
Teen Brides Used to Be Common in Utah (Here’s Why)
Hey guys, so the Church’s gospel topics essay on plural marriage in early Utah notes that in those days, many women married at relatively young ages: “16 or 17 or, infrequently, younger.” Sometimes, these teenagers were marrying men 20 (or less often) 30, 40, or even 50+ years older than them. That can be surprising or even upsetting to some people. So, in this video, we’re going to look at some stats, look at some context, and see if we can figure out why this was happening. Let’s do it.
OK, so why were women getting married at such young ages in Pioneer Utah? Author L.P. Hartley wrote, “The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.” We need to be careful not to judge past events by modern standards. Now, I’m not saying that by doing this, everything in history is just going to look hunky-dory and unproblematic. My goal is not to get you to like polygamy or these young marriage ages. But what I do want is for the opinion you form on the matter to be grounded in accurate context and information.
For example, in the United States today, you’re generally considered an adult once you reach 18 years old. That was not the case back in the 1800s. As the non-Latter-day Saint scholar Thomas Hine noted, “Until the twentieth century, adult expectations of young people were determined not by age but by size. If a fourteen-year-old looked big and strong enough to do a man’s work on a farm or in a factory or mine, most people viewed him as a man … For young women, the issue was much the same. To be marriageable was the same as being ready for motherhood, which was determined by physical development, not age.”
To read the entire article and watch the video: Keystonelds