𝕽𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖔 𝕾𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖗

Brigham Young was not the racist, bombastic jerk you think he was. Much of the distaste people have for Brigham Young comes from transcripts of speeches he gave in the Journal of Discourses. For years, many assumed that JD accurately represented Brigham's words, ideas, and tone. But new research has shown that while the "Lion of the Lord" was certainly direct, he was not as extreme as we've been led to believe. LaJean Purcell Carruth is today's leading expert on Utah Pittman shorthand. As she has studied the original transcripts of Brigham's speeches, she's noticed the author of JD took a lot of "artistic license" with Brother Brigham's original words-- building up his hyperbole, changing questions he asked into definitive statements, etc-- all to make him sound much more extreme and demanding than he actually was. She became so frustrated, that a joke, she penned this poem: "There once was a man named George Watt Who could improve Brigham Young (so he thought). So he took out words here, And he added words there, And his accuracy was not what it ought!" If you want to read the specifics on the discrepancies she's found, search for her name on YouTube-- she's given several presentations and interviews going over her scholarship. A good starting point would be one of her @ldsfair presentations: fairlatterdaysaints.org/conf… So next time you hear some crazy offensive comment Brigham Young supposedly made, maybe take it with a bit of a grain of salt.