The overall attitude of most people in the East towards the Mormon practice of polygamy was that it was an unnatural practice that would lead to the Mormons gaining more power over the rest of America. They also thought that by having lots of children, it would lead to children and babies being ignored and not cared for properly.
b) Study Source C. If Salt Lake Valley was so ‘desolate’, why did the Mormons settle there? Use your own knowledge to support your answer.
Despite the opinion of a Mormon woman in Source C who would “rather go a thousand miles farther than remain in such a desolate and forsaken spot” the Mormons did stay in Salt Lake Valley. Despite people’s disappointment when they reached Salt Lake Valley and how it had no fields, no swaying forests and no green forests, Brigham Young still had full control over the Mormons. Everything he seemed to tell them to do, they obeyed and listened to him. Mormons stayed there because it was an area no one else wanted, so they wouldn’t be threatened by non Mormons, it was outside the USA so they could set up their own laws, it did have farming potential and mountain streams could be damned and they were able to build God’s kingdom on earth in safety. Because it was safe and in a place where no one wanted so it meant that they could live here in peace without the worry of non-Mormons threatening them. Brigham Young was very organised and a good negotiator which meant that he was able to reason with the rest of the Mormons and his organisational skills enabled him to come up with a solution to make their home a better place to live in. people accepted his decisions because they believed he was inspired by God so they always respected and listened to what he said.
Source C shows how a Mormon woman felt when she reached Salt Lake Valley and this is how most of the Mormons felt when they reached their new home. However, they kept their faith in God and in Brigham Young and they decided to stay and wait to see what would happen under Brigham Young’s leadership. Brigham Young soon sorted out all of the problems that faced the Mormons in Salt Lake City. He made some important decisions, which kept people living in Salt Lake Valley. He decided that there should be no private ownership of land or water. The church would assign farmland to people according to their needs. The farming land was organised into tiers laid out around Salt Lake City so that the city and the temple were at the centre of the whole land. He set up plans of how to tackle all of the problems that they faced.
They needed water to irrigate the land and enable food to be provided for all so they built a main irrigation ditch and then side ditches were built and each person was given an exact time when they could get water from the ditch. They had a problem building houses when the area was devoid of wood so they dried Spanish bricks and then made houses out of these. He managed to make the community self sufficient by making them not reliant on anyone else and trying to achieve political independence by making Salt Lake City a state. They didn’t succeed but people still stayed in Salt Lake City because they trusted Brigham Young to make this city a place fit for them to live in.
c) Study Source D. Why were the Mormons so successful in establishing a prosperous community in such a desolate area? Use your own knowledge to support your answer.
The Mormons were so successful in establishing a prosperous community in such a desolate area because they had a very organised, practical leader. Brigham Young led them to Salt Lake City successfully and he managed to make use of what he had at the time. He kept up the moral of the Mormons and managed to organise everything to make everything as easy as it could be for the Mormons.
When the Mormons reached Salt Lake City, the area was desolate and looked unsuitable to live in. but Brigham Young changed the area completely to make it a suitable and nice place to live in. when the Mormons arrived in Salt Lake City, they had to come up with a solution to the problems they faced. They needed water to irrigate the land and enable food to be provided for all of the Mormons so they managed to pipe water down from the mountains and then they built a main irrigation ditch for the residents. Side ditches were also built and each person was given their own time when they could get water for themselves and their families from the ditch. This was very successful because water was provided for all of the Mormons and because each person was given a time when they could get water, it avoided conflict within the community.
They managed to distribute the land in Salt Lake Valley very fairly because they had a rule, which meant that they were allowed no private ownership and land was distributed by the Church to people according to what their needs were. So, often-small families were given small plots of land. Everybody shared the land so this again avoided conflict and greed within their community.
Another problem with living in the Salt Lake Basin was that the area was devoid of wood so that made it extremely difficult to build homes. So to tackle this problem, they managed to make Spanish bricks and then dry them in the sun to build home for the Mormons. This was successful because these bricks managed to build a home.
Brigham Young wanted the new community to be self sufficient so the Mormons didn’t rely on anyone else and they attempted to set up specific industries like textiles and iron but the industries did not succeed because they didn’t have enough workers. But Young set up a fund that would pay for workers to come from far away.
They also were successful in setting up a prosperous community by trying to achieve political independence and freedom from outside interference. They tried to do this by moving outside the United States but Salt Lake Basin part of the United States at the end of the Mexican war in 1848. They also applied for a Mormon state called Deseret, to become one of the states of the United States with power to make laws concerning internal affairs. However, this wasn’t as successful because they weren’t allowed statehood but a smaller area became the territory of Utah with less self-control and a mixed Mormon gentile government and Brigham Young as governor. Peace was then restored so the Mormon community was successful as a whole. Source D supports this because the picture shows a town with housing, farms, horses and roads that meant that Brigham Young turned the desolate area into a successful settlement for people to live in happily.