Tracing Roots of Polygamy to Early America

Today we tend to think of polygamy as an unnatural marital arrangement characteristic of fringe sects. Historian Sarah Pearsall shows us that polygamy--as well as the fight against it--illuminates many touchstones of American history: New England settlements and King Philip's War; the entrenchment of African slavery in the Chesapeake; the American Revolution; missions and settlement in the West; and the rise of Mormonism.