Ann Eliza Young, known popularly as the 19th wife of Brigham Young, not only divorced the Mormon prophet but stumped the country campaigning against polygamy. In her acidic memoir and critique of plural marriage, "Wife No. 19, or the Story of a Life in Bondage" (1876), she wrote scathingly of Mormon founder Joseph Smith's "famous Revelation" endorsing the practice as the will of God, for "giving the most unbridled license to all the worst passions" of men's natures:
"Its existence was denied loudly, if in any way a whisper of it reached the outside world, and the missionaries were cautioned to keep utter silence upon the subject. Among the Saints it was received most reluctantly. The women, especially, felt that a cross was being laid upon them greater than they could bear, and many openly rebelled."
