Russell Stevenson

RUSSELL STEVENSON is an independent historian and the author of two books on Latter-day Saint history: Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables (2013) and For the Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism (Greg Kofford, forthcoming), the fi rst book to explain the development of Mormon racial thought from a global perspective. He has also authored articles for the Journal of Mormon History as well as for the American National Biography encyclopedia series (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). Stevenson has been interviewed by RadioWest, Mormon Stories, and Feminist Mormon Housewives. He currently lives in Salt Lake City.

Manly Virtue: Defining Male Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century Mormonism

Articles/Essays – Volume 47, No. 1

Sexuality in antebellum America constituted a set of contradictions. Men should be steely, resolved, and assertive; women ought to be reserved, flighty, and, under the right conditions, sexually explosive. As historian Karen Lystra has observed, “There are no sexual absolutes. Sexual experience is time-bound,” a fact that holds true for the Mormon experience as well.