Incredible as it may seem, the bulk of the Mormon colony, which now numbered more than fifteen thousand in and about the city, knew little or nothing of polygamy. In particular the English converts, now numbering over four thousand in Nauvoo, were kept in ignorance. No one could have been insulated from the gossip about spiritual wifism, but the majority accepted the word of the church leaders that this system had disappeared with the expulsion of John C. Bennett. Charlotte Haven wrote home in girlish horror on September 8,1843 that “Apostle Adams” had returned from a mission to England with a
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