The Mormon Reformation of 1856–1857 brought mass rebaptism, home interrogation, pressure to enter plural marriage, and blood atonement sermons to Mormon Utah.
In this episode of What Do You Know Wednesday, Hannah quizzes Jess on the seven-month campaign led by Brigham Young and Jedediah M. Grant. They trace how crop failures, food shortages, grasshopper infestations, and fear of divine punishment became a churchwide campaign of mass repentance.
They cover the 27 questions home missionaries asked Mormon families, the sharp rise in plural marriages, Brigham Young’s blood atonement preaching, the castration of Thomas Lewis by Bishop Warren Snow and local men, and the Reformation’s connection to the siege mentality surrounding the Utah War and Mountain Meadows Massacre.
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