American Polygamy

Is there a way for American protestants as whole, not just mormons to make polygamy commonplace? Catholics would probably be impossible due to church hierarchy but what if after the revolution when the American Episcopal church split from England they began to become more pro polygamy? If this is possible would mormons still migrate due to other theological differences and would America still receive a massive immigration boom?
 
The Mormons were abolitionists which is one of the reasons they were targeted in Missouri.

Maybe a longer and bloodier Civil War? Then, thanks to the Mormons, the idea of polygamy is already out there, and due to the gender imbalance polygamy becomes accepted for practical reasons. You could argue that "righteous" biblical figures like David and Solomon had multiple wives, and the Anglicans already abandoned the red-letter definition of marriage in the 16th century.
 
Is there a way for American protestants as whole, not just mormons to make polygamy commonplace? Catholics would probably be impossible due to church hierarchy but what if after the revolution when the American Episcopal church split from England they began to become more pro polygamy? If this is possible would mormons still migrate due to other theological differences and would America still receive a massive immigration boom?
Besided making Islam more popular...is hard.
 
Is there a way for American protestants as whole, not just mormons to make polygamy commonplace? Catholics would probably be impossible due to church hierarchy but what if after the revolution when the American Episcopal church split from England they began to become more pro polygamy? If this is possible would mormons still migrate due to other theological differences and would America still receive a massive immigration boom?

The nature of Episcopalianism is towards gradualist conservatism. You would need other radical sects to embrace it.
 
A problem with polygamy is that unless you have a significant excess of females over males, whether due to massive male deaths in a war or a change in birth sex ratios, with polygamy you end up with a lot of males who literally have zero chance at getting married. A lot of males, especially younger males, with no female/family influence has been shown to cause a lot of societal problems. Also settler societies, like the USA well in to the late 19th century, tend to have an excess of males as single men migrate "find their fortune" and then get wives, perhaps from the old country, or married men come over first and then send for families (common but not universal).

If you just have two wives per man then the between excess male loss and men who won't marry for a variety of reasons, the situation does not get too bad. If you have multiple wives like many Mormon elders had, then the numbers game gets worse. A complicating factor is that until the early 20th century, maternal mortality was not just an occasional thing, which reduces the "available" female population. Serial wives, as opposed to multiple concurrent wives, was quite common, not just older widows/widowers but men with children by several wives in series.
 
The nature of Episcopalianism is towards gradualist conservatism. You would need other radical sects to embrace it.

Yeah, some sort of cult embracing polygamy and subsequently becoming mainstream is probably the only way the OP could come about; getting an established denomination to become pro-polygamy is implausible, verging on the ASB.
 
The Mormons were abolitionists which is one of the reasons they were targeted in Missouri.

Maybe a longer and bloodier Civil War? Then, thanks to the Mormons, the idea of polygamy is already out there, and due to the gender imbalance polygamy becomes accepted for practical reasons. You could argue that "righteous" biblical figures like David and Solomon had multiple wives, and the Anglicans already abandoned the red-letter definition of marriage in the 16th century.

Hmm. Wasn't Jefferson Davis the Secretary of War from 1853 to 1857 under President Pierce? Davis while Secretary of War actually pays attention to the Crimean War happening at the same time and takes a number of learnings from it. Learnings that he's actually capable of applying somewhat in some of the Southern States prior to the Civil War.
The biggest one is just how much powder a modern war of that period actually takes, and the second biggest one is just how powerful riflemen units trained to British standards actually are during this period.
Naturally he applies these learnings in the South in preparation for the Civil War he sees on the horizon. This would likely result in a Confederacy that is a lot more powerful initially which, if the North is willing to pay the butcher bill, results in a much bloodier Civil War.
 
To get Polygamy accepted you probably need to make it legal, or at least difficult to ban. You'd probably have to play with the wording of the 1st Amendment on religion, as well as supporting materials. Reynolds vs. United States was unanimous on the grounds of saying that the banning of Polygamy in the United States was constitutional. The argument was that while the government could not touch religious beliefs, it could do the same to religious actions and argued that in principle if any action could be required by religious freedom, then the law would mean nothing. So you need to change the wording of the First Amendment and supporting materials so that it cannot be banned short of a constitutional amendment and that doesn't happen. I'm not sure how to plausibly have such a thing, and how such an amendment would read

Regardless another factor is to have Polygamy challenged earlier, rather than 1878, 1820's or earlier if possible, and a Supreme Court forced by *1st Amendment to legalize it. Have it early enough and more of the groups caught up in the Second Great Awakening accept it, rather than basically just Mormons. You might be able to have William Miller go the same way as Joseph Smith and pick up smaller restorationist groups. It is not much, but it is a start in having a broader base of support

Making it popular, *Civil War that really is a bloodbath by standards of OTL as others mentioned. This makes the practice more widespread, Polygamy being considered a way to support widows and otherwise unmarrigeable women in certain groups. Have an *WWI that is also bloody by European standards to really cement it, as at that time there would still be plenty of living examples. After that it's just tradition, and the Polygamist accepting groups being relatively more successful as they have more kids. Might possibly lead to easier immigration rules for women in order to avoid any "Lost Boys" issues. You could probably also arrange an *WWI wave of immigration from the former OE and bring in Muslim immigrants that accept the practice, and well it's also accepted in East Asia at this time, find was to ensure those people can immigrate and you get more minorities accepting of the practice

It will probably never be something that involves the majority of Americans, and might arguably be considered "Americas Shame" for a good long while, but it will be entrenched
 
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