About
W. Paul Reeve is a full professor and the inaugural Simmons Chair of Mormon Studies at the University of Utah, specializing in the history of Black Mormons and race within the Mormon faith. His work focuses on illuminating the stories of Black individuals in the LDS Church, many of whom were erased or marginalized by institutional policies and cultural racism. Reeve has pioneered public history projects, including the groundbreaking 'Century of Black Mormons' database, which documents Black people baptized into the LDS Church from 1830 to 1930, using primary source materials such as census records, church reports, and photographs to tell personal narratives and challenge historical narratives of racial exclusion. His research has uncovered significant historical documents, including the 1852 Utah legislature speech that explicitly marked Black people with a curse, which he describes as a devastating and revealing discovery that contrasts with the church's founder Joseph Smith's teachings. Reeve's scholarship extends to books such as 'Religion of a Different Color' and 'Let’s Talk about Race and the Priesthood,' which explore the origins and ongoing impact of racial restrictions in Mormon history. His work emphasizes digital history and community engagement, making these stories accessible through online databases, lectures, podcasts, and artwork, thereby fostering dialogue, reconciliation, and a deeper understanding of race and religion in American history.
Research topics
- Computer Science
- Geography
- Library science
- Archaeology
- Philosophy
- Meteorology
- Physics
- Remote sensing
- Environmental science
- Theology
- Geology
- History
Selected publications
Preamble and An Act for the Further Relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners
2024-09-19
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2024-09-19
book1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This Abominable Slavery places the debate over Native American indentures and African American enslavement in Utah Territory within the context of the nation’s growing sectional divide that would tear the Union asunder less than a decade later. It situates the bills under debate in Utah in comparison to similar bills passed by other states and territories in the antebellum period. It reveals in new detail debates about slavery and labor never before available. In fact, Latter-day Saint apostle and legislator Orson Pratt gave an animated speech in opposition to Latter-day Saint prophet and territorial governor Brigham Young. Pratt proposed that legislators reject the Black “servant” code outright and advocated for Black male voting rights in the debate over Utah’s election law. This Abominable Slavery not only elucidates the type of laws legislators passed but also attempts to understand the meaning of those laws in the lives of Black enslaved people and Native American indentured servants. In doing so, it sheds new light on the origins of the racial priesthood and temple restrictions in Latter-day Saint theology and the complex overlapping relationship between law and religion in Utah. Most importantly, it situates the Utah experience in detailed and nuanced ways within a national framework and thereby offers an important contribution to scholarly work on race, religion, slavery, and unfree labor in the antebellum period.
2024-09-19
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract An Act in Relation to Service was a hotly contested bill that was greatly modified in form and effect before it was signed into law by Brigham Young in the Utah Territory. Moreover, there was a series of fundamental disagreements between members of the Latter-day Saint leadership regarding theology, race, and the nature of slavery. The debates also confirm that the law had a broader purpose than has been previously reported. It is now clear that the act authorized two related systems of indentured servitude: one for enslaved African Americans, and one for Mormon immigrants traveling from Europe and other locations. Even still, the terms of the Service Act are and were ambiguous either by design or by accident. The legislative debates indicate fundamental disagreements among the legislators about what they had created. If this was not enough, the legal context in which the statute operated shifted significantly over the next decade.
2024-09-19
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract With keen attention to the way notions of race have inflected Mormon artistic productions, from lithographs to paintings, the chapter shows how whiteness was implied as the default natural order, often associating any other race or ethnicity with deterioration or even a curse. Images not only played a significant role in representing race in biased and skewed ways but also became pedagogical aids in an attempt to bolster conversion in missionary work, solidify early church history, and, later, to shift dominant narratives. The chapter ends by highlighting more recent art that seeks to remedy this trend and contribute diverse ethnic and racial perspectives.
2024-09-19
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2024-09-19
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter considers how the Indian indenture bill and Black Servant Code functioned in the lives of African American and Native American slaves. How was their life as an enslaved person different in Utah Territory under An Act in Relation to Service than it was in Tennessee under chattel slavery laws there? Legislators clearly intended that the law that they passed be legally distinct from chattel slavery and it was. But what did such distinctions mean in the lives of the enslaved? Ultimately, Native American and African American “servants” were not free. Whether legally defined as a “servant” or as a “slave,” it may not have mattered. Ultimately, those held in bondage in Utah Territory were deprived of two of what Thomas Jefferson considered inalienable rights, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Oxford University Press eBooks · 2024 · 2 citations
1st authorCorresponding- Archaeology
- Geography
2024-09-19
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract On February 4, 1852, the Utah territorial legislature passed a new election law; in doing so lawmakers stipulated that white men over twenty-one years of age could vote in the Utah Territory. The official legislative minutes do not record any opposition to the voting requirements in the election bill or mention any discussion on the subject. However, a few surviving sources indicate that councilman Orson Pratt firmly opposed any law denying Black men the right to vote. Pratt had already condemned An Act in Relation to Service and the Indian indenture bill, and he now expressed concerns about racial equality in Utah’s election laws. As fellow legislator Hosea Stout recorded it, Orson Pratt voted against “all acts prohibiting the right of Negroes the privileges of voting.” The chapter also discusses Brigham Young’s February 5 speech summarized by Wilford Woodruff. Historians primarily rely on Woodruff’s truncated and condensed version of the speech for an understanding of Young’s views on race and priesthood. Woodruff’s version, however, introduced significant inaccuracies into the historical record and should no longer be trusted as a precise assessment of Young’s views on race and priesthood.
Slavery among the Latter-day Saints, 1847–1852
2024-09-19
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract By 1849, after they arrived in the Great Basin, the Latter-day Saints worked out a position of neutrality on the question of slavery, designed to help them cull favor in Congress. They feared alienating lawmakers from both the North and the South were they to adopt a strident position one way or the other. Even though African American and Native American slavery existed among them, they favored allowing those to continue according to local custom but to not sanction them in law. They applied for statehood in 1849 without mentioning slavery. At the same time, territorial leader Brigham Young expressed opposition to holding human beings as property.
Slavery among the Latter-day Saints, 1830–1847
2024-09-19
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was born into a fraught racial and religious context. They had to contend with questions regarding slavery and abolitionism, both of which were prominent national issues at the time. In doing so they adopted an approach grounded in political expediency more than in a theology of moral compunction against slavery. Their approach toward slavery influenced their experiences in Missouri, Ohio, and Illinois, before fleeing the United States in 1846. Joseph Smith, as leader of the faith, modified his views on slavery over the course of his short life. In Missouri, he adopted a conciliatory stance toward enslavers, especially after Latter-day Saints were driven from Jackson County because outsiders accused them of promoting slave rebellion and race mixing. In Illinois, however, Smith espoused ideals grounded in the commonality of all human beings and advocated a government funded gradual emancipation plan.
Frequent coauthors
- 6 shared
Christopher B. Rich
- 4 shared
LaJean Purcell Carruth
- 3 shared
LaJean Purcell Carruth
- 2 shared
Christopher B. Rich
- 2 shared
Christopher B. Rich
- 1 shared
Sarah Carter
World Resources Institute
- 1 shared
R. Levergood
- 1 shared
LaJean Purcell Carruth
Education
- 2002
PhD, History Department
University of Utah
- 1994
MA, History Department
Brigham Young University
- 1992
BA, History Department
Brigham Young University
Awards & honors
- Presidential Societal Impact Scholar
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