louisa Beeman is considered Joseph Smith's first plural wife in Nauvoo, with the marriage date set as April 5, 1841, based on an affidavit by Joseph B. Noble.
• Problems with Noble's account:
  • Noble's unreliability: He was known to be terrible with dates and a boaster.
  • Conflicting dates: Noble provided multiple conflicting dates for the marriage, ranging from 1840 to 1842.
  • Inaccurate location: Noble claimed the marriage occurred in his house in Nauvoo, but he didn't move to Nauvoo until the fall of 1841.
• Louisa Beeman as an outlier: Unlike other early Nauvoo plural wives, Louisa Beeman was single, while the others were already married (polyandry). There's also a significant time gap between her marriage and the next one.

III. Zina Huntington Jacobs: The True First Nauvoo Plural Wife

• Corrected order: By moving Louisa Beeman to her proper place in the timeline (April 1842), Zina Huntington Jacobs becomes the first Nauvoo plural wife.
• Zina's pregnancy: Zina was seven months pregnant with her legal husband Zebulon Jacobs' child when she married Joseph Smith on October 27, 1841. Her son was born two months later, and DNA evidence confirms Zebulon Jacobs as the father.
• Implications: This challenges the notion that Joseph Smith's polygamy was primarily about sexual gratification.

IV. The Pattern of Marrying Pregnant Women

• Presendia Huntington Buell: Married to Joseph Smith six weeks after Zina. There's a two out of three chance she was pregnant as well.
• Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner: Married to Joseph Smith in January or February of 1842, she was seven or eight months pregnant and had a baby in March.
• Deliberate choice: The pattern suggests that Joseph Smith deliberately chose to marry women who were already pregnant, some close to giving birth.
• Possible motives:
  • Avoiding accusations of sexual impropriety: Marrying pregnant women could serve as proof that he was not having sex with them, given the medical understanding of the time.
  • Raising up seed: Joseph Smith may have been trying to "adopt" children into the covenant by marrying their mothers shortly before birth, rather than fathering them himself.

V. The Angel with a Drawn Sword and the Orionid Meteor Shower

• Zina Huntington Jacobs' account: Zina stated that Joseph Smith proposed to her after an angel with a drawn sword threatened him if he didn't establish polygamy.
• Orson Hyde's vision: Around the same time, Orson Hyde, on a mission in the Middle East, saw a "glittering sword" in the heavens, which he interpreted as a sign.
• The Orionid meteor shower: The speaker identifies the "glittering sword" as likely being the Orionid meteor shower, which peaked on October 19th, 1841, the same day Orson Hyde saw the vision.
• Possible interpretations:
  • Joseph Smith had a vision, and Orson Hyde saw a confirming sign in the heavens.
  • Joseph Smith interpreted the heavenly signs as instructions from God, indicating religious sincerity.

VI. Religious Sincerity vs. Opportunism: Re-evaluating Joseph Smith's Motives

• Challenging the "conman" narrative: The speaker argues that a conman wouldn't care about heavenly signs or visions; they would only care about getting what they want.
• Joseph Smith's legitimacy: The speaker concludes that Joseph Smith was likely religiously sincere and that his polygamy was not primarily about sex or opportunism.
• The need for further research: The speaker acknowledges that there is still much that is unknown about Joseph Smith's motives and the context of polygamy in Nauvoo.

VII. Key Quotes

• Don Bradley: "Joseph is actually deliberately choosing women who are not only pregnant, but like about to give birth."
• Don Bradley: "What's the number one lie you feel this debunks? That Joseph Smith's polygamy was opportunistic and it was about sex."
• Don Bradley: "The data showed that I was wrong, and when the data showed that I was wrong, I did what I would hope we do when our data shows we're wrong: I changed my mind."

VIII. Technical Terms and Concepts

• Polyandry: A form of polygamy in which a woman has more than one husband.
• Levirate marriage: A custom in which a man is obligated to marry his deceased brother's widow.
• Criterion of embarrassment: A principle used in historical analysis where events that are embarrassing or difficult for the subject are more likely to be true.

IX. Synthesis/Conclusion

The video presents a compelling argument that challenges the traditional narrative of Joseph Smith's polygamy as being primarily motivated by sexual desire or opportunism. By re-examining the timeline of Joseph Smith's plural marriages in Nauvoo, particularly the case of Zina Huntington Jacobs, and by identifying a pattern of marrying pregnant women, the speaker suggests that Joseph Smith may have had more complex and religiously motivated reasons for practicing polygamy. The video also explores the potential significance of the "angel with a drawn sword" and the Orionid meteor shower as signs in the heavens that may have influenced Joseph Smith's decision to establish polygamy. Ultimately, the video encourages viewers to re-evaluate their assumptions about Joseph Smith and to consider the possibility that he was a religiously sincere individual who was genuinely trying to follow God's will.