Oliver Cowdery, Second Elder, co-founder of the Mormon Church:
"Let the blacks of the south be free, and our community is overrun
with paupers, and a reckless mass of human beings, uncultivated,
untaught and unaccustomed to provide for themselves the necessaries of
life-endangering the chastity of every female who might by chance be
found in our streets-our prisons filled with convicts, and the hang-
man wearied with executing the functions of his office!" (Messenger
and Advocate, Sept. 11, 1833)
Brigham Young second President and Prophet:
"You see some cl***** of the human family that are black, uncouth,
uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild and seemingly
deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is
generally bestowed upon mankind. . . . Cain slew his brother. Cain
might have been killed, and that would put a termination to that line
of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him,
which was the flat nose and black skin. Trace mankind down to after
the flood, and then another cursed is pronounced upon the same race--
that they should be the "servants of servants;" and they will be until
that curse is removed; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, nor in
the least alter that decree (Journal of Discourses, 7:290; emphasis
added)
"Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the
white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed
of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This
will always be." (Journal of Discourses, 10:110; emphasis added)
"I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of
man, that they may not call Scripture." (Journal of Discourses,
13:95).
John Taylor, third President and Prophet:
"After the flood we are told that the curse that had been pronounced
upon Cain was continued through Ham's wife, as he had married a wife
of that seed. And why did it pass through the flood? Because it was
necessary that the devil should have a representation upon the earth
as well as God. . . ." (ibid., 23:304; emphasis added).
"When he [Satan] destroyed the inhabitants of the antediluvian worlds,
he suffered a descendant of Cain to come through the flood in order
that he might be properly represented upon the earth." (Journal of
Discourses, 23:336; emphasis added)
Wilford Woodruff, who became the fourth President and Prophet of the
LDS Church:
"What was that mark? It was a mark of blackness. That mark rested upon
Cain, and descended upon his posterity from that time until the
present. To day there are millions of the descendants of Cain, through
the lineage of Ham, in the world, and that mark of darkness still rest
upon them."(Millennial Star, 51:339; emphasis added).
George Reynolds (Apostle):
"We will first inquire into the results of the approbation or
displeasure of God upon a people, starting with the belief that a
black skin is a mark of the curse of Heaven placed upon some ****tions
of mankind. . . . We understand that when God made man in his own
image and pronounced him very good, that he made him white. We have no
record of any of God's favored servants being of a black race. . . .
When God cursed Cain for murdering his brother Abel, He set a mark
upon him that all meeting him might know him. . . . After the flood
this curse fell upon the seed of Shem, through the sin of their
father, and his descendants bear it to this day. . . . We are told in
the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price, that Egypt was
discovered by a woman, who was a daughter of Ham, the son of
Noah. . . . The pure Negro, as represented by the people of Guinea and
its neighboring countries, is generally regarded as the unmixed
descendant of Ham. . . . Their skin is quite black, their hair woolly
and black, their intelligence stunted, and they appear never to have
arisen from the most savage state of barbarism (Juvenile Instructor,
October 15, 1868, p. 157).
George F. Richards (Apostle):
=93The Negro is an unfortunate man. He has been given a black skin. But
that is as nothing compared with that greater handicap that he is not
permitted to receive the Priesthood and the ordinances of the temple,
necessary to prepare men and women to enter into and enjoy a fullness
of glory in the celestial kingdom [i.e., godhood].=94 (Conference
Re****t, April 1939, p. 58)
Joseph Fielding Smith (10th President of the Mormon Church):
"Not only was Cain called upon to suffer, but because of his
wickedness he became the father of an inferior race. A curse was place
upon him and that curse has been continued through his lineage and
must do so while time endures. Millions of souls have come into this
world cursed with black skin and have been denied the privilege of
Priesthood and the fullness of the blessings of the Gospel. These are
the descendants of Cain. Moreover, they have been made to feel their
inferiority and have been separated from the rest of mankind from the
beginning=85 we will also hope that blessings may eventually be given to
our Negro brethren, for they are our brethren--children of God---
notwithstanding their black covering emblematical of eternal
darkness." (The Way to Perfection, 101-02; emphasis added).
"There is a reason why one man is born black and with other
disadvantages, while another is born white with great advantages...
The Negro, evidently, is receiving the reward he merits." (Doctrines
of Salvation, 1:61, 66; emphasis added)
Bruce R. McConkie (Mormon Apostle):
"In a broad general sense, caste systems have their root and origin in
the gospel itself, and when they operate according to the divine
decree, the resultant restrictions and segregation are right and
proper and have the approval of the Lord. To illustrate: Cain, Ham,
and the whole Negro race have been cursed with a black skin, the mark
of Cain, so they can be identified as a caste apart, a people with
whom the other descendants of Adam should not intermarry. (Gen. 4;
Moses 5.)" (Mormon Doctrine, p.114)
"Though he was rebel and an associate of Lucifer in pre-existence, and
though he was a liar from the beginning whose name was Perdition, Cain
was cursed with a dark skin; he became the father of the Negroes, and
those sprits who are not worthy to receive the priesthood are born
though his lineage. He became the first mortal to be cursed as a son
of perdition. As a result of his mortal birth he is assured of a
tangible body of flesh and bones in eternity, a fact which will enable
him to rule over Satan." (Mormon Doctrine, p.104)
"Through Ham (a name meaning black) the blood of the Canaanites was
preserved through the flood, he having married Egyptus, a descendent
of Cain. Negroes in this life are denied the priesthood; under no
cir***stances can they hold this delegation of authority from the
Almighty." (Mormon Doctrine, p.343)
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