170 years ago today - Jul 24, 1847

Young enters Salt Lake Valley with the rest of the pioneer company, and officially decrees this as the new Mormon headquarters. Among these pioneers are three plural wives and three black slaves. Young's attitudes toward African-Americans differ from the founding prophet's, and Utah would become the only western territory where African-American slavery and slave-sales were protected by territorial statute.

[Source: Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 7: Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]

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