Friday, January 19, 2007
Meg's Book - Chapter XX - Jane
Trivia - Joseph Smith did not indicate that there was any bar against the blacks. In fact, he ordained one black man to be an elder in the church, bestowing on him the Melchizedek Priesthood. And Emma did ask Jane Manning (James) to become sealed to Joseph and herself as a daughter. The possibility that Emma intended something more than adoption as a daughter is my fiction. If Jane had been known to be adopted as Joseph's daughter or sealed to him as a wife, it seems possible that the priesthood ban would not have occurred. As it was, a significant part of the fear some harbored against Mormons was due to their block voting and abolitionist tendencies. Almost twenty years before the Civil War, Joseph suggested as part of his candidacy for President of the United States (he wouldn't have expected to win, merely to inject ideas into the national debate) that the Union raise funds to purchase the freedom of southern slaves, contending that this would be less costly than the Civil War, which he anticipated ten years earllier on December 25, 1832, prophesying "wars...will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls...behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States... slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshaled and disciplined for war..." On April 10, 1861, Brig. Gen. Beauregard, in command of the provisional Confederate forces at Charleston, South Carolina, demanded the surrender of the Union garrison of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Garrison commander Anderson refused. On April 12, Confederate batteries opened fire on the fort, which was unable to reply effectively. At 2:30 p.m., April 13, Major Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter, evacuating the garrison on the following day. The bombardment of Fort Sumter was the opening engagement of the American Civil War.
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2 comments:
It is assumed that the group from the east with Jane Manning in it are all black, but that is not clear. Is this the reason they were treated poorly when they first arrived, before meeting with Elvira? I think the story would benefit from how they learned about Nauvoo. Were they Mormon's from the east? Was there something particularly different about Jane that caused her to be unable to find work as her traveling companions did?
Towards the end, the story continues with, 'She frowned. "I don’t need Sister Emma to adopt me as her daughter." Jane turned around. "Thank you, Sister Elvira. I have enjoyed being here." Oh Emma. If the countryside around Nauvoo was upset because Joseph opposed slavery and they believed he had multiple wives, what would they say to Joseph marrying Jane? That must have been Emma’s intent.'
As mentioned before, I do require a frying pan approach most of the time, and what was being alluded to here is not clear to me. I am assuming that Emma offered to adopt her as a daughter to avoid having Joseph marry her as a plural wife.
After Joseph's death blacks were denied the priesthood and access to the temple until 1978. Jane later tried to get the leadership to allow her to be sealed as a daughter to Emma and Joseph, but her request was denied.
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