Includes bibliographical references and index.

All "Mormon Elder-Berry's" children -- "The new race" -- Red, white, and Mormon : "ingratiating themselves with the Indians" -- Red, white, and Mormon : white Indians -- Black, white, and Mormon : amalgamation -- Black, white, and Mormon : black and white slavery -- Black, white, and Mormon : miscegenation -- Black, white, and Mormon : one drop -- Oriental, white, and Mormon -- From not white to too white : the continuing contest over the Mormon body.

The Protestant white majority in the nineteenth century was convinced that Mormonism represented a racial - not merely religious - departure from the mainstream, and they spent considerable effort attempting to substantiate their claims. At least some of that effort came through persistent attacks on the collective Mormon body. Mormons responded with aspirations toward whiteness. It was a back-and-forth struggle between what outsiders imagined and what Mormons believed. Mormons ultimately emerged triumphant but not unscathed.