Content preview - You need a premium account to view this content.

Prisoner for Conscience' Sake (B. Van Orden)

The Life of George Reynolds

Bruce A. Van Orden

Deseret Book Company
Salt Lake City, Utah

© 1992 Bruce A. Van Orden
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Deseret Book Company, P.O. Box 30178, Salt Lake City, Utah 84130. This work is not an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Church or of Deseret Book Company.

Deseret Book is a registered trademark of Deseret Book Company.

About This Book

In 1875, George Reynolds agreed to become a "test case" for the legality of polygamy. But a new prosecutor assigned to the case shifted the focus from the legality of polygamy itself to George Reynolds as a polygamist. After his obviously pregnant second wife was brought to the witness stand, the jury quickly found him guilty, and Brother Reynolds was sentenced to "one year of hard labor in the territorial penitentiary."

Before this case played itself out, he would suffer through three trials, gain nationwide notoriety in the Supreme Court case known as Reynolds V. United States, and ultimately go to prison for a year and a half-a prisoner for conscience' sake.

As important as these events were in the life of George Reynolds, they have unfortunately overshadowed his other contributions. As this biography reveals, he was much more than just a "sacrificial lamb" in the struggle over polygamy between the government of the United States and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was, in fact, a principal player in the most important events and issues in LDS Church history in the last half of the nineteenth century.