Polygamy is not a practice that often comes to mind when we think about early America. But it turns out, polygamy was a ubiquitous practice among different groups of early Americans living in 17th and 18th-century North America.
Sarah Pearsall, a University Teaching Officer, Fellow, and Historian at the University of Cambridge, joins us to discuss the surprising history of polygamy in early North America, with details from her book, Polygamy: An Early American History.
About the Show
Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.
Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute.
Episode Summary
Sarah Pearsall, a University Teaching Officer, Fellow, and Historian at the University of Cambridge, joins us to discuss the surprising history of polygamy in early North America, with details from her book, Polygamy: An Early American History.
During our conversation, Sarah reveals how and why many Native American and West African peoples practiced polygamy; The ways in which polygamy offered practitioners economic, social, and political power; And how and why monogamy became so powerfully embedded in the early United States.
What You’ll Discover
- The practice of polygamy in early America
- Why historians have ignored polygamy
- How Sarah studied and found instances of polygamy in early North America
- Historical records where one can find polygamy
- Where polygamy began in early North America
- Polygamy in Native American communities
- What polygamy meant for Native American men
- What polygamy meant for Native American women
- Power dynamics and family structure inside plural marriages
- Conflict between Native Americans and Europeans over plural marriage
- Polygamy and the Pueblo Revolt
- Interactions between Native American peoples and French missionaries
- The Protestant response to Native American polygamy
- European colonists and the practice of polygamy
- West African traditions of plural marriage
- Practicing and adapting plural marriage to American enslavement
- Women and multiple husbands
- Ways polygamy informed relationships between the enslaved and slaveholders
- The early United States’ use of monogamy
- How understanding plural marriage can help us better understand history
Links to People, Places, and Publications
- Sarah Pearsall
- Polygamy: An Early American History
- Atlantic Families: Lives and Letters in the Later Eighteenth Century
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Complementary Episodes
- Episode 013: Rachel Hope Cleves, Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America
- Episode 027: Lisa Wilson, A History of Stepfamilies in Early America
- Episode 045: Spencer McBride, Joseph Smith and the Founding of Mormonism
- Episode 120: Marcia Zug, A History of Mail Order Brides in Early America
- Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region
- Episode 225: Elaine Forman Crane, The Poison Plot: Adultery & Murder in Colonial Newport
Time Warp Question
In your opinion, what might have happened if polygamy had been legal in Europe? Do you think more colonists would have practiced plural marriage in North America?
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