Comments about ‘Churches' role hailed in lives of early Utah blacks’

I really would have liked to have seen some substance in this article. Did any of these six (or so) Blacks (and their families, if such were with them?) find welcome in the LDS communities and churches? How spread apart geographically were these Blacks; by this I am asking "were there two or three or more in any one location close enough to gather together on any kind of relative frequency to form a worshipping congregation or at least a discussion or singing or prayer group?" Being that 19 years elapsed between the arrival of the first pioneers and the end of the civil war, were these Blacks (and any of their families) considered and treated as slaves? I have seen at least one place on the 'net that states that Blacks were indeed treated as chattel, used to pay tithing, etc. What was the extend of their standard of living? Please do a follow-up on this and give us some real substance to the article. I almost feel as if we've been given a headline and the print journalists have then gone off onto a different sensational story. Thank you for your consideration.

Wished there would have been more substance to the article. I know deseret could add more to it, if they would have it would have been very interesting.

This is a story eager to be told. I have long been aware of the warmth and familial affection towards the Negroes that came across with the first wagon train, and of their devotion to the Restored Church and its members.

However, that is information at its most superficial level, and there are strata that must be added before the story is well told. As a news item the report is fine, but as a story it leaves much to be desired.

Perhaps someone in the history department with the necessary qualifications who has access to all or most of the information available in historical reports, journals, news reports, etc, will do masterful research into this most fascinating area of Utah and religious life of the black settlers in Utah.

As I often told my students, "There's a good book there waiting to be written!"