Perhaps history has dealt with Sarah M. Pratt unjustly. Had she lived in a monogamous world, she would likely have been less controversial. But polygamy made her a radical. Her disclosure of plural marriage in Nauvoo was brushed aside as the self-vindication of an unfaithful wife. Corroborative evidence now available, including testimony from other married women that Joseph Smith approached, tends to support Sarah's story. The decision of Church leaders to keep plural marriage hidden until 1852 posed a serious moral dilemma for the few who were aware of its practice. In Nauvoo, protecting the practice of plural marriage from public exposure, especially to hostile gentiles, was a greater virtue than telling the truth. By making public Joseph Smith's overtures and resisting what she considered to be collective infidelity, Sarah Pratt was judged a threat to the safety of the Church and considered to have committed apostasy.