Which nineteenth-century American group is associated with polygamy as a common practice?

• A. Mexican Americans
• B. Chinese Americans
• C. Mormons
• D. African Americans

Answer: (C)

Polygamy in the nineteenth century is most clearly linked to Mormons, whose early leaders taught and practiced plural marriage as part of their religious beliefs. In the frontier era of Utah, many Mormon families entered into multiple marriages, making polygamy a distinctive and widely recognized feature of that community at the time. This practice drew intense federal and social opposition and was officially discontinued by the church with the 1890 Manifesto, though some groups later continued it outside mainstream Mormonism. The other groups listed did not have polygamy as a common or organized practice in the same historical period, so the association with the Mormon movement stands out.